Injustice for Oak Ridge retirees — and the whole community

Time passes, and retirees from DOE’s Oak Ridge facilities continue to watch their buying power erode, with no hint that they will ever see another pension increase.

This whole community is hurting as a result, since the people who are being denied an increase are solid citizens who are now less likely to be able to purchase goods in local stores, invest in upkeep of their homes, or otherwise contribute to the local economy.

In a recent column in the Knoxville News Sentinel, Dub Shults (a retired scientist who served as a division director at ORNL) compiled some of the facts:

He is better off than many. He says: “I retired at the end of 1994 after 43 years of company service. Since that time, my pension has increased by 4.3 percent while the cost of living has increased by 41.2 percent.  All things being considered, my purchasing power today is 65 percent of what it was when I retired in 1994.”

“The [retirees'] request is for an increase in the pension of each retiree, effectively restoring approximately 75 percent of the purchasing power that each retiree has lost during retirement.”

If pensions were adjusted, “Anderson and Roane counties would accrue 51 percent of the financial benefits of the requested adjustment in pensions… In terms of dollars, the adjustment would bring approximately $65 million in increased pensions into our area.”

“Sufficient funds exist in trust to cover the expense of the requested pension adjustment without additional funding and without jeopardizing the liabilities of the pension program. Indeed, the trust is over-funded to such an extent that payments into it were stopped in 1984.”