Friday, January 8, 2010

Hard Times Indeed

Augsburg Fortress, the Minneapolis-based publishing arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has unilaterally ended its employee retirement plan. Publishers Weekly reports, "At the end of 2009, retirement obligations totaled $24.2 million. Assets totaled $8.6 million."

In a recent blog posting Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO, said, "This was a very difficult decision.... There were no good choices."

Lewis' blog item is here. PW's article is here.--David E

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great resource!

Beth_in_Mpls said...

Thanks, David, for including this important story on your blog. For anyone who wants to know more, a group of affected former and current employees, including retirees, are organizing responses to the company's decision and working toward constructive action. We welcome people to visit our public Facebook group page, Augsburg Fortress Pension—Speak Up! (For those not on Facebook, they can still look at the page [search for the name online] to learn more information.)

Beth Wright, former AFP employee
Minneapolis