Pensions and Corporate Restructuring in American Industry

Download or read book Pensions and Corporate Restructuring in American Industry written by Gordon L. Clark and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this first book to systematically evaluate the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974, Gordon Clark argues that the law has failed to project workers' pension rights in situations where it was expected to be most effective: when corporations restructure in the face of enhanced market competition and technological change. Pensions and Corporate Restructuring in American Industry examines recent trends in corporate behavior and government policymaking in the United States and finds that the moral and ethical foundations of regulation are under attack. As a result of intense competitive pressures, Clark argues, some of America's major corporations have begun to flout government regulations designed to protect workers - and to treat the attendant law suits as just another cost of doing business. He finds evidence that some have even used restructuring as the means to avoid statutory obligations to workers. In a series of case studies - including the bankruptcy of the LTV Corporation, the radical restructuring of International Harvester Corporation into Navistar Corporation, and the sale and restructuring of Continental Can Corporation - Clark evaluates the effectiveness of current regulations and the role of government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. His analysis shows that many of the problems of enforcing ERISA can be traced to the act itself - the product of compromises among overlapping and competing interests that fatally limited its effectiveness. Clark concludes that any new regulatory framework must clarify the connections between restructuring and the welfare of workers, connections generally ignored inthe litigation that dominates corporate life today.