Many longtime IBM-Endicott workers are scrambling to ensure they have enough money for retirement while sorting through feelings of betrayal toward an employer that they say has broken its pension promises, a union organizer in Endicott said.

"A lot of the senior employees are very angry," said Lee Conrad, national coordinator of the Alliance@IBM, CWA Local 1701, in Endicott. "They were promised these pension plans throughout their careers, through the good times and the bad times at IBM. Now that they get to the end of their careers, they feel that the rug has been pulled out from under them."

After IBM announced Jan. 5 that it will freeze the pension plans of some 120,000 employees in the U.S. and offer instead what it says is a more generous 401(k) plan, about 90 posts have appeared on the "Pension Comments" page of the Alliance@IBM Web site, at http://www.allianceibm.org/.

Under the cloak of anonymity, site users have posted comments ranging from mostly outrage at IBM's decision, to approval that the company is enabling workers to accept greater personal responsibility for their financial future.

"People are still trying to sort out all of the information that they've gotten in the past week," Conrad said. "The problem is that more of these kinds of investment decisions are going to be placed on the back of the individual worker. The IBM worker is trying to do a good job at IBM and not worry about investments."

Employees have had little say in IBM's decision to end its traditional pension plans, said Linda Guyer, Alliance@IBM president and a project manager at IBM in Endicott.

"If a union contract was in place, changes as significant as this to employee retirement would have to be negotiated," she said.

Randy MacDonald, senior vice president of human resources at IBM headquarters in Armonk, has called IBM employees "savvy investors" who, through the company's 401(k) plan, can manage their own investments and tailor strategies that fit their individual needs and expectations.

Conrad noted that not all IBM workers are investment savvy.

"It's like walking into a casino. It's like a crap shoot," said Conrad about the volatility and uncertainty of the market. "Some people are going to lose a lot of money if they're not careful."

Conrad also cited increasing out-of-pocket expenses, such as utility bills and health care costs, that will decrease the amount workers will have to allot to 401(k) investments.

"Let's not forget that IBM is a profitable company," Conrad said. "They have $48 billion in the pension fund. They made (nearly) $9 billion in profit in 2004. This is not a company that needs to do this. Maybe the executives should start feeling the pain that they're trying to pass off onto the employees. Maybe their retirement and perks should be cut."

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