Nortel Pensioners Want BIA Changes

Dear colleagues,

Earlier today, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) made an announcement with respect to Nortel's U.S. Retirement Income Plan -- also known as the U.S. Defined Benefit Pension Plan. The PBCG will be assuming responsibility to administer and pay benefits under the plan in accordance with the plan documents and applicable law.

The PBGC, a federal agency, was created to protect the benefits of private sector employees participating in defined benefit pension plans. It’s not uncommon for the organization to assume responsibility for plans when companies are in Chapter 11 proceedings.

Although the action announced by the PBGC is technically referred to as a “termination,” it is important to note that when the PBGC terminates a pension plan and becomes its trustee, the PBGC takes over administration of the plan. As a result, Nortel will no longer be the administrator of the plan, and the plan will be considered “terminated,” although your benefits will not cease.

No action is required on the part of plan members. Your records will be transferred to the PBGC and the agency will take over administration of the plan, and the PBGC will communicate directly with plan members on how to get more information.

This announcement does not affect the Defined Contribution Plan (i.e. 401(k) plan), Retirement Income Plan Restoration Plan, Long-Term Investment Plan Restoration Plan and Supplementary Executive Retirement Plan. The pension plans for other countries including Canada are also not affected by this announcement.

I encourage you to listen to last week’s pension GIS for more information on Nortel’s US pension funds and the role of the PBGC. You can also click here for a Frequently Asked Questions document that provides more details on this matter, or you can visit the PBGC website for more information and their full contact details. They’re ready to take your calls and questions.

Thank you,

Elena King
SVP, Human Resources

Dear colleagues,

Earlier today, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) made an announcement with respect to Nortel's U.S. Retirement Income Plan -- also known as the U.S. Defined Benefit Pension Plan. The PBCG will be assuming responsibility to administer and pay benefits under the plan in accordance with the plan documents and applicable law.

The PBGC, a federal agency, was created to protect the benefits of private sector employees participating in defined benefit pension plans. It’s not uncommon for the organization to assume responsibility for plans when companies are in Chapter 11 proceedings.

Although the action announced by the PBGC is technically referred to as a “termination,” it is important to note that when the PBGC terminates a pension plan and becomes its trustee, the PBGC takes over administration of the plan. As a result, Nortel will no longer be the administrator of the plan, and the plan will be considered “terminated,” although your benefits will not cease.

No action is required on the part of plan members. Your records will be transferred to the PBGC and the agency will take over administration of the plan, and the PBGC will communicate directly with plan members on how to get more information.

This announcement does not affect the Defined Contribution Plan (i.e. 401(k) plan), Retirement Income Plan Restoration Plan, Long-Term Investment Plan Restoration Plan and Supplementary Executive Retirement Plan. The pension plans for other countries including Canada are also not affected by this announcement.

I encourage you to listen to last week’s pension GIS for more information on Nortel’s US pension funds and the role of the PBGC. You can also click here for a Frequently Asked Questions document that provides more details on this matter, or you can visit the PBGC website for more information and their full contact details. They’re ready to take your calls and questions.

Thank you,

Elena King
SVP, Human Resources

Here's the "Shooting Behind The Duck" award du jour:

6 months and 3 days after Nortel filed for bankruptcy, and 7 days before the liquidation auction ends, Nepean MPP Jim Watson asks for Canadian federal government intervention:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Nortel+lacking+Watson+says/1798379/story.html

“All hands were on deck in trying to save the auto industry, but I don’t sense the same with Nortel,” Watson said in an interview. “All levels of government were much more proactive on the auto file, and I’d like to see the same synergy with Nortel. I’d like to see the federal government more engaged.”

But now in the next election his campaign material will say "I fought for the abandoned Nortel employees!"

But now in the next election his campaign material will say "I fought for the abandoned Nortel employees!"

His opponent will retort with "too little, too late."

yeah, what do you expect ?

Just another Tax&Spend Liberal hack !

VOTE CONSERVATIVE !

MC

After Changes to the bankruptcy act, perhaps some more pressing issues might be addressed as well.

how any company claim $750M in fraud profits with cash bonuses
how can largest asset on the books be tax credit to boost company worth
how can they vote to keep fraud bonuses at AGM
how can ultimatum settlement not negotiate pay practices
how can there be insiders only for CFO before Binning
how can auditors of so long standing walk
how can green CEO defraud MOT from day one who passed him by
how can Manley's law firm defend Dunn
how can Hackney be promoted over veteran after criminal charges
how can they downplay revisions that doubled
how can they defend than chase past officers even after repeated requests
how can they call a 3 to 5 year turnaround to fold in the 3rd
how can they print so much paper with unreliable numbers after fraud
how can a CEO influence a stock crying buying opportunity
how can they... we can go on forever... it is endless\

..and the punch lines just a keep on a comin

what happened to enterprise and metro annoucenments. sale or no sale?

Of course, Clement, Clement was at Manley's cottage. Definitely Manley. At the cottage. And Nortel. Nortel is a recognized leader.

Z was there too. serving coffee.

Folgers. Folgers - in his cup.

Sue Spardle messed it up...

NSN Has No Plans To Buy Further Nortel Assets

FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--Nokia Siemens Networks, the joint venture of Nokia Corp. (NOK) and Siemens AG (SI), has no plans to buy further assets of Nortel Networks Corp. (NRTLQ) besides the ones it already expressed interest in, a spokesman for the venture said Thursday.

Nortel is in chapter 11 proceedings in a U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware.

Nokia Siemens Networks has said before it would be willing to buy the unit that makes a voice technology called CDMA, as well as the division developing radio technologies for an ultra high-speed broadband technology known as LTE, for a total of $650 million.

Company Web site: www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Clement. Clement could care less.Definitely.

Clement could care less.
He will do dick all and already has said so.
I think he was also at manleys cottage this weekend with Dalton, Harper and Dunn.

Clement could care less.
He will do dick all and already has said so.
I think he was also at manleys cottage this weekend with Dalton, Harper and Dunn.

Clement could care less.
He will do dick all and already has said so.
I think he was also at manleys cottage this weekend with Dalton, Harper and Dunn.

Check out the Bloomberg Press article:
Nortel French Workers, Administrators Reach Accord in Principle‎

See Moose Chaser.. Violence doesn't always beget Violence..

Tsk.. Tsk.. ;o}

Touche, mon ami ! :+|

MC

Does US bankruptcy law give pensioners, etc. superior status over other unsecured creditors?

nope

Not really free_agent.

Defunct company pension assets are transferred to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation which pays a maximum annual benefit of US$45,614 to those retiring at age 65.

Creditors depending upon their class and seniority have first claim on all other company assets.

Milan

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/bsf-osb.nsf/eng/br01691.html

Bankruptcy law belongs to the exclusive domain of the federal government;71 employment law is primarily a provincial responsibility

As previously noted, conflict between federal insolvency law and provincial and federal employment law is unavoidable because these two branches of the law have different goals. Employment law's objectives are to protect workers' rights after, as well as before, an employer's insolvency. Insolvency law's objectives are to restore an ailing business back to health if this is feasible and, if it is not, to sell the business as a going concern or, as a last resort, to liquidate the assets and sell them piecemeal.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy fraud is a crime. ...typically involve concealment of assets,... false statements,...fee fixing or redistribution arrangements.
Falsifications on bankruptcy forms often constitute perjury.
Bankruptcy fraud should be distinguished from strategic bankruptcy, which is not a criminal act, but may work against the filer.
All assets must be disclosed, it is for the creditors, not the debtor to decide whether a particular asset has value.


http://www.hrmguide.net/canada/law/federal/bankruptcy.htm

employees and pensioners have limited rights under bankruptcy.
Any employer that has filed for bankruptcy should support the efforts of its employees to receive the wages and benefits, including severance, owed to them. This is not only the right thing, it is good business sense for anyone seeking to restructure a firm successfully and preserve as much of the human capital component of the firm's going concern value.

The significance for directors of the statutory liability for employees' wages is clear. Where an organization becomes insolvent and is unable to satisfy the claims of its employees for wages owed, the directors may be personally obligated to satisfy such claims.

Having cut severances, did they truly intend to restructure .
Yet these loophole and ultimatum artists paid bonuses without creditor approval who wanted to see a plan first. No plan, suprise, selling the farm now. Announced selling Nortel in pieces immediately following government inquiry they were forced by subpoena to attend.

Ex-Nortel people and bagholders seek to salvage their pensions or interests pushing the envelope on this white elephant today.

Fraud trials loom and one of the board member's law firm defends Dunn. Board trades losing options for cash and increase lawsuit insurance.

The punch lines never cease...

I rather vaguely recall Nortel's hiring Z being illegal. A world class outfit such as Nortel should've known that tidbit, but they went right ahead with it, consequences be damned. The best $11 mio they ever spent.

Motorola filed a - what? - formal complaint with the courts, which obligated the corporation, Nortel, to maximize value for the Creditors.

Had Motorola not sued, certain folks would right now interpret this as actual proof positive of their not having had a case to begin with.

Yes or No - Is it your position that Nortel has committed Bankruptcy Fraud?

Yes or No - Is it your position that Nortel has committed Bankruptcy Fraud?
===
re
and what is your position on that?

My answer - NO - I do not believe that Bankruptcy Fraud has been committed. There are no known complaints before the courts and given the role of E&Y they would be part of this too, which is highly unlikely.

My answer - NO - I do not believe that Bankruptcy Fraud has been committed.
----
re
I know your broken record.
In last 5 years you posted more than 5000 such statements and all of them are proven wrong.
Say something about the statistics.
5000 times wrong and you still come with new one which is using your crooked logic as others before.
STFU crook.

You, the king of false accusations are now accusing me of being a crook? LMAO, that is fricken funny. Prove it smartasss as I want all the evidence I can get.

Yes or no?
It is like asking you, if you have stopped beating your wife? Yes or No.
How can anyone answer such a restricted question with a binary reply in a word?

With their army of powerful lawyers paid very well and in priority to other creditors looking to cross verry "t" and dot every "i", how likely do you think this is.

Interesting CALA folded late though. =)

These loophole and ultimatum artists were also protected under safe harbor as far as numbers and worth might go. Note that fraud trials loom and a current board member defends Dunn.

So, do I think they did? I do not know but if they did, it would not surprise me one bit. I have no position on the matter to say yes or no.

After so many contradictions that effect their credibility, they aren't exactly the pillars of honesty are they.

I do believe the existing fraud will expose even more who are so far remaining silent under their counsel's advice, still there.

Termed "hard to find" so far that is, until the Department of Justice gets its chance to subpoena some questions out of them like they did Enron =)

It's unlikely that Nortel has committed bankruptcy fraud, because doing so must be quite risky.

I do notice that while directors have personal obligation for wages owed, they do not seem to have personal obligation for pensions. What about severance pay?

free_agent

BoD and CEO lost their mandates to lead Nortel the very day they said Nortel will not restructure and will not emerge from Ch11.
Since then it's a crime to rebel against creditors who are the legal owners and decision makers of Nortel corporation.

Which specific law did they break? If you have actual facts on this, why not file a formal complaint with the courts?

Bankruptcy protection obligates the corporation, through their Monitor (E&Y) to maximize value for the Creditors.

Given this, do you think that E&Y is also committing a crime?

Bankruptcy protection obligates the corporation, through their Monitor (E&Y) to maximize value for the Creditors.
===
re
oh please
You should know that creditors have blamed Nortel_Mike for selling CDMA to NSN for $650 m
In other words creditors don't think Mike is working for their best interest.

