http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afNpJFuQr1n8&pos=3 Executives Took $350 Million in Pay as Pensions Ended (Update1) Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A By Holly Rosenkrantz Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- UAL Corp., US Airways Group Inc. and eight other companies paid executives $350 million in the five years before the U.S. was forced to take over their under-funded employee pension plans, a government report said. One airline company missed $979 million in required pension contributions while its top three executives took $55.5 million in compensation, and another paid four executives $120.4 million amid two bankruptcies, a Government Accountability Office report today found. Data including dates of the pension terminations, stock awards and pay levels show the unnamed companies were UAL, the parent of United Airlines, and US Airways. Benefits to retirees were cut in some cases by as much as two-thirds, as executives got salary increases, stock awards, retention bonuses and other pay, the GAO said in a report that studied pension takeovers from 2002 through 2005. Representative George Miller of California is considering legislation that will freeze executive compensation if a companyâs rank-and-file pension plan becomes significantly under-funded. âIt is fundamentally wrong that executives were able to line their pockets with millions of dollars from bonuses, stock options and free joyrides on corporate jets, while watching their workersâ retirement security slip into peril,â Miller, a Democrat and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said in an e-mail. A US Airways spokesman, James Olson, declined to comment. A UAL spokeswoman, Jean Medina, didnât immediately respond to a request for comment. Executive Perks Steelmaker LTV Corp., towel manufacturer WestPoint Stevens Inc., camera company Polaroid Corp., Reliance Insurance Co. and Pillowtex Corp. are among the other companies singled out, according to research of the unnamed case studies in the report. The GAO, the congressional watchdog agency, looked at the compensation for executives at 10 of the largest companies that turned their pensions over to the government in the past decade. Some executives also received income tax reimbursements, severance packages and supplemental executive-only retirement before dumping their pensions, according to the report. Other executives were provided benefits including apartments, personal trips on company airplanes and helicopters, club memberships, legal-fee reimbursement and automobiles. At one insurance firm, the families and executives used the companyâs Boeing Co. 727 airplane and Sikorsky helicopter for personal trips to China, Spain, Greece and Hawaii. There are no laws that link the under-funding of workersâ pension plans to an executive benefit. Miller is looking into financial shortfalls at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the government agency that provides pension protection for 44 million workers. The PBGC reported last week that it has a $22 billion deficit. To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net Last Updated: November 19, 2009 13:42 EST
How can it be that the one group of people funding such ridiculousness is the one group that benefits the least?
Miller is looking into financial shortfalls at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the government agency that provides pension protection for 44 million workers. The PBGC reported last week that it has a $22 billion deficit. ----------------------------- You know why they have a 22b deficit? The PBGC invests in the stock market and they are a bunch of chump bagholders.