Wells Fargo freezes pension plan

[babylonsister]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/709382.html

Wells Fargo freezes pension plan

Employees from both Wells and Wachovia will keep accrued benefits. Bank will continue its 401(k) match.

By Rick Rothacker
Posted: Thursday, May. 07, 2009


Wells Fargo & Co. is freezing its cash-balance pension plan for all employees in a move to cut costs, a bank spokeswoman confirmed this week.

The move comes as San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. is absorbing Charlotte's Wachovia Corp. The combined company will continue to have a 401(k) retirement plan in which employees contribute a portion of their salary to an investment account. The bank will continue to match employee contributions up to 6 percent of their pay.

Cash-balance plans are a type of traditional pension plan in which employers provide for their workers' future retirement benefits. In 401(k) plans, employees set aside a portion of their own paychecks, which can be partially matched by their employers. These dollars rise and fall based on the employees' investment choices.

Employers have been increasingly scaling back pension plans, and in some cases 401(k) plans, to cut costs.

Wachovia converted to a cash-balance plan last year, although new employees were no longer eligible for the program. Current and new employees had been eligible for Wells Fargo's cash-balance plan. Employees from both banks will keep previously accrued pension benefits, spokeswoman Mary Eshet said.

“We must manage expenses prudently to help Wells Fargo continue our long track record of profitable growth,” Eshet said. “These decisions were difficult and we are confident that we're taking the right steps to ensure the long-term strength of our company.”

The combined company has about 19,500 employees in the Charlotte area.

[Vickers]

1. "new employees were no longer eligible for the program"

My company did that, just before I went to work for them.

Oh well, anyone remotely relying on a pension that is not currently paying out benefits might be in for a big surprise...

[havocmom]

2. Once again, giant US corporate proves it only cares for those it can exploit

and only for as long as they can exploit them.

[RockaFowler]

3. This is happening everywhere, though

I work for Scripps and they just recently did the same thing. As a matter of fact they said they may not bring the Pension Plan back at all.

[havocmom]

4. yes, most of them want us to just go off and die when we are too tired to exploit

They won't pay more when they drop benefits, even though the benefits were touted as part of a worker's compensation. IOW: they are fucking the working class some more.

[CountAllVotes]

5. well damn them

fuckers!!

:kick: