Can we apply the brakes?
Many of the currently retired folks across America are struggling financially due to the alarming rise in hospital, pharmaceutical and fuel costs. And most of these workers retired with decent pension and medical insurance packages from their employers.
I recently read in the national news media that DuPont Chemical decided, effective January 1, 2007, that new hires would not get pensions, and that current employees would accrue benefits at just a third of their old rates. Likewise, new employees, when they retire, would get no help from the company in paying for health insurance.
If other corporations follow DuPont”s path, I feel sorry for the future of corporate American workers.
The blame for this downhill slide of employee benefits cannot be placed on recent government administrative policies. It goes back 30 years. The decline of employer-offered benefits was triggered in the Reagan years, and has escalated each year since then.
Can we Americans apply the brakes to this chaotic path for our children”s sake and, more importantly, for our grandchildren? I am not going to tell anyone how to vote this November. You decide who is supporting this downhill spiral, and who will fight to reverse the trend.
John Ornellas
Lakeport
