Conversion of pensions to 401(k)s was a raw deal after 22 years at same company

In a column last week, Phil Kadner wrote that baby boomers basically had their pensions traded out for 401(k) funds that really just help the stock market.

This reminded me of how a familyowned company that employed me for 22 years, when deciding to sell, also decided to convert our pensions to 401(k) funds. They hoped to remove a “liability” that might make the company less attractive to potential buyers.

The 300 employees had zero say in the matter.

Eight years later, the Fortune 500 corporation that had bought this company decided to consolidate our branch into another branch, located about an hour south of Atlanta. The Chicago factory and offices were closed. I chose not to leave my family, including my elderly mother, for the tiny Georgia town.

When I turned 65, I received a letter from my ex-employer indicating that I was now entitled to a $50-per-month pension (after 30 years of service!). Although the original owners of the company had promised that our seniority would carry over with the new owners, that never happened.

Muriel Balla, Hyde Park

Let nuke plants close

When considering legislation that would bail out nuclear energy facilities, Illinois legislators must consider industrial accidents such as the one this past week at Chemtool in Rockton and the earlier release of toxic chemicals at Sterigenics in Willowbrook.

These two unfortunate incidents have given us a glimpse of how a nuclear accident could affect regions in Illinois. Illinois has the most operating nuclear energy facilities and stored radioactive waste from nuclear energy generation of any state in the nation — 11,000 tons. And every year these facilities continue to operate, they add another 250 tons of high-level radioactive waste. All this waste, accumulated over 30 years or so, is stored on site at the nuclear plants, making each facility a de facto high-level nuclear waste storage site. The waste never leaves.

A 10-mile emergency planning zone exists around all nuclear energy facilities, which gives you some idea of the realistic basic impact a nuclear accident could have. Consider, for example, the permanent evacuation zones created by the nuclear disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Illinois has no real authority to regulate or control nuclear facilities, and neither does the U.S. EPA. Regulation and safety are overseen at the federal level through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which continually allows for deferred maintenance at the facilities. The NRC also allows operating licenses to be extended beyond the lifespan the facilities were designed for.

Asking the people of Illinois to bail out a private, profitable company and accept the risk of a nuclear accident is unreasonable. Illinois legislators should let nuclear energy facilities close, not bail them out.

Gail Snyder, president, Nuclear Energy Information Service

Survival of democracy

So far, to President Joe Biden’s evident annoyance, Sen. Joe Manchin and another Democratic senator, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, oppose eliminating the filibuster. It’s up to Democratic leaders to impress upon their colleagues that their legacies, and that of their party, are now entwined with the survival of American democracy.

Joe and Kyrsten, do you want to be the heroes who saved democracy from the jaws of the renegade Republican Party — or will you keep hugging the now obviously useless filibuster and watch democracy disappear from our land?

Lee Knohl, Evanston

Listen to your voters, Sen. Manchin

In a recent letter to the Sun-Times, a reader wrote that Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, is not under pressure from right-wing groups to oppose the Biden administration’s agenda. Rather, the reader wrote, Manchin is beholden to only one group — the voters of West Virginia.

I agree legislators are elected to represent their constituents, but recent polls suggest Manchin may not, in fact, be doing just that with respect to H.R. 1, the voting rights bill known as the For the People Act. When all likely voters in West Virginia were polled for their views on the bill, the results were 79% in favor and only 15% opposed. The results were almost identical even for just Republican voters: 76% in favor and only 16% opposed.

Voters also were asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for Manchin if he supported the voting rights bill. Thirtythree percent said they would be more likely, and only 12% said they would be less likely.

It remains puzzling as to why Manchin insists on getting “bipartisan support” for this bill and other legislation when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the GOP will oppose 100% of the Democrats’ agenda.

Maybe Manchin should start listening to his own voters.

Bob Chimis, Elmwood Park

Postmaster General DeJoy has to go

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has been a disaster and the Sun-Times Editorial Board is right in calling for him to go. But, as you note, DeJoy cannot be dismissed by President Joe Biden. Only the postal board of governors can send him packing.

Since DeJoy’s appointment under President Donald Trump, mail delivery standards have plummeted. This drastic decline in service was not a consequence of the pandemic, nor was it necessary for the Postal Service’s survival. Instead, it resulted from Postmaster DeJoy’s failed leadership. Now he’s attempting to double down on his poor decisions by increasing the price of postage while codifying the poor performance.

This should be unacceptable to every American who is paying bills, running a business or waiting — sometimes for weeks — to have their prescriptions delivered. That’s why I recently introduced legislation to require the Postal Service to return to the standards before DeJoy’s arrival, including 1-to-3-day delivery for first-class mail. I named my bill the Delivering Envelopes Judiciously On-time Year-round (DEJOY) Act, to make clear who’s responsible for the decline in service. The name may be tongue-in-cheek, but the intent is no joke and the House Oversight Committee voted to add the bill to the House’s postal reform package last month.

Nine out of 10 Americans were happy with their mail service before Louis DeJoy got his hands on it. It’s time to restore the reliability of an essential public service on which millions of Americans depend. U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois