Headlines about "Bankruptcy"

Gathered from the web by the editors at BenefitsLink.com.
Providence Is Now on 'the Brink of Bankruptcy,' Mayor Taveras Warns
"Taveras said the city's retirees must accept reduced pension and health care benefits to save the city from financial ruin. A decree signed in 1991 by Mayor Buddy Cianci pushed the city's pension liability 'into the stratosphere' by giving annual cost-of-living increases of 5% and 6% to more than 600 retirees, he said." (WPRI.com)

Is My American Airlines Pension Guaranteed? Yes, But...
"Who gets the haircut? The PBGC has a sliding scale of maximum benefits, depending on age. The most it will pay people who retire at age 65 is $55,841. If your benefit is less than that you have only the long-term health of the PBGC to worry about." (TIME.com)

Unions Shocked By American Airlines Proposed Cuts
"The company -- which is in bankruptcy -- also wants to reduce salaries by 20 percent and end its pension plan." (National Public Radio)

American Airlines Wants to Terminate All Four of Its Pension Plans
"If it does take over the plans, the PBGC will assume the responsibility for paying retirees' benefits -- but not necessarily all of them. The agency caps the monthly benefit it pays at $4,500 a month for plans ended in 2010. It has said about $1 billion in promised benefits to the highest-paid AMR retirees would not be paid." (Star-Telegram.com)

PBGC Files Liens Against Assets of American Airlines
The PBGC has filed $91 million in liens against assets of American Airlines, which has hinted that it might freeze or terminate its four defined benefit pension plans as part of its bankruptcy reorganization, according to the Associated Press. (AP via New York Times)

AMR Retirees Ask to Participate in Bankruptcy Case
"A group of non-union AMR retirees asked a federal bankruptcy judge to let them participate in the bankruptcy case of AMR, American Airlines and other AMR subsidiaries." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

PBGC Responds to American Airlines' Letter on Employee Pensions
"The American letter also downplayed the pension cuts that would occur if American's plans are terminated and PBGC benefits are substituted. Although the figure appears nowhere in the management letter, the airline itself estimates that some 13,000 current or retired employees will have their pensions cut." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation)

PBGC Responds to American Airlines' Letter on Employee Pensions
"The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation today pushed back on misleading statements to American Airlines employees by its management about their pension plans. 'American Airlines is telling their workers and retirees not to worry, but they should,' said J. Jioni Palmer, PBGC's director of communications." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation)

American Airlines Works to Ease Employees' Pension Fears
"American Airlines says more than 90 percent of its workers with vested pensions would not see reduced benefits even if the Fort Worth-based airline terminates its pension plans." (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

Bankruptcy a Pension Reprieve for Some Companies
"The most controversial feature of the latest round of bankruptcies is that Hostess, Kodak and AMR want to use bankruptcy to relieve them of their pension promises. . . . AMR is expected to start the process of canceling American Airlines' pensions that cover pilots, mechanics and other workers. The PBGC says the plan has a $10 billion shortfall and wants AMR to fulfill its pension promise." (USATODAY.com)

American Airlines Makes Reduced Pension Payment
"American Airlines' parent company has made only a small fraction of the roughly $100 million payment it was scheduled to contribute to the company's employee pension plans. AMR Corp. instead contributed just $6.5 million by the January 15 deadline, the [PBGC] said, according to the Wall Street Journal." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

Kodak Retirees Fear for Benefits
"For many Eastman Kodak Co. retirees, the company's financial trouble is shaking the very foundation on which they built their careers, lives and nest eggs. . . . While retirees have reason to be worried about their health care, their pensions should be safe, according to several financial experts." (www.democratandchronicle.com)

Keep Pension Plan for American Airlines' Flight Attendants, Says Union
"American, whose parent company, Forth Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in late November, has not said whether it intends to terminate or freeze its pension plan covering flight attendants or its three other pension plans." (Business Insurance)

