CENEAR 50(26) 1-32 (1972)
Chemical and Engineering News
Editorial
1155 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 Editor: PATRICK P. McCURDY Mtaagiig Editor: Melvin J. Josepht Assistant Maiagiig Editors: Michael Heylin, James H. Krieger, Brendan F. Somerville Soiior Editors: Earl V. Anderson (New York), David M. Kiefer (Washington) Soiior Associate Editors: Arnold E. Levitt. Howard J. Sanders, Donald J. Soisson Staff Writer: Joseph Haggin Assistant Editors: Kathryn Campbell, Ernest L. Carpenter, Madeleine Polinger Jacobs, Richard J. Seltzer Editiif Services: Joyce A. Richards (Head) Editorial Reference: Barbara A. Gallagher Production Maiagor: Bacil Guiley Associate ProductiM Miuger:
Leroy Corcoran
Art Director: Norman W. Favin Art/ProdKtiei: Judy Bitting, Dawn Leland, Joe Phillips NEWS BUREAUS: New York: H. Clifford Neely (Head), William F. Fallwell (Associate Editor). Chicago: Ward Worthy (Assistant Editor). Houston: Bruce F. Greek (Head). San Francisco: Thomas T. Bradshaw (Assistant Editor). Washington: Fred H. Zerkel (Head), Thomas E. Feare (Assistant Editor) FOREIGN BUREAUS: London: Dermot A. 0'Sullivan (Head). Tokyo: Michael K. McAbee (Head) ADVISORY BOARD: Aaron M. Altschul, Alfred E. Brown, Norman Coggeshall, Marcia Coleman, Herbert S. Gutowsky, Anna J. Harrison. James D. Idol, Jr., Norman Kharasch, Gerald D. Laubacn, Lawrence Lessing. Norman J. Lewis, Paul Oreffice, Michael N. Papadopoulos, Rusturn Roy, Herbert L. Toor
Published by A M E R I C A N C H E M I C A L SOCIETY
Division of Prtlic Affairs Md Conmnicatioi Richard L. Kenyon. Director Arthur Poulos, Editorial Promotion
© Copyright 1972 by the American Chemical Society
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The golden harness Member views on unions vary, as we've seen from recent comment. Opinion on pensions and need for early eligibility, early vesting, portability, and adequate funding, though, is something else. We'd guess that most, if not all, ACS members, indeed, all professionals, want (demand?) such benefits—as soon as possible. And we'd agree. Obviously, things are not moving as fast as many of us would like. They seldom do. The mechanism for a pension program embodying these concepts is complex, especially considering that the Society's plan, through Pensions for Professionals, Inc., is to be not only professionwide but interdisciplinary in scope, and conceivably might include as many as 2 million people in the technical community. It won't be simple, either, for companies to mesh into such a program. But there has been notable progress. An insurance carrier (Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co.) has been chosen; a prototype pension plan has been developed; final Internal Revenue Service approval of this plan is pending; and a PFP advisory board consisting of representatives of the 10 professional societies involved has been set up. Things are astir nationally, too. Retirement Income Security for Employees Act of 1972 (S. 3598) is now being discussed by the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. This act aims at pension reform and could bring order and equity to our present mishmash of pension plans that, in some cases, have been badly mismanaged. Reform is long overdue. The act could help satisfy the pessimist who said: "Portability isn't going anywhere until the Feds get into the act." We hope that Congress considers needs of the scientific and technical community in its deliberations, including naming representatives from that community to the Advisory Council that would be set up under S. 3598. Dr. Robert E. Henze, acting manager for ACS Washington operations and director, Membership Division, recommended just that in testimony prepared for the Senate committee's hearings last Friday. Dr. Henze also noted in his testimony: "Some of our members have likened their pension plans to a pair of golden handcuffs by which they are manacled to their jobs. Now is the time, we feel, to turn the key of those handcuffs and let each job serve as its own attraction so that the professional scientist can be free to apply his talents where they can be most effectively utilized. The pension plan should be regarded solely for what it is, a system of deferred compensation in which the employee earns an increment daily." Indeed. Dr. Henze used the term "golden handcuff." Others have dubbed the nonportable, late-vesting pension the "golden harness." For some, it has been the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, dangled as a fringe benefit, which it is not, and in some cases cruelly jerked away when almost within reach. The practice must cease. For aside from its unfairness, it inhibits the very mobility that has been a key factor in growth and strength of this country. It also stunts individual professional growth and helps foster the overspecialization which we bemoaned several weeks ago (C&EN, May 29, page 1). It's time to shed the golden harness and free up the reins. Patrick P. McCurdy CAEN EDITORIALS REPRESENT ONLY THE VIEWS OF THE AUTHOR AND AIM AT TRIOQERINQ INTELLIGENT DISCUSSION.
JUNE 26, 1972 C&EN
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