PENSION BENEFIT ON ITS WAY OUT PAIN OF LOSS FELT AT ROCKETDYNE.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer CANOGA PARK - Financial pain awaits some employees at Boeing Co.'s Rocketdyne Propulsion Propulsion The process of causing a body to move by exerting a force against it. Propulsion is based on the reaction principle, stated qualitatively in Newton's third law, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. & Power business as they will lose a critical pension perk perk 1 v. perked, perk·ing, perks v.intr. 1. To stick up or jut out: dogs' ears that perk. 2. To carry oneself in a lively and jaunty manner. - paid medical benefits - when the unit's sale to Pratt & Whitney closes. Currently, Rocketdyne employees can retire when their age and number of years at the company add up to 85, and then they can receive free health- care coverage until they reach 65. But Pratt & Whitney is a subsidiary of Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies Corp., and UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, Temps Universel Coordonné) The international time standard (formerly Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT). Zero hours UTC is midnight in Greenwich, England, which is located at 0 degrees longitude. modified its retirement plan in 2002. At the time, employees were told they could still receive the medical-care benefit if they accumulated ac·cu·mu·late v. ac·cu·mu·lat·ed, ac·cu·mu·lat·ing, ac·cu·mu·lates v.tr. To gather or pile up; amass. See Synonyms at gather. v.intr. To mount up; increase. 85 points and retired within a four-year window, but not if they retired later. The UTC retirement booklet being passed out to Rocketdyne workers contains the same provision. Boeing sold the business for $700 million in late February. A quality engineer with 28 years of service is so upset over the loss of the medical provision that he's trying to marshal An English word that means to arrange into a particular order as a means of preparation. See data marshalling. support for a class-action lawsuit lawsuit: see procedure; tort. to restore it. ``I know there are lots of people at Canoga Park, the Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral) U.S. launch site for manned space missions. [U.S. Hist.: WB, So:562] See : Astronautics and Stennis Space Center who are going to get no medical when they retire,'' said the worker who asked not to be identified. He went to work at the Canoga Park facility in the late 1970s but won't turn 50 until later this year and thus won't be eligible to retire for five years, so he will loose the medical benefit. Workers will probably be able to pay for coverage at the rate charged the company, but it will be expensive, he said. Dan Coulom, a spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, said that he thinks the company is making a generous offer to the Rocketdyne workers, since they will be able to take advantage of the health-care benefit until 2009. ``It's not like we're turning the switch off,'' he said. The benefit is being phased out because of rising medical costs. ``We have to balance being able to provide a competitive package for employees with the future of the overall business, and it's a challenge sometime,'' Coulom said. The sale is still being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission. Gregory J. Wilcox, (818) 713-3743 greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com |
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