Scary to consider what will happen when the economy takes a downturn

Ford Motor Company has a long-standing history (50+ years) of providing salaried retiree's equivalent if not identical health care benefits as per the full-time salaried employees. This practice was continued through several extremely difficult economic recessions dating back to before the 1980’s even when the future existence of the company was in question (1982 & 2008 among others).
That said, now the company has suddenly and without notice backed out of the 50+ year practice of providing salaried retirees health insurance on par with the full-time employees. This is in my opinion is unethical as retirees had a reasonable expectation the 50+ year past precedence would be continued and based that past precedence on their retirement planning.

If the company had been forthright with their intentions to cut retiree health care at the time of my PRP acceptance I and many others may not have participated. This certainly does not seem in alignment of the company’s vision of being one of the most ethical companies out there.

Scary to consider what will happen when the economy takes a downturn. Actually, it is scary even if the economy does not take a downturn.

Good post from @11ByADdA-ovvs.

Comment! It's anonymous!

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It's sort of a "M—acre of the Innocents" for those who elected early retirement and were blindsided.

Its a cruel action, for the hardworking active and retired employees. Yes no company can guarentee benefits forever, but to cut this benefit for retirees after wasting $$ billions on hiring whiz kids, pointless mobility ventures, ridiculous and confusing redesigns, then promoting completely, COMPLETELY, clueless people is just shameful.

I think the large OEMs are planning on building smart cars, this is happening. These vehicles will be far cheaper, profits will be made in apps and connectivity features not the price of the car. The next generation of driver's will not pay 40, 50,60 plus thousand dollars for a vehicle, they do not have the money and already carry heavy debt loads. I'm 50, with a cut pension, a 401k and some additional savings. There is no way in hell I'm spending more than 10000 on a car, and I hate to even do that. There is no pension, no job security, healthcare is outrageous, I'm already scaling back. At no point in time do I want to be stuck with some c-appy automotive engineering office job until I'm 65 years old because I have too. My formula for avoiding this is called being a minimalist! Period!

Could the Board of Directors be sued for dereliction of duty? If the average Joe on the street see's the company is not being run correctly, shouldn't the board be able to see the same?

What about medical plan retiree contribtions??? This is the primary pain point for Ford retirees now.

Thanks!

GM FCA froze pensions a loooong time ago.

Ford usually benchmarks other companies for salary/benefits but since this is for retirees, which are not employees anymore, no need to benchmark. Any yeah - this is just the beginning. I would expect year over year reductions in support going forward.

It would be nice to know what GM and FCA does with retirees.

Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Scary to consider what will happen when the economy takes a downturn

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