Hi to all of you wrinkled IBMers

Are only the US retirees and South African retirees fighting IBM?
What about the rest of what was IBM World Trade - have they retired
rich and happy or just curled up and died?

We have 2 pensioner action groups here in SA, one to fight IBM on
pension issues, now another to take on IBMSA on a second front - the
medical aid. (sounds like World War 11) The medical aid action
group has a site on Yahoo groups called ibmsamaag, if you want to
read about how we are slugging it out with IBMSA. The IBMSA
Pensioner Action group can be contacted by email.

IBMSA wants to get its grubby paws on the substantial surplus 200
million+ rands in the IBMSA pension fund, and, it now also wants to
grab the millions of SA rands sitting in the IBMSA Medical Aid - the
retiree prefunding. In addition, South African IBM retirees will
have to pay for their medical aid, which benefit was free on
retirement, as per IBMSA's employee handbook and has been the case
since my husband retired from IBM in 1985. The 2004 IBM medical
benefit plan has also been cut to ribbons, providing very very basic
health care needs, nothing approximating the previous level of
health care benefits.

Both my husband and I worked for IBMSA for 19 years apiece before we
took early retirement at 50. We have struggled on my husband's
meagre IBM pension since the mid 80s, but since 1992 when my husband
have a severe stroke we have really battled. Apart from the fact
that Howard is no longer capable of working due to the strokes,
IBMSA has made changes to the rules of the local pension fund, paid
miserable increases, taken loads of contribution holidays, while the
pension fund surplus grew and grew. The pension fund has been
raided over the years to fund early retirement "deals", waived
penalties for early retirement etc. etc.

In 1994 (when I retired) the pension fund was closed and at that
time a new Provident Fund was formed. This is now the only pension
vehicle for IBMSA employees other than those IBMers who in 1994
elected to remain in the pension fund and are still employed. When
I retired I was given a "sweetner" to move to the Provident fund and
take early retirement from that. At my level, I had been a mornings
only PPT for much of my time with IBM, running the IBM Club in SA,
the "sweetner" was quite substantial, but many retiring IBMers in
1994 got an extra miliion rand apiece to make the move from pension
to provident fund. It is scandalous that IBMSA was able to raid the
pension fund to improve it's bottom line by reducing costs (staff
cuts).

In SA the government has made many changes since 1994 to pension
fund legislation (for the benefit of employees in the main)and has
now decreed that surplus funds in company pension funds are to be
paid out to members.

We have just had a note, January 2004, from the HR Manager of IBMSA
who states that by the time the deferred and former members of the
IBM pension fund are paidout, there won't be anything left for
existing pensioners for the roughly 200 milllion rands forming the
surplus. I have emailed your group site the minutes of the most
recent IBMSA Pensioners Action group AGM which make horrific
reading, unless you are a senior IBM executive. If you read these
minutes you can see that IBMSA has been and still is "a dog",
enriching itself at the expense of its pensioners - how low can you
go!!!!

I can't understand how IBMSA can legally make changes to benefit
programmes retro-actively, change rules, ignore legal obligations,
cheat their retirees and then still maintain that IBMSA is a great
company, employer and best of all "A Good Corporate Citizen" What
crap!!!!!!!

As an individual one feels at bit helpless, but these internet
forums, action groups etc give one hope. How can we, all IBMers
worldwide (past and present) 'NAME AND SHAME IBM'? Without having to
resort to costly legal action. What has happened to this once great
company - has it lost all it's moral values?

Any comments!