or a reading with her on C-Span.

fuck the thieving bastards

The good "corporations" will find a way to do their best to line their pockets with it.

Even the current bankruptcy at Hostess is more about the Union pension than slower sales of Twinkies.

damn, they are nearly shameless in the looting of the middle class. Filthy rotten bastards

you guessed it, the two business parties.

“Continental Can company managers had used a secret program with the code name “BELL” which is a reverse acronym for “Let’s Limit Employee Benefits.””

if your library doesn't have it please recommend that they get it. It so debunks the lies of how "burdensome" and unaffordable our pensions are. We've got to keep educating each other to survive.

Excerpt here: http://www.retirementheist.com/excerpts/

From the article:

In November 1999, a group of the nation’s leading pension experts met at the Labor Department in Washington to discuss a $250 billion problem. After eight years of double-digit returns, the pension plans at American corporations had more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in excess assets. Not a shortage of assets. Excess assets. At some companies, the surpluses had reached almost laughable levels: $25 billion at GE; $24 billion at Verizon; $20 billion at AT&T; $7 billion at IBM.

...

Employers couldn’t lay off every middle-aged worker, of course, but there were other ways to slow the pension growth of those who remained. They could cut pensions, but there were certain constraints. Pension law prohibits employers from taking away pensions being paid out to retirees, and employers can’t rescind benefits its employees have locked in up to that point. But they can stop the growth, by freezing the plans, or slow it, by switching to a less generous formula.

That was the route Cigna took. The company estimated that the move would cut benefits of older workers by 40 percent or more, which meant that as much as $80 million that had been earmarked for their pensions would remain in the plan. The challenge was how to cut pensions without provoking an employee uprising. Pushing people off the pension escalator just when they’re about to lock in the fruits of their long tenure would be like telling a traveler that his nearly one million frequent flier miles were being rescinded—they weren’t going to like it.

Cigna’s solution to this communications challenge? Don’t tell employees. In September 1997, consulting firm Mercer signed a $200,000 consulting contract to prepare the written communication to Cigna employees, describing the changes without disclosing the negative effects. One of these was a benefits newsletter Cigna sent employees in November 1997, entitled “Introducing Your New Retirement Program.” On the front, “Message from CEO Bill Taylor” declared: “I am pleased to announce that on January 1, 1998, CIGNA will significantly enhance its retirement program.” “These enhancements will make our retirement program highly competitive.”

I worry about my pension. I still have a few years.

I plan to read it this year. Last year I saw Mrs. Schultz discuss her book on C-SPAN.