As usual you put out your false accusations without any backup and when challenged on your accusations you make up other stuff.

We also know that alternate bids will be accepted until July 21st and that MatlinPatterson is attempting to put forward a more comprehensive plan and structure. At that time the Creditors will be granted the opportunity to file any objections they want in the courts. When the NSN deal was filed with the courts, the creditors were also granted the opportunity to file motions of objections.

MP was the only creditor to file a motion of objection. They got most of what they wanted from the courts.

So, if the creditors don't believe that Mike is "working in their best interests", then why are they not filing more objections, which is their legal right?

Nortel misleading its creditors, RIM charges
re
It's visible by a naked eye of public watchers like myself.
Nortel does not work in best interest of creditors. It's that simple.
It's against the law. It's criminal.
What would happened if MatPat did not protest and did not take action?
Mike Z would sell assets at the basement prices.
CDMA $650 plus enterprise /including Gov Solutions/ for $450 and the total less than $2 bill.
Pension Plan is claiming between $1 bill /low end/ to $3 bill/ safe end/ just in UK
In USA Pension Plan deficit was $500 mill
In Canada and the rest it may be around $2 bill
Here you go and all _total sold for less than $2 bill. by crooked BoD and CEO.
Nortel misleading its creditors, RIM charges
I think it is very serious message for governments_RCMP to check it.
What now TongueInCheek?
You were wrong as usual, spreading your propaganda and doing diversion.
read
Nortel misleading its creditors, RIM charges
It's obvious that not only creditors but also courts, employees, and public in general.

As usual you put out your false accusations
====
re
Ya right
as usual?
I posted more than 5000 times about Nortel so show me just one post in which I was wrong in my assumptions.
maybe BSNL it was cost not loss?
maybe F Dunn it was mistake not an orchestrated fraud?
maybe criminal charges should be laid against F Dunn?
maybe Q2 2005 Triple profits on false numbers?
maybe double_single digit growth in 2008?
maybe BK is coming and 2008 is the year?

on the other hand you also posted 5000 and all your posts were proven wrong.
so listen, the perverted Nortel hyper who is probably paid bonuses when employees and pensioners are kicked in the butt.
I say CEO and BOD started an open war against creditors and it is exactly what they should not do.
They should work in the best interest of creditors at this very moment.

Wow, seriously, do you still believe that Zeroman is working for the creditors best interests?
My take on it is that the creditors cannot fire him, he reports to the other inept bunch of old man - the BOD.
The Zman and the clique are working for themselves, and the BOD. Remember the millions that they awarded themselves through mutual adoration. Can you still justify the bonuses they received?

2 key things:

1. The role of E&Y as the Monitor limits everything that Nortel executives, including Mike Z can do. Although not formally running the corporation, they are legally accountable to the courts to ensure proper process and court requirements under law are followed.

2. NO I do not believe any of the executives should be receiving a bonus.

he is right yet again, how can you say he posts false accusations when he challenges you to post one false one out of so many posts... needles to say you are wrong again (should have read my initial link above first)

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/bsf-osb.nsf/eng/br01691.html

C. Status and Personal Liabilities of Monitors under the CCAA85

It reflects the fact that in the past court orders have sometimes conferred important managerial functions on monitors.86 Where this is the case the monitor will wear several hats and this may give rise to concerns about conflicts of interest between his monitoring and managerial functions.

The problem here is that the E&Y, the judge, and the creditors for that matter have no clue what's going on inside Nortel.
Yes, the judge has the final legal say, but it is based on the recommendations of:
1. E&Y
2. The inept executives.
3. The creditors.
The executives are not breaking the law, but also not disclosing the whole truth about the current state of the corporation.
The new information about the state of the company is trickling down in 3 months increments. Each 3 months in Nortel's life is a long and agonizing time period, but at the same time it allows the BOD, and the execs to collect very lucrative compensation for doing nothing.
The creditors are not filing objections to Zeroman’s performance yet, because they don’t know how bad the current leadership is.
It’s not only the Zman and his clique that is a villain here; you have to include the whole army of VPs and even most of the directors.
Couple of years ago, during employee satisfaction poll, the Nortel staff made clear what they thought about the execs. As I remember, company wide, there was less than 25% satisfaction with the execs performance.

And lets not forget green Hackney taking over a veteran's position.

CEO's pal was promoted to the employees horror, who were horrified for other reasons than just being inexperienced. Z refres lots of questions to Joel, likes to reiterate "transparency " like it is a privileged than right.

Got any proof Cisco didnt skew the poll for profit?

I wonder what happens when the chained replies to this thread get to the right side of the screen ?

Just wondering.

MC

Oh! I know! If the site collapses "Cisco will have won..."

Theres a way to find out...

Siloing is good, say some managers...

I'm sorry, but "we" don't know what jack about what MP is "attempting" behind closed doors, today, now.

If they believed that Mike was competent and working in their best interests they'd have counseled him to skip Ch11, kept him at the helm and saved the company some money.

They are having kittens about risking $400M.

They should have heed the fine print, the footnote about their pension obligations, more seriously in this high risk/over 10% bond application (before loophole was closed so shortly thereafter) than tripped over their feet to lend their shark pals money who got bonuses for financial innovation... another $2B in dillutive notes too, what are they worth.

MatPat has as much invested as management has leached, $400M which is a good chunk of change to lose.

Awww.. kittens.. they are so cute!! Do you think they will give any away??

sorry.. couldn't resist. everyone needs a smile ) once in awhile..

Since when does working long term for a company mean "whose sense of entitlement drove NT into bankruptcy" ? These folks are asking the Govt to put them in front of the line to get what ever pickings are left.. Allot of us have been dam proud to work for Nortel, gave allot extra hours/weekends to make this make this company what it was. We could either leave when the GEnius arrived or hang on doing our best!! To say we drove NT to bankruptcy is asinine.

Oh please! The long time employees survived by throwing their co-workers to the wolves and then taking credit the efforts of the dearly departed.

The ranks of the long term was full of wives, siblings, and progeny.

Now the pampered piss artists want the entire country to bail them out.

Milan

Wow what a load of cr*p!!

Depends on your geographic perspective. I was at the dirty end of this kind of stick a number of times, the clean end normally being wielded by someone in Richardson or Ottawa

Exactly my point Pauljam !

The pampered piss artists and medre stirrers spent their days in Brampton, Richardson and Ottawa attending meetings to tell each other how bright they were. Each of them had a hardbound ledger book to record attendance and list to-do's that were never done.

They only ventured out into the real world to take credit for someone else's work or to attend reward functions for which they had not qualified.

Upon reflection they were retired in place for decades and it is only fair that now they must finally get real jobs and work for a living.

Milan

But Six Sigma needs them and their ledgers. We'd discussed this previously - the beancounters are kept in place regardless of how many beans they actually have to count.

MIke Z expected Six Sigma magic to turn the stock around and auto-generate the need for further legions of beans with wizened, battle-harden counters at the ready for a modest fee.

The counters remain more than happy to apply Nortel math to each and every outlook and equation as its passed down, typically adding up to zero in every sense of the word.

Also do not forget that proposed changes will only affect pensioners in Canada. Frank Dunn and John Roth are only two pensioners who are Canadian and they do not deserve any pension. All other Nortel executives are based in US.

You are talking about few bad apples, but majority of pensioners do deserve their full pension.The proposed changes will also help those who are receiving disability benefits.

Those former Nortel executives who do not deserve their pension and who drove Nortel to the ground should be sued and provided with drastically reduced pension for all of them.

Hmmm... so the Canadian government is being asked to protect those whose sense of entitlement drove NT into bankruptcy? There are none so blind as those who will not see.

What next faux explosives on the steps of parliament if the MPs refuse to cater to the Nortel merde stirrers ?