Lucent retirees await ruling on pension assets

[Omaha Steve]

By Russell Hubbard / World-Herald staff writer 2 hrs ago

Retirees from the once-bustling Western Electric plant in Millard are still waiting to hear if their pension plan is going to be tapped by the new corporate custodian of their retirement fund.

The unions that represented the retired workers filed a lawsuit more than a year ago in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, saying the company, Alcatel-Lucent, was improperly transferring $1.2 billion from the fund for hourly retirees to the one for management retirees.

The issue, according to the union: Money from the retirement fund of the hourly workers was being used to shore up a retirement fund for management. That fund is underfunded. The company says it isn’t doing anything wrong and that the money is essentially in one big pot, anyway — not in separate tranches for hourly and salaried employees.

But the judge in the case threw the suit out late last year, in a ruling that left open the chance to refile it once the attorneys for the unions made certain changes. That was done and the suit was refiled in December.

FULL story: http://www.omaha.com/money/lucent-retirees-await-ruling-on-pension-assets/article_8535d7ab-bab3-5a6c-b370-2adac138b4be.html

[guillaumeb]

1. This type of theft of assets really increased under Reagan's Presidency.

Yet another transfer of wealth from workers to managers and owner/managers.