OH WHERE, OH WHERE HAS

MY 401(k) GONE?

OH WHERE, OH WHERE CAN IT BE?

A LIFE TIME OF SAVINGS VANISHES IN A DAY!

Delta and most American corporations will tout the advantages of 401(k) plans and will push most employees to join the process and encourage all to participate to the fullest, knowing full well that most won’t, especially the young. They will tell you all the advantages of having companies match their contributions and what glorious outcomes will be ours when we all retire.

Generally, these programs are an essential component to a well-rounded retirement portfolio; along with other tiers of a three-pronged savings plan. Unfortunately, the other necessary legs of this stool have been sawed off by many American companies and employees are now staring at empty nest eggs and contemplating what the hell they are going to do now.

Delta was more than happy to freeze and terminate the defined pension benefit that they used to offer to all employees and move to a semi-matching 401(k) plan some years ago. Why not? They had the advantage and the actuary evidence to know that their expenses and obligations to employees would be drastically reduced by not having a defined obligation to all employees.

They also knew that the less sophisticated employee would think that a 5% match would seem to be larger and more generous than the 3% (and growing) contribution made by Northwest on behalf of employees into the IAM’s National Pension Fund. It looked better on paper to have a 401(k) program that had potential to grow rather than an IAM sponsored defined pension that had a guaranteed payout with no downside.

Who’s happy now? Where is the bottom to Delta’s 401(k) match and what happens if Delta decides to pull the rug out from under the program they now provide? They could do it in a heartbeat because we have no contract or guarantee like our IAM represented brothers and sisters who are now whistling a sigh of relief that their pensions have a sturdy mast to sail through the rough waters ahead.

In a hand of poker, gamblers sometimes bet the long shot and win. The true, professional gamblers know when to hold and know when to fold. Northwest, United, US Air and other employees who asked the IAM to negotiate a contract for them got a real retirement pension that didn’t deal them a bad hand. They came up smiling with a sure hand all the same suit!

How about us? It’s not too late to change our luck; it’s not too late to run the tables and win out. We must do what’s right for our families; we must unionize and re-negotiate our situation and not leave our future to the whims of the gambling gods.

Poker is fun but it’s no way to pay for you and your families’ futures. Let’s don’t gamble away our futures on a game of change. Let’s get a pension that is an absolute payout no matter what the stock market is up to. Being lucky is fun; being broke lasts a lifetime with no pension and no options.