At 08:44 PM 2/11/2003 -0500, Gerard M Foley wrote: >From: "Michael A. Burris" <yul@prodigy.net> >Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 5:54 PM > ><snip> > > > Subject to regulatory and judicial clearance of its plan to eliminate > its pilot's union retirement plan. > >Pensions are an upper management prerogative, and undermine initiative and >enterprise when granted to employees. Pensions and retirement plans are incentives offered to employees to take advantage of current tax laws and to convince employees that a potential employer actually has a clue about the real world and the modern economy. They almost always are the subject of negotiations; one side gives up something to get a retirement plan or a better retirement plan; there's a lot of haggling about how much is given up and about just how good the retirement plan is. As an exercise, in Gerry's (and my) comments above, replace "pensions" with "salaries." Both are negotiated benefits, after all. Any employee who accepts a career-path job that doesn't offer some kind of pension or retirement plan has to wonder what else the company is too cheap to offer. >Thanks, George Hey, don't look at me; I'm part of the majority that didn't vote for Dudya! >Gerry Nick