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New GM Retirement Plan
Old 02-15-2012, 06:24 PM   #1
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New GM Retirement Plan

In an effort to get it's arms around the fortune it is costing General Motors to support it heafty retirement plan, changes were announced today about the revisions going forward. The revisions affects SALARIED EMPLOYES ONLY. And, it does not affect anyone already retired. YIPEE! The hourly employes are not affected. That's because the union owns GM along with the Gvmnt. They sent me an email with the details but it is too complicated to burden this forum.
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Old 02-16-2012, 07:05 AM   #2
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Do you have any details on what the changes were? -ERD50
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Old 02-16-2012, 07:16 AM   #3
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Heck, I retired from a US based heavy duty automotive assembly plant, where I was salaried (white collar - non-management) and the blue collars were/are represented by the UAW.

We lost our defined benefit (e.g. pension), replaced by the 401(k) back in the 80's, supplemented by a cash balance plan. BTW, the current UAW folks still receive their pension today.

If anything, GM is certainly behind the times. Maybe that was/is part of their profitibility problem...
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Old 02-16-2012, 09:23 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rescueme View Post
Heck, I retired from a US based heavy duty automotive assembly plant, where I was salaried (white collar - non-management) and the blue collars were/are represented by the UAW.

We lost our defined benefit (e.g. pension), replaced by the 401(k) back in the 80's, supplemented by a cash balance plan. BTW, the current UAW folks still receive their pension today.

If anything, GM is certainly behind the times. Maybe that was/is part of their profitibility problem...
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The Fortune 100 Megacorp I retired from and the associated union(s) did exactly the same thing.
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Old 02-16-2012, 10:51 AM   #5
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Originally Posted by rescueme View Post
..........

If anything, GM is certainly behind the times. Maybe that was/is part of their profitibility problem...

GM Earns Record $9.19B Profit; Opel Posts Loss - Bloomberg
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Old 02-16-2012, 10:54 AM   #6
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This practice of giving some employees a better deal than others is a good way to drive a wedge into the workforce and create a lot of tension as some folks (newer hires and salaried/non-union employees) are made to feel like "second class citizens."
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Old 02-16-2012, 11:06 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by rescueme View Post
Heck, I retired from a US based heavy duty automotive assembly plant, where I was salaried (white collar - non-management) and the blue collars were/are represented by the UAW.

We lost our defined benefit (e.g. pension), replaced by the 401(k) back in the 80's, supplemented by a cash balance plan. BTW, the current UAW folks still receive their pension today.

If anything, GM is certainly behind the times. Maybe that was/is part of their profitibility problem...
It certainly is the biggest problem behind their financial woes from what I know. Just heard today that the cost to the company is $9B per year to fund the salaried retirement program. I am one of the retired salaried employees that has been enjoying that pension check for 23 years now. It is a "defined benefit" plan that carries with it a guarantee of backing by the fed. That type plan is now going by the wayside and is being replaced by a "defined contribution" plan. Most companies have gone to this type plan where the employees have a 401k available to them. I had the luxury of both the defined benefit plan AND the 401k. Todays paper said that the new plan will cover 19k salaried employees hired before 2001. Salaried employees hired since 2001 were already on this new plan. (didn't know that).

Please don't hold me to this number, but I think I heard there are 160k
salaried retirees under the defined "benefit" plan. And, remember that the hourly employees and retirees are not affected by this change.
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Old 02-16-2012, 01:29 PM   #8
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I saw this reported on Bloomberg this morning and figured someone on this forum would mention it. I wonder what took GM so long to get around to this? My company robbed the pension during an LBO. They locked in everyone with an annuity for work/ years up to that time. Later the company was sold for another big payday for the owners of the LBO. Sadly, I missed out on all the graft cash from that sale. This kind of thing has happened hundreds of times in the last twenty years whenever a company changed ownership or went private. I've got a book that explains why it happened, which was a wrinkle in the law that congress didn't stop.

Defined pensions are a dying breed. I guess I'm just lucky to have what I have.
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Old 02-16-2012, 03:52 PM   #9
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Here is a link with more details:

GM to move all salaried workers to 401(k) plans | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com

I've wondered how many GM retirees are out there on a pension. I haven't seen a number. Would think it's pretty big... but slowly getting smaller, smaller
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Old 02-18-2012, 10:15 AM   #10
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I just don't think most employees will be successful with a 401k only type plan from employer. Most people will need SS plus one other other stable income source in case they are unskilled/unlucky with their DC plan.

GM has actually done a good job with thier salaried pension plan....some due to luck. They froze the old plan aroung 2006 and switched over to a "career average" DB fomula. The plan was overfunded a year or so before the crisis and they sold off some mortgage debt before that market tanked. They used the excess for a window retirement program as the crisis hit. Current low interest rates increase the balance required to be at 100%.
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