Reneging on pension plans

Atrios had this post up a while ago, and I wanted to link to it here in order to express a little personal outrage.

You see, DHP's Pop is a United Airlines retiree, and there have been some rumors that the pension plan is going to be taken out as a part of its slimming down in order to compete int today's market. It is unclear how this is going to play out, but one of the stark realities is that when it comes to bread, the employees are way down the list.

That's bullshit. Employees should be the first in line, ahead of the creditors. The employees are in it to have a job and support their families whereas the creditors are in it to make money. As in any loan situation they assume a certain level of risk, and if they make poor business decisions, that's the way it goes. Employees, on the other hand, are given a contract stating they will get certain renumeration for their work, of which a pension might be a part. But they don't get interest or some other margin in case the board of directors makes some crappy decisions which put the company in hoc and puts that pension in jeopardy.

In short, those who did work and have some form of compensation pending should be first at the trough; those who are essentially gambling for profit should be last.