So why should employees vote FOR ?
A great explanation in ' 200 words or less ', and which was published within Boeing on newsclips on April 12,2001 is the description by Chris Genna in the South County Journal. at
http://www.southcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/50276
and I'll excerpt it here.
Boeing Country: Shareholders
ready proposals for Boeing's annual meeting
2001-04-12 by Chris Genna Journal Business Reporter
. . . * Proposal 7 would give
nonrepresented Boeing employees the chance to choose between pension
plans when they leave the company: either the so-called Pension
Value Plan Boeing established for them in 1999 or the plan they
had originally.
That proposal was made by Don Shuper, a retired Boeing engineer
who lives in Redmond. Shuper is concerned that the new company
plan may reduce the pension entitlement of older workers.
That's because benefits under
the older plans increased slowly in the first years of a career,
then increased faster in later years, Shuper said. When Boeing
instituted the Pension Value Plan, it tried to make that curve
more of a straight line, with constant increases over the years.
That may make the PVP a better deal for workers just starting
out, Shuper said, but it penalizes
older workers, who have weathered the flattest part of the
old curve and moved to where it was steeper.
Worse yet, it affects those in the
higher wage and salary ranges the most, Shuper says, ``so
the better you've done for the company, the better you've done
with salary, the more you get hosed'' under the PVP.
Again, the company sees it differently. The board response urges
a no vote, saying ``the PVP provides a level of benefits that
is very close to, and in some cases better than, the benefits
provided by the prior plans.'' In addition, Shuper's proposal
would ``undermine'' the primary purpose of the Pension Value Plan:
to replace 20 different plans Boeing inherited when it acquired
McDonnell Douglas, some Rockwell divisions, the companies those
units had acquired, and others.
. . .Shuper predicts his proposal won't pass, but might get 20 percent. If it gets just 3 percent, he can propose it again next year. Basically, he said, if the measure does well enough, it might attract the interest of big institutional investors holding millions of shares. Those shareholders have other ways to effect changes.
A few other comments/suggestions are appropriate here.
1) BA BOD wanted to use the words . . .result IS that most employess would do better. When I challanged Boeing legal counsel on the use of that word , [ provide Factual support ' . . .] they backed down. to say "they believe that . . .
2) Why is it so hard to find out if youv'e been hosed.?
A. Boeing has made it almost impossible to compare. remember the old benefit statemens ? Where are they ? Why ?
B Actuaries have deliberately designed the plan to make it almost impossible .
3) How to find out ? YOU must ASK the Plan Administrator - in writing .
4) If you are truly interested in finding out the details, consider spending some time reading and follwing the links I have provided. Yes it wil take a few hours and much head scratching .
Only YOU can decide if a few hundred to several thousand $$/year in your pension check are important..
And yes , I would appreciate some help.
Thank you for your interest. Don Shuper dshuper@halcyon.com