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At Northwest Air I personnlly know executives who reitred and took millions out with them when they left just before the company went bankrupt. That money is in their separate retirement accounts to keep. It is not affected by the filing. In some cases they contined working for the company as consultants. The rank and file are different. Their pensions are now gone and will end up with the nearly bankrupt federal pension gaurantee corporation which will only cover a small portion. Everyone from pilots to cleaners will see a loss. In the meantime the excutives continue to earn millions. Some sold, before the filing, millions in stock purchased with options. Northwest got millions in a government bailout to stay in MN about ten years ago. They never lived up to the promises they made to get the bailout. After the bailout the ownership took the company private and cashed in and later took the company public again and cashed in again. The workers agreed to get stock and a pay cut to keep the company solvent about 5 years ago and now the stock which they could not sell is worthless. I am fortunate to have a governement pension. It is very good. For 31 years I have been paying into the pension about half it's cost with my employer paying the other half. This month my contribution went up to keep the thing solvent. The 4.5% that my employer has matched is compensation for me that has been agreed to as part of my employment. One should not generalize about workers using their political power to bankrupt the system. Governments should have truth in pensions and if they are not funded that should be public information and reported every year. Of course we need to pay these salaries and benefits to keep these talented executives to run our fine institutions like GM, Ford, Enron, Adelphia, Healthsouth, K-Mart MCI-Worldcom, Tyco etc.
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