Studebaker Pension Facts

That is an interesting article . As part of the ERISA Legislation in the early '70's , The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) was put into place . Their roll is to pay the retirement or a portion of the retirement for workers who's Defined Benefit plan (company paid retirement) has been eliminated. I find myself in this position as a retiree of USAirways. Through their inept management and resultant bankruptcies we, the pilots, had our pension funds used for other purposes. In my case, the PBGC will pay slightly less than a third of what I had accrued in my retirement account at the airline.

The irony is that Studebaker is not only responsible for 90% of my personal transportation, but in an indirect way also my retirement income.

Jack

I was at the local Sears parts & service enter a few weeks ago to pick a part for our Kenmore dryer. The fellow behind the counter saw my Studebaker shirt and told me that his dad worked for Studebaker for 37 year in the financial department and had work in several zone and regional assignments around the US. When the plant in So. Bend closed the family moved to Canada for his dads last two years with the company. He said that his father ended up hating Studebaker because after 37 years of service they screwed him out of most of his pension benefits. He ended up getting pennies on the dollar of what he rightfully should have received. He said his dad had passed away several years ago. Interestingly time must be a healer, because after that discussion he asked where he could get a Studebaker tee-shirt like mine. This may be reflective of what has happened in So. Bend that past few years, with the city's support of the new museum. The older generation has passed on and the newer generations don't hold the same bad memories of Studebaker that their parents and grandparents had. I also think we are seeing a similar feeling in the old car hobby, that Studebakers are not the "dog" of the hobby that they used to be. It seems that in the end longevity is the true measure of success (look the Model A Ford) and when Studebaker is compared to other car makers, such as Dodge and Rambler, who produced a much greater number of cars in the 1950's an 60's, there seem to be a lot more Studebakers that survived.

If he was in the Accounting Dept, it's doubtful the UAW contract pertained to him. He was most likely covered under whatever program was provided to the salaried employees, which was not included in this explanation.

It's very possible that management employees walked away with much less than the hourly employees.