Fighting Nokia-Alcatel Pension Grab

CWA active members and retirees are fighting back against a pension grab orchestrated by Alcatel-Lucent in an attempt to improve their bottom line as part of the takeover by Nokia. Workers have been holding informational pickets at major Nokia sites, contacting their members of Congress, expanding letter writing campaigns to include the Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent Board of Directors and mobilizing to stop this scheme.

Last year, Alcatel-Lucent moved 20,000 retirees and $3 billion in pension assets from the Lucent Technologies Pension Plan (LTPP) – the plan covering only retired union workers and surviving spouses – into the underfunded management pension plan. This jeopardizes not only the future assets of retired union workers but restricts the fund’s ability to subsidize health care, life insurance and death benefits for retirees.

CWA filed a lawsuit, joined by the IBEW, to stop Alcatel-Lucent (who is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nokia). Their actions violates the current CWA-Alcatel-Lucent contract, as well as a separate, standing agreement between Alcatel-Lucent, CWA and IBEW that says excess pension funds would be used to pay workers’ post-retirement health benefits. That agreement is in effect through the end of 2019. Alcatel-Lucent’s actions also violate the “exclusive benefit rule” of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans.

CWA Telecommunications and Technologies Vice President Lisa Bolton points out that Alcatel-Lucent has raided the LTPP a second time, taking dollars to shore up health benefits for the 20,000 IBEW retired workers and spouses that it moved to the management plan.

“Years ago, CWA and Lucent management worked together to change the law and make it possible to use excess pension funds to help cover collectively bargained retiree health care costs. Now, these Wall Street bankers and managers want to use our money to meet their obligations, enrich themselves and shareholders, not to protect retirees,” said Bolton.