Workers' futures captive to employers

From the Houston Chronicle editorial pages:

I have several friends who should be at the peak of their earning lives, looking forward to a retirement they have saved for in 10 or 15 years. Instead, they are caught in a web of uncertainty as their companies are sold and sold again and the retirement "plans" they thought they had are overturned.

Their new companies had plans of their own. When those plans took effect, my friends were astonished to learn how little they would now receive at the end of their work lives. As the husband of one of them said, his wife's future is "captive to an employer to whom she never applied for a job. She just suddenly got 'sold' like a slave."

We know we need to provide for our own latter years — which may extend 25 years or more, after we stop working.

Recently, one friend, whose company had been sold, was presented with four "new" 401(k) options. She had a month to choose. Two plans were not even subject to SEC regulations. With a degree in math, she was able to figure out the lesser of two evils.

Click here for the rest.

As I've said before, everybody knows that it sucks to be unemployed: in neo-liberal America, it increasingly sucks to be employed, too.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$