>>Have not world wide IBM employees earned pension rights been eroded and the workforce been chopped year on year?

Workforce rebalancing aka layoffs are a fact of life now at most big companies, and unlikely to ever go away. I got cut from IBM US after refusing two assignments, one back in Poughkeepsie and the other in Dubai. Sadly after some 10-years as a high flyer with IBM UK and 22-years service, I'd pretty much lost everything personal, was divorced, separated from my kids and wasn't prepared to start over again, again for IBM. So I saw it coming, had a job lined up and then just sat around waiting for it to happen. Sadly for many this wouldn't be their experience, they are working hard, they are doing what is required, but their division doesn't make its profit/expense and the cuts come down. The same is true for performance/bell curve rebalancing. At dell I've played a minor although vocal part in getting that stopped, not the cuts, but using bellcurve performance planning.

http://markcathcart.com/2013/12/02/forced-distribution-no-more/

http://markcathcart.com/2013/11/15/jack-welsh-rides-the-bell-curve/

Pensions at least in IBM US don't seem to work that way. They may have in the past. My experience was that I left IBM UK, joined IBM US. When I joined IBM US I was put into the companies 401k program.That was a managed program for IBM, when I left a couple of years later I "rolled over" my 401k into Dell's Corporate 401k program with no tax liability and the transfer value was based on my and corporate matching donations plus investment gains.

I'm able to move my Dell 401k into a separate 401k not linked to Dell even before I leave or retire, again tax free.

My IBM UK pension will still be my single biggest source of income when I retire, and I'm looking at how I can best use/manage/move that, which was the reason I came here a few weeks ago was to see what had changed.