Benefits February 14, 2001

US West Faces Pensioners' Revenge

February 14, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - US West is facing criticism from its retirees group over "golden parachutes" and using pension assets to enhance net operating income.
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The retirees contend that while they were denied regular cost-of-living increases,  US West executives used pension credits to increase net operating results which in turn were used to enhance performance-based bonuses for the company’s top officials. 

The retirees group seeks to propose a resolution at the annual Qwest shareholders meeting in the spring aimed at achieving two goals.  (Qwest and US West merged operations last year.)

  • Separating pension credits from paper gains to come up with a better gauge of issuing executive bonuses;
  • Requiring shareholder approval for any “golden parachutes” and renewed severance agreements.

The Association of US West Retirees (AUSWR) represents more than 45,000 retired employees and their spouses of the former US West and affiliate Bell telephone companies.

AUSWR is a member of the Coalition of Retirement Security (CRS) which also includes retiree groups of General Electric, IBM, Bell Atlantic, Prudential, PanAm, Johns Manville, Southern New England Bell and others. CRS membership includes around a million and a half voters and retirees.

See also:
Fireside Dogs to Pitbulls – Slighted Retirees, Employees Increasingly Persistent

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