Along with the biggest economic turmoil and loss of wealth since the Great Depression too many wage workers have been experiencing the "Cram-Down".
You met your obligations; your employer didn't.
Result:You're screwed.
If you are a creditor with a security interest in the debtor's assets, ask yourself if the value of your collateral is properly listed in the plan or whether it should be given a higher value. Reducing your claim to the value of the collateral is referred to as "cram down."
Substitute "wage-worker" for "creditor" and "corporation" for "debtor". Then strike-through "collaterel" and type "wages, benefits pensions"...
As we watch to see whether the US will continue to maintain an automotive industry, most auto workers realize that the gummint and management are almost certainly going to force them to accept slashes to their current wages and benefits - most of which have already been the subject of negotiated reductions in recent years.
Journalist/Attorney Robyn Blumnerwrites for The St Pete Times:
Actually, the defined-benefit pension is one of the only employment promises that employers of nonunionized work places are legally obligated to keep. Federal law is supposed to protect pension rights and guarantee that pensions are adequately funded.
For the dwindling number of private sector employees who still enjoy one, that's a comforting thought. Too bad it's not true.
Do you hear that sawing sound? That's what federal bankruptcy courts are doing to the three-legged stool of retirement, as companies divest themselves of the "legacy costs" of their defined-benefit pension plans.
Our government wouldn't let AIG go bankrupt, bolstering it with $182.5 billion in bailout money. That protected those million-dollar retention bonuses. But workaday people have not been so lucky.
In industries from steel to airlines and even auto parts, companies have used federal bankruptcy law as a tool to keep operating while walking away from retirement promises made to people who gave their entire working lives to the enterprise.
