Retirees
protest pension cuts: Struggling Special Metals puts benefits under scrutiny
By
Marrecca Fiore
Observer
Dispatch, May 21, 2003
 Bob
Wadman of Schuyler, center, pickets outside Special Metals in New Hartford
Tuesday with other retirees of the company. He said he worked there as a
machine operator for almost 35 years, retiring in March 2002.
NEW
HARTFORD - Carrying signs, some which said "Special Metals Corp.
Management Got the Gold Mine. Retirees got the Shaft," retired workers
backed by their union representatives led an informational picket Tuesday
against Special Metals' proposal to eliminate its pension program.
"It's
just like what's happening across the country," said Paul Marmelstein,
president of the retirees. "Employees who made their life's work at a
company now stand to lose what was negotiated in their contracts and should
remain in effect for the rest of their lives."
The
picketers, most who worked for Special Metals anywhere from 25 to 40 years
before retiring, hoped the protest in front of the Middle Settlement Road
plant would bring attention to what they believe is the company's
mistreatment of its retirees.
New
Hartford plant manager Fred Schweizer said, "We have no response,"
to the workers' action Tuesday.
The
struggling manufacturer of nickel-based alloys has laid off numerous
hundreds of employees locally and at its plants in Dunkirk; Huntington, W.
Va.; Burnaugh, Ky.; Elkhart, Ind., and Hereford, United Kingdom.
The
elimination of the company retirement plan is the latest effort by Special
Metals to cut costs.
The
elimination would put pension responsibilities into federal hands and could
lead to reduced monthly benefits for retirees, union officials have said.
Meanwhile,
the company awarded its CEO T. Grant John -- who has been at the helm of
Special Metals for just a few years -- a $1.9 million bonus last year, which
he placed in a retirement plan.
"And
the person who suffers is the person who made this company's products for 30
or 40 years," Marmelstein said.
"We
want to bring about public awareness to what's going on and perhaps there's
someone in (Special Metals) who has some compassion for the retirees."
Retirees
under the age of 65 also stand to lose their medical benefits should the
pension plan fall into federal hands, said Marmelstein and Ray Goppert,
chief union steward for the International Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers Local 2310, which represents many of Special Metals' 300
or so New Hartford workers.
Those
same retirees, some of whom are 60 years of age, would get their medical
benefits back when they turn 65, said Marmelstein, who is 66 and worked for
Special Metals for 30 years before retiring in 1999. And retirees aged 60 to
62 could lose their pension supplements, Goppert said.
"The
sad thing is that this is a profitable company," Goppert said,
referring to the New Hartford plant. "This is the gem of the
corporation ... and (management) is taking it and just stripping it."
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2002 Global Action on Aging
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