What benefit enhancement / new benefit would you be happy with in exchange for the pension?
I realize answers will vary wildly depending on your years of service with XOM and how many years away you are from retirement.
My answer as a mid career guy:
Pension equals to about one third your 401k.
If they take away the pension commitment, I would like an Apology.
I think they'd rather give me the money.
Most people would ki-l for a pension like ExxonMobils. I mean, after 40 years it's almost worth half of what a teacher in California with 15 yrs of service gets. If they closed it down I would love to roll it straight into my 401k as I'm up 20% ytd internally and the pension only earns 5%.
If I had a Pension,
I'd bang it in the morning,
I'd bang it in the evening.
Without a Pension,
i'm interviewing with greenpeace.
all over this world.
Expension. Ex-pensive. Like a thought from the past.
I like the 5-year CEO term mentioned in this thread.
How many shares can you possibly want your kids to claw for?
Why the he-l do you want company stock? It's not worth more today vs a few years from now.
It is a fact there is no 'grandfathering' requirement for the Pension.
If it was part of the system when hired, then the past management made a mistake.
It can be simply dismantled, even for current pensioneers.
It is expensive and, frankly, old-school capitalism.
In exchange for the pension, I'd recommend a return to an even older system.
Every 5 years, the CEO/Chairman is dumped into a vat of acid to close that year's stockholder meeting.
There can be a ceremony, but no Wicker Man style fanciness.
Long live the new CEO/Chairman.
This would appease me in my loss of the Pension.
In addition to my salary, restricted stock with a value of 5% of my salary every year. This is in addition to the 401k match.
Of course employees prefer to have the money now, but that would be absurd because the purpose of the pension system to keep you with the company.