Pension tension?

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild leaders plan to review an abrupt change in the company's pension plan.

Many Journal Sentinel Inc. employees have received letters from the company in recent days, announcing the pension changes.

The letter says that current employees will have a "choice" (the letter puts that word in quotes twice, as if corporate executives find something bizarre about giving employees choices about their own benefits) in September between keeping their pensions in their current form, or freezing their pensions at this year's level and receiving a 3% employer match to their 401(k) plans in future years.

New employees, by contrast, would have no choice, in or out of quotation marks. The letter says nobody hired after May 1 could get a traditional pension and every new employee would be offered the 401(k) match instead. It also says this decision was reached in late April, meaning that part took effect immediately, before we heard about it.

Management did not discuss these changes in advance with Guild leaders. We will be studying this issue carefully to determine whether the changes are in compliance with our contract.

As for whether the changes would be a better deal for members, that would likely depend on individual circumstances. Contractual issues aside, everyone should examine how the numbers would work for them.