My sis found this on FB: "Now that the Dow is at an all time high ...

[Fuddnik]

106. That's what I've been trying to tell that bozo disruptor about pensions.

I worked in the Republic Steel-LTV railroad division for 31 years. My company pension got cut from $1500 per month to $500 per month, and the PBGC takes 10% of that back every month for overpayments.

They cut off the Steelworkers health insurance the next day. Luckily for me, there are different federal laws on how a railroad can shut down, and they had to establish a trust fund that paid for our (just the railroads) health insurance for 3 years.

LTV used the USW pension fund to buy Republic Steel. They completely mismanaged the company. They went from having over $700 million cash on hand to bankrupt in a little over a year.

I was a union officer, and I got a phone call at 2:00am from a yardmaster in Cleveland, and he said, "They're trying to destroy the blast furnaces. They're empty, and they're not banking them with coke to keep them warm, and preserve them". There was no logical reason for them to do that. They had thousands of tons of coke sitting right there.

I gave him Dennis Kucinich's phone number, and tell him what they're trying to do. Kucinich called the CEO and Plant Manager and told them there would be hell to pay if that happened, and He went down there at 3:00 am. Obviously he convinced them to bank the furnaces, and Wilbur Ross came in and bought the place for a song.

At least now they still employ a couple of thousand people, plus thousands of peripheral jobs.

But, LTV Mismanagement managed to have all the executives pensions socked away in a trust fund that couldn't be touched by a bankruptcy judge.