Hostess Returns to Bankruptcy over Pensions
"Twinkies and Wonder Bread maker Hostess Brands Inc filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in less than three years, after failing to reach an agreement with workers on pension and health benefits." (Reuters via The New York Times; free registration required)

Retirees Accept Pension Cuts in Rhode Island Town's Bankruptcy
"In a landmark agreement, retired police and firefighters in Central Falls, Rhode Island, have accepted pension cuts as part of the town's historic bankruptcy filing. If the bankruptcy trustee accepts the proposed deal, Central Falls' public employees would represent the first workers to ever accept pension cuts during a municipal bankruptcy, according to a recent report from the New York Times." (TotalBankruptcy, LLC)

Retired Central Falls, Rhode Island, Police and Firefighters Have Agreed to Sharp Pension Cuts
"As cities, towns and counties struggle with fiscal pain, there has been speculation that they could shed their pension obligations in bankruptcy. Some have said it might, in fact, be easier for local governments to drop those obligations than it is for companies, which use a different chapter of the bankruptcy code." (The New York Times; free registration required)

American Airlines' Bankruptcy: What Does It Mean for Its Pensions?
"While no announcement has been made yet about what might happen to the pension plans, it's important that American Airlines employees and retirees be aware of what could happen if the PBGC takes over the plans." (Pension Rights Center)

American Airlines' Bankruptcy Unlikely to Transform the Industry Into a Profitable One
"Almost all the nation's big airlines have steered a course into Chapter 11 over the last decade. They all shared one main objective: getting out from under labor contracts they claimed they could not afford." (The New York Times; free registration required)

American Airlines Answers Pension Questions
"American Airlines filed for bankruptcy last month. Saturday, employees past and present were given peace of mind about their pensions, after a special meeting at the Spirit Bank Event Center. . . . American held a special meeting Saturday for those employees to discuss the effects, if any, that the filing could have on their pay checks." (WorldNow and KOTV)

U.S. Representative from Ohio Seeks to Expand Probe into Delphi Pensions
"'Local leadership of the Delphi Salaried Retirees in my district estimate that nearly 20,000 current and future retirees across the nation and 1,000 retirees in the Dayton area were negatively affected by the decisions of the Treasury, Auto Task Force and the PBGC,' [Representative Turner wrote]." (Cox Ohio Publishing)

American Airlines Pensions a Rich Target in Bankruptcy Proceedings
"One option for American would be to lobby Washington for more time to pay off its pensions, as Northwest and Delta received in 2006. Those rule changes also included a new penalty: Bankrupt companies that terminate pensions must later pay $1,250 per participant per year -- for three years." (StarTelegram)

Sale of Pension Income Targeted By Senator
"A U.S. Senate committee is considering tackling a burgeoning and controversial business in which veterans and other retirees sell some of their future pension income to investors, with an array of middlemen profiting from the transactions. . . . [F]inancial middlemen have helped to set up websites with names such as BuyYourPension.com and pension4cash.com to connect pension recipients." (Wall Street Journal)

PBGC Audit Finds Errors in Calculating Pensions in Bankruptcies
"The errors appear to have come about because the agency . . . used unqualified outside vendors to review the pension plans it took over, then failed to supervise the contractors adequately or verify the accuracy of their work. The audit firm, Clifton Gunderson, referred to 'serious internal control weaknesses' in its report." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Health Care Employers with Unaffordable Pension Plans: A Non-Bankruptcy Solution
"During these financially challenging times, . . . employers providing healthcare services are finding that the skyrocketing costs of funding their defined benefit pension plans are increasing operating pressures to the point of threatening their viability and ultimate survival. This article addresses this problem . . . and identifies an under-utilized legal solution that could mitigate or even eliminate a major issue that for many of them is becoming an existential financial threat. [Click on the link under 'Items of Interest' on the target page.]" (Keightley & Ashner LLP)

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