Real People, Real Hardship

Al Brooks & Bob Henderson

In case there are lingering doubts about the human side of the Oak Ridge pension problem take a look at the following table:

DISTRIBUTION OF REAL RETIREES AND REAL SURVIVING SPOUSES BY YEAR OF RETIREMENT

AND PERCENT ORIGINAL BUYING POWER WITHOUT COLAs

YEAR	RETIREE	SURVIVING SPOUSE	TOTAL	CPI/BLS	% Buying Power
1970 (AND BEFORE)	17	32	49	116.3	19.9
1971	8	20	28	121.3	20.7
1972	3	25	28	125.3	21.4
1973	29	42	71	133.1	22.8
1974	31	50	81	147.7	25.2
1975	25	40	65	161.2	27.6
1976	39	68	107	170.5	29.1
1977	73	77	150	181.5	31.0
1978	66	67	133	195.4	33.4
1979	66	80	146	217.4	37.2
1980	93	88	181	246.8	42.2
1981	176	169	345	272.4	46.6
1982	208	132	340	289.1	49.4
1983	116	90	206	298.4	51.0
1984	314	170	484	311.1	53.2
1985	479	197	676	322.2	55.1
1986	152	89	241	328.4	56.1
1987	179	65	244	340.4	58.2
1988	263	99	362	354.3	60.6
1989	178	87	265	371.3	63.5
1990	384	116	500	391.4	66.9
1991	192	57	249	408.0	69.7
1992	445	89	534	420.3	71.8
1993	314	56	370	432.7	74.0
1994	825	106	931	444.0	75.9
1995	460	60	520	456.5	78.0
1996	308	40	348	469.9	80.3
1997	486	47	533	480.8	82.2
1998	316	38	354	488.3	83.5
1999	392	46	438	499.0	85.3
2000	613	56	669	515.8	88.2
2001	183	27	210	530.4	90.7
2002	208	22	230	538.8	92.1
2003	210	21	231	551.1	94.2
2004	382	26	408	565.8	96.7
2005	189	11	200	585.0	100.0
TOTALS	8422	2505	10927

Retiree/Spouse numbers received from BWXT/UT-Battelle 6/05;

Consumer's Price Index (CPI) from Bureau of Labor Statistics

These are real people; they live across the street, they have living costs. The last column of the table presents what their economic life would have been like if there had been no cost of living adjustments (COLA) since 1970. DOE will say there have been some COLAs and the CPIs are from the past. True but the limitation on the ad hoc adjustments were severe and the DOE Notice 351.1 clearly states that the will be no reimbursements to Contractors for COLAs in the future (or any other Defined Benefit pension plan improvement either). The problem affects not only current retirees but also current employees who are vested in the DB plan. No exemption is proposed for large or rampant inflation that may occur in the next 55 years. Why 55 years?, you ask.

Consider an employee with a vested interest who has 25 years to retirement and who lives to be as old as some current retirees, say 95. That adds up to 55 years before he is out of the system. That’s a long dry spell with no improvements. How many of you can survive having you pension cut to less than 20 % of its initial value?

DOE responds to congressional pressures and congressmen respond to the voters, so WRITE or CALL.