Retiree Pay And Health Benefits

[Dea Certe]

This is an intensely personal subject for me, even though I'm not near enough to retirement. It is the nature of youth to think of themselves as being immortal and invincible. To think there will always be time to deal with "tomorrow."

My Dad had a short but extremely expensive illness. I thank God every day that because he had the foresight *and* financial means to see to his future, money wasn't something else we kids had to handle or worry about on his behalf. But it really made me stop and think.

Certainly, times were different in Dad's peak-income earning days. Mom didn't work outside the home, we owned a nice home in a good neighborhood. They were able to set aside funds for their future while feeding, clothing and educating a mob of kids. How many of us are that lucky today?

If Dad's situation had been different, we kids might have had to practically bankrupt ourselves to pay the bills. I don't want anyone to have to see to my "golden" years but myself. We count on our earned pensions and benefits. We have to make enough money to be able to set aside some for the future. We have to make sure those ahead of us are safe. We can't think it's somehow OK to set our elders out to sea on an iceberg.

It seems the trend in Corporate America to want to forget the service retirees put in to make the company profitable. But by doing so, it increases the financial liability for us all. Who wants to be on State or Federal Welfare? Who wants to pay for it?

My point is we have to fight for a living wage and fight for our earned pensions and benefits. We can't toss over our retirees because we will be in their ranks sooner than it may seem.

I'm at that tricky age of being unable to recover my future. I think most of us at US Airways are in that same position. If US Airways goes Chapter 7 or my pay and benefits are lowered to the point I can barely scrape by day to day is about a wash.

What about you?

Dea

 

[air chief]

When my dad started with this airline, they had only 3 aircraft, no hangar, no nothing in November 1949. Being a mechanic, had to change engines/props/make inspections during very brutal winters. These people built this airline. They deiced aircraft with a mop and bucket standing on the wing while the engines running swabbing on the glycol..change spark plugs in howling snowstorms. I remember my mother treating his hands for mild frost bite.
One thing though..those guys were proud of thier company with every route award frm the defunct CAB (remember them??). They took great pride in dispatching a departure on time with the snappy military salutes to the captain as the plane swings away from the gate.
The pilots FLEW because they all loved to fly..didnt have a -bid sheet-..could only call off thier trip sick or swap with someone else. And they knew all the mechanics and treated each other with respect. All these guys were veterans of WWII and pilots first. Not doctors, :angry: heart sugeons/dentists/lawyers like it is now.. My dad has been retired from uair for 16 years. Now at 79..his work and dedication means nothing now. His pension will possibly be now be frm the government with no health insurance..BENEFITS THAT HE WORKED HIS ENTIRE PROFESSIONAL LIFE FOR..
He cant beleive that this airline has become this quagmire of deceit..cant believe that CEO.s can gum up the works and still take multi-millions in bonuses when they leave with guranteed health insurance for life and completely vested in retirement.
I firmly beleive things are and will have to change or this country will have a classs war..i feel it coming. The more middle class forced out on the street with nothing..the worse it will get. It will take what they do in Europe..all trade unions going on strike for 24-48 hrs..everyone. Maybe these stupid politicians will wake up but I think that its well past that now.
Sorry for the ranting..these are just my opinions..the way I see it :angry:

 

[jimntx]

Dea, this very subject has been on my mind for the past few days. I just got back from a visit to my family in Alabama. My mother, who was a scientist and a teacher and a talented musician (at the end of a Chopin waltz, she would segue right into "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey?"), is now confined to a wheelchair in a nursing home and at 88 is incapable of forming complete sentences--vascular dementia.

I had the feeling that I was looking at my own future (her mental deterioration has a strong genetic link). Fortunately for us children, my parents were like yours; so, the $5000/mo + cost of medications + laundry service + this fee + that fee that it costs for dementia care in a good nursing home is taken care of for the time being.

With companies eliminating retiree medical care just as the largest generation (baby boomers) in the history of the U.S. is reaching retirement age, there is a financial disaster facing this country. Medicare and Medicaid simply can not take on all of us.

 

[Atlantic]

Air Chief,
Not to get into the health thing, but i know there are an bunch of us pilots that would love to sit down with your dad, buy him a beer, and listen.
All the best to him.

 

[peasant]

Fortunately, or unfortunately, we're just living too damn long!

My father has just reached 70. When he started work retirement age was 55, with life expectancy of 58 (it was a job in malarial tropics)

His life expectancy now is 87+!

"luckily" the first company he worked for went bust when he was in his early 30's, so he took stock, and decided never to rely on a pension from someone else. Nice if you can get it, but it isn't guaranteed. Because the actuaries set up the plans thinking we would live to about 70, but we are now living longer, and the difference between paying 5-7 years pension/ medical and 15-20 years is blowing up the DB schemes.

 

[allegheny1]

The leading edge of the baby boom generation is now in their late 50 s and
we are being told en mass that the corporate and government promises made
to us over the last 40 years aren t worth the paper they were written on.

Where was the government oversight as many corporations allowed their dbc
pension plans to sink billions of dollars in the red. Where were the corporate
ethics that diverted needed monies for these plans into the general corporate
coffers for excessive management pay packages.

The baby boom generation was supposed to be a political mega giant but it
never materialized. Maybe it is time to wake up,band together, and demand
the reforms we so desperatly need

regards

 

[Dilligas]

Air Chief,

Sadly, men such as your father who dedicated their working lives to a company are now seeing that loyalty betrayed. I'm truly appalled at what is happening to retirees and working folk in America today

It may be "legal" but it sure as hell ain't "right."

The lifestyle and work conditions that the present generation enjoyed (up to recently) were paid for by the efforts and sacrifices of the generation preceding us. Some of us should reflect on that, and ponder what our generation is doing to make our descendants' future brighter as others did for us.

It looks like the trend is to lower the scales lower and lower and in effect to have captive wage slaves, beaten down and broken in spirit.

I appreciate your father's years of service and contributions, and wish him well.










PS: What a great signature line you have... you are obviously a gentleman and a scholar.

 

[jimntx]

Did any of you see where Halliburton sued 3 retirees who filed a complaint about Halliburton unilaterally dropping promised retiree health care benefits? Several years ago, Halliburton took over a smaller company. In the take over, Halliburton promised to maintain the retiree benefits then offered by that company to its employees.

Halliburton now says it promised no such thing ("I never said that Iraq had WMDs, I said that they might have the capability to maybe produce WMDs some day.")

Just FYI...
One of the complainants being sued was the former company's V-P who negotiated the benefits portion of the take over.

We may be seeing a lot more of this sort of thing in the future.