Posted by alwaysontheroad4bigblue on 24 September 2001 at 04:03:02:
Please see www.ibmemployee.com for links to message board postings and press articles of interest to IBM employees, friends, retirees, and investors. This week's links include:
Important progress in the class-action pension suit Cooper vs. IBM.
*
Wall Street Journal article
* Poughkeepsie Journal article.
* Full text
of the judge's ruling
* Janet Krueger comments on what comes next with the
lawsuit
"ibmoptioneer" says "I have heard strong rumors from several very credible
sources in two different sites and divisions that there is a pension/retirement
announcement scheduled for October."
* "ibmoptioneer" reports on two band 10
employees leaving his area...
* Janet Krueger tells us what she knows,
including the anticipated announcement date...
* Janet Krueger speculates on
why IBM may make another change to its pension plan, and how the lawsuit might
tie in with this change.
Dow Jones Newswire: Aggressive Accounting Methods Criticized At Conference. Excerpts: "Aggressive accounting methods that public companies have used to pump up their earnings were roundly lambasted at an investors conference here sponsored by Crabbe Huson, a mutual fund company specializing in value investing." ... "Some companies, including International Business Machines Corp. and Northrup Grumman Corp. boosted their gains by including pension income in their earnings statement, Loeb said." ... "I question whether these gains should be in the income statement anyway," Loeb said. "The money doesn't belong to the shareholders; it belongs to the retirees."
Watson-Wyatt Insider: Cash Balance Whipsaw Upheld, Again. Excerpt: "Ruling against a cash balance plan's method of determining lump sums, another federal court has held that lump sum distributions cannot be determined simply by reference to the cash balance account. This is the third such decision in less than a year (see Watson Wyatt Insider, October 2000), though all three cases concerned lump sums paid before recent IRS guidance was released."
The Register: IBM axes 130+ Lotus positions.
Reuters: CEOs Slash Jobs, but Not Their Pay. Excerpt: "While firing thousands of workers and closing plants to cut spending to the bone, there is one expense few chief executives have sacrificed as the U.S. economy stumbles toward a recession: their own salary."
The United Kingdom C-Planner's site has published its newsletter #7. Excerpt: "The recent complaints correspondence has made clear that the decision to have an M-plan, and the decision about how to fund it, were made in 1996, just before new laws requiring elected trustees came into play. ... The effect of the 1996 IBM decisions was to take away bargaining power that the trustees would otherwise have had."
Linda Guyer provides an excellent, detailed answer to the question "What can unions do about layoffs?
Seattle Times: Early retirement package unlikely for Boeing workers.
Workday Minnesota: AFL-CIO urges Senate to reject Scalia appointment.