WEIRTON STEEL Retirees brace for cuts in pensions

Union officials tried to calm their fears at a meeting.
WEIRTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Jane White and Margaret Barnhart listened for hours with 1,200 other people, quietly peering at a chart full of numbers and trying to figure out what it meant to their pocketbooks.
The widows from Follansbee left confused and scared, believing they may soon lose the meager survivor pension benefits they get from bankrupt Weirton Steel Corp.
The federal government moved Tuesday to take over the company's pension plan, which has assets of $530 million and nearly $1.35 billion in liabilities. The company, located across the Ohio River from Steubenville, Ohio, has many Ohio employees and retirees.
"I'd have to cut something, but I don't know what," said Barnhart, 79, a breast cancer patient whose husband died 10 years ago.
"We're too old for a job. No one will hire us," said White, 77, a widow since 1990. "We don't know what to do. We have to rely on the Lord."
Thousands of Weirton Steel retirees are in similar straits, struggling to grasp how their lives will change now that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has said it plans to take over what for many has been a critical source of income.
The Independent Steelworkers Union, which hosted a meeting for the retirees Tuesday night, tried to calm fears.
Formula
The PBGC guarantees some pension income under a formula that varies with several factors, including a worker's length of service and age at the time the plan was terminated.
Those who have been retired for at least three years will likely suffer less than more recent retirees and current workers, ISU President Mark Glyptis said. And people such as White and Barnhart are unlikely to lose anything.
The formula is complicated, but "a great many of you will not be affected at all," Glyptis said.
PBGC spokesman Jeffrey Speicher said his agency will be liable for $697 million of Weirton's underfunding. The takeover was initiated because PBGC stood to lose another $147 million if workers received severance benefits in a company shutdown, he said.
PBGC itself is underfunded by $8.8 billion.
"People who are retired will continue to get pension payments," Speicher said. "Those who are working will get what they have accrued to this point when they retire, but will not be able to accrue new benefits as they continue to work."
Under federal law, the maximum for workers in pension plans at the end of 2003 who retire at age 65 is $3,664 a month, or $43,977 a year.
Complex scenarios
But many at Tuesday's meeting had complex scenarios. Some are already collecting pensions from National Steel, which Weirton was part of until 1984, when workers bought the mill.
In May, U.S. Steel Corp. bought National, and the PBGC took over that pension plan.
Until now, people like Milan Ralich had received two checks -- one from each company.
He stood watching as ISU benefits director John Balzano scribbled calculations on a piece of paper held against the wall. The result? He will lose $700 a month.
"It's a big cut," said the 58-year-old Weirton resident, who retired in January 2002 after 38 years in the mill. "I'm going to be losing more than I realized.
Glyptis warned the retirees that another battle looms, possibly within weeks: Weirton Steel wants to eliminate or drastically reduce retiree health care coverage.