PBGC Urges Visteon to Keep Pension Plans
December 21, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced that Visteon Corp. has proposed handing over three of its pension plans to the agency.
In a statement, PBGC Acting Director Vince Snowbarger said
the three plans cover more than 21,000 workers and have an aggregate shortfall
of $544 million. He pointed out that because of limits set by federal law,
workers often lose benefits when pension plans terminate.
“The PBGC estimates that workers and retirees in the
three Visteon plans would lose almost $100 million in benefits, with early
retirees most likely to see benefit reductions,” Snowbarger said. “Continuation of the pension plans would
preserve those benefits.”
According to the statement: “The PBGC hopes that
Visteon can reach agreement with its creditors and lenders on a reorganization
that allows the company to retain all its pension plans.”
The agency praised Visteon earlier this year when it was able to reach an agreement to shore up a pension plan covering more than 5,300 former employees of the automotive supplier’s now-shuttered facilities in Connersville and Bedford, Indiana (see Visteon Reaches Agreement with PBGC on Pension Protections).