Never mind that it was the worst snowstorm this year.
The news that week had been bad: Bethlehem Steel had reported a $347 million quarterly loss, reflecting the cost of shedding four divisions. Company pensioners in the Baltimore region -- who outnumber those in the company's namesake Pennsylvania town -- needed to know more.
The alarm was so widespread that an organization that monitors Bethlehem's finances for retirees convened a meeting to allay concerns.
In up to 8 inches of snow, about 350 veterans of Bethlehem's Sparrows Point plant trudged to Dundalk Community College's theater on a Saturday in February.
Henry Betke, who went to the emergency meeting, said he wanted to make sure that Bethlehem would continue to pay his family's health insurance.
Losing that, he said, would be like losing everything. "I was concerned about myself and my wife," said Betke, a Bethlehem pensioner who still lives on the Essex street where he grew up. "I just turned 70."
Betke is one of about 15,000 Bethlehem pensioners in Maryland, who live mostly in the Baltimore area. He is part of a quiet subplot in Bethlehem Steel's recent struggles: the financial tether between the company and its former employees.
Bethlehem pumps about $128 million a year in pension payments into the state's economy. The company spends an additional $62 million for health care and insurance benefits for retirees and their dependents. The total: a hefty $190 million. Compare that with the $280 million in wages that Bethlehem paid its 5,300 workers at Sparrows Point last year.
With some retirees pulling in a few hundred dollars a month and others getting tens of thousands, pensioners' benefits work out to an average of about $8,300 a year -- most of which is federally guaranteed.
The company provides another $1,100 for health and life insurance for each of the pensioners and their dependents.
Pension plan underfunded
The fear of losing some of those benefits keeps retirees such as Betke focused on their former employer's finances, especially because Bethlehem Steel's pension plan is underfunded by about $870 million.
The attention is mutual. Bethlehem's so-called legacy costs represent a huge competitive disadvantage, but the nation's No. 2 steelmaker has little flexibility on pensions, which were determined by commitments made years ago. But the company is trying to cut health care costs by enticing retirees to switch to managed care.
