Enron, IBM, ATT, Verizon Pension Victims to Describe Huge Losses, 1 p.m. Today, National Press Club, Pepper Foundation News Conference28 February 2006
News Advisory:
MEDIA UPDATE NOTE: The panel of pension loss victims will include an Enron worker in his 70s who had $1.3 million savings in Enron stock and wound up with $8,000; an IBM 26-year manufacturing employee, with a cash balance pension now valued at less than one-year's salary; an ATT worker receiving half the annual amount promised, and who lost promised health insurance; and a Verizon female employee who lost $300,000.
A news forum at the National Press Club Monday, Feb. 27 on "Disintegrating Private Pensions National Crisis: Call to Action", sponsored by the Claude Pepper Foundation and Center, will include a panel of pension loss victims from across the country currently or recently employed by Enron, IBM, ATT, and Verizon, and a panel of policy experts from the AFL-CIO, the Pension Rights Center, Ernst and Young, Ameriprise, and the Claude Pepper Center at Florida State University. The event is 1 p.m. in the First Amendment Room.
The victims will describe heart-wrenching personal experiences of the impact of losses in their expected and promised pensions on their lives and their families. Some of the victims lead pension loss groups.
Policy experts will include William Arnone, Human Capital Practice partner for financial services giant Ernst and Young, New York City, and co-author of Ernst and Young's Retirement Planning Guide; Shaun O'Brien, assistant director, AFL-CIO Public Policy Department and pension policy expert, Washington, DC; Karen Friedman, policy director of the Pension Rights Center, Washington, DC; Awad Morgan, financial advisor, Ameriprise Financial Services, Vienna, VA; and David Macpherson, director, Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, Claude Pepper Center, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
The pension loss victims and the policy experts will propose changes in company processes, judicial rulings, and federal legislation to guarantee that workers are protected from losing earned benefits. Both the House and Senate are working on pension reform bills, and the panels' description of problems and solutions could have impact.
Thomas Spulak, chair of the Pepper Foundation and former staff director of the House Rules Committee under Chairman Pepper, will open the event.
Bob Weiner, former chief of staff of the House Aging Committee under Chairman Pepper, now president of Robert Weiner Associates Public Affairs, and author with Cael Pulitzer of a December 29 piece in the Miami Herald, "Pension Reform: Protect workers from losing earned benefits," is convener and moderator.
The pension crisis is numbing. Out of 142.6 million active American workers, 101 million have a private pension plan. It is the lifeblood for most Americans supplementing the near poverty of pure Social Security. However, hundreds of major companies, including United Airlines, GM, IBM, Verizon, Sears, Hewlett Packard, Polaroid, AT&T, and of course Enron have now reduced their guaranteed retirement plans or judges have authorized dissolution of pension funds. The trend threatens nearly all American seniors and their families, as well as younger workers.
The Forum is open to all print, radio, and television media and the public.
Source: Robert Weiner Associates 301-283-0821 or 202-329-1700
http://www.usnewswire.com/
Source: usnewswire
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