Democrats seek 6-month moratorium on pension takeovers

[FDJ2]

Market Pulse: Democrats seek 6-month moratorium on pension takeovers
Friday May 13, 10:06 am ET
By Rex Nutting



WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Two Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation Friday to impose a six-month moratorium on further pension takeovers by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to give Congress time to pass pension reform. Reps. George Miller, D-Calif., and Jan Schakowsky, R-Ill., proposed the moratorium after a federal bankrupcty court approved the transfer of some $6.6 billion in penion obligations from United Airlines to the agency. "All the major carriers will look to the United agreement to see if they can cut their own costs by dumping their workers' pensions," Miller said in a release. "And after the airlines, other industries will look to do the same thing."

 

[Guitar Guy]

Didn't someone reference a stat that GM needs about $1500 from the sale of each vehicle to fund pensions and other employee benefits? If that's true, I can imagine that some high-level execs in Motown are salivating at the thought of dumping their pensions in order to compete price-wise with the Japanese and Koreans.

 

[klhoard]

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The news reported that GM has more retired workers than active. . .
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[thruthemurk]

Good Timing!!

 

[michael707767]

This hardly seems fair. Allow two airlines to cut their costs dramatically but deny the same avenue to other ailing carriers.

 

[skykid]

Michael, they want to include United in their legislation. Keep in mind these are the same two lawmakers who were SO effective in influencing the Judge. They should have got off their arses and got this legislation done last year, but that would require a modest amount of vision and foresight, which does not exist in the capital building.

 

[75M]

At least SOMEBODY in govenment is looking out for the interests of working people.

 

[capt. megadeth]

This hardly seems fair. Allow two airlines to cut their costs dramatically but deny the same avenue to other ailing carriers.

WHAT??????

No company should be able to just dump their promises and obligations at all. If they need money, they just need to head down to Florida and seize all the executive's $10 million dollar houses, $10,000 curtains and $hit. That should buy some time.

 

[michael707767]

Michael, they want to include United in their legislation. Keep in mind these are the same two lawmakers who were SO effective in influencing the Judge. .

Ok, did not see that. Fair enough.