Doug and others have criticized CALPERS as anti-worker (without giving much evidence) so I thought this example of CALPERS lining up with workers rights at IBM in a general shareholder fight backed by unions.
-- Nathan Newman =====================
March 28, 2000 I.B.M. Workers Get Backer in Pension Fight
By REUTERS
WASHINGTON, March 27 -- The largest United States public pension fund today threw its weight behind employees of the International Business Machines Corporation in their dispute over changes to their pension plan.
The California Public Employees Retirement System, or Calpers, said it would vote the 9.2 million I.B.M. shares it owned in favor of a stockholder resolution that would require the company to give all of its 145,000 United States workers the choice of remaining under its traditional pension system or switching to a new "cash balance" plan.
Critics of the new plan, including I.B.M. employees, labor unions and a number of United States lawmakers, say it will mean steep cuts in benefits for many employees, particularly older workers. I.B.M. denies that, saying it will still pay the same amount in total pay and benefits as under the old plan, but with some compensation moving from pension to salary and stock options.
"Calpers supports the resolution because withdrawing promised benefits for any employee is not only morally reprehensible, it's plain bad business," the Calpers president, William Crist, said.
While traditional pension plans tend to reward employees for length of service, cash-balance plans tend to treat all workers equally, regardless of seniority. Critics say conversions to cash-balance plans hurt older workers and are often motivated by companies' desire to inflate their book profits by increasing surpluses in their pension trust funds.