Pension Plan Discrimination? - 3M to scrap Pension Plans for non-union employees

Given that Top/Chief/Senior Executives often/usually benefit from better Pension Plans (as well as Medical Benefits and Incentive Plans) is it acceptable that 3M takes this one step further and intends to scrap  its pension plans for non-union employees?

Sports Direct has chosen a 30-year-old Barnstable shop manager to stand up for staff at the company

Insult to Intelligence! Like the Headmaster selecting the Head Boy, nothing but a poodle! Staff needs proper representation, the old Unions are not up to the job, still stuck in socialist mindset. What is needed is something akin to Activist Investors, Investment Banks representing employees and negotiating on even level with capital owners. So the EBU, the Employee Buy-out is the way to go. Who would ever have thought that a tiny niche, Private Equity, would become the Monster it has become in the past 30 years? Or the MBO that is abused by any number of insiders well placed to take advantage of their position? Both factors key contributors to the growth of Inequality and wealth of the 1%
Sports Direct has chosen a 30-year-old Barnstable shop manager to stand up for staff at the company

Employee Buyout - next revolution in Finance

If anyone would have predicted in 1985 that Buy-out firms would grow to the enormous size they have reached now you would not have been taken for serious. Like Hedge Funds the LBO firms were at the margins of the financial markets. So my prediction that Employee-led buyouts (EBOs) may well be the next frontier for financial markets will be laughed at by most - if not all - my readers. But just look at an - admittedly extreme - example: the purchase of a major sports team in the US. With a little bit of organisation - and help from some investment bankers keen to participate in this new trend - the players AS A GROUP (Union?) could easily demand a seat on the table during the sale negotiations. Would any potential purchaser really want to proceed with a transaction against the wish of the key asset that he might want to pay an immense amount of money for? Key problem: any employer would like to take the 'divide et impera' approach and outmanoeuvre employees or their representatives. That is why 'alternative' unions would play a key role. They may actually be outsiders who sign up staff and then hire investment bankers to act on their behalf. These outside professionals could not be picked off by employers as they are not under their control. EBOs would go a long way to alleviate the problems of rising income and wealth disparity and move towards a proper shareholder democracy.
(30 May 2014)