"pension equals retention"

lee1 · Aug 7, 2003

I am not surprised as my hospital just went through very lengthy negotiations and DID fianlly obtain a defined pension but alas were unable to obtain medical retirement monies for those that chose to retire before Medicare kicks in to help defray the huge cost of COBRA payments---now over $600 for single/month and over $1000/month to include spouse-----they must be kidding, right?

The problem during our negotiations was that when the younger nurses found out they would lose their match to the 403B they did not want the pension even though prior to the negotiations 30% of the nurses were not even signing up for the 403B. The hospital did marathon meetings to explain in their eyes of course the reasons why 403B were better for you than a defined pension and the younger nurses finally got the message and started signing up, then, when the union was able to negotiate for a defined pension albeit at the loss of the match they started screaming-----now mind you the match was 2% and you did not even get it for 2 years.

Even as an older nurse I had a match of 6% but I have NOT made any money with stock portfolio in my 403B over the life of the last 3.5 years. When I add up all the losses and wins I am still over

minus $3000, only right this last quarter do things look better, SO a defined pension was what I needed in addition to my deferred tax saving capacity with the 403B even though now I lost the match. I truly beleive also that all the stock market takes to constantly plunge is ANY small indication of terroism here in the USA.