This doozy came from the Justice for All disability rights mailing list:
http://www.jfanow.orgthough this particular article isn't up yet. It's from the Wall Street Journal, but any link over there would be (of course) $ub$cription-only.
As it was preparing the sale of its assets to Bank One
Corp. last July, Polaroid Corp. sent a letter to 180
disabled employees notifying them that they had been fired
and their health, life and dental insurance were being
terminated.
At the time he received the letter, Nelson Tauriac, a
Polaroid forklift operator for 21 years, was bed-ridden,
his feet swollen to three times their normal size because
of kidney disease. John Magenheimer, who had headed a
Polaroid research laboratory, was recovering from surgery
in which one of his ribs was removed so doctors could cut
out a cancerous tumor pressing against his heart. Elizabeth
Williams, a senior human-resources administrator, was at
home, doubled over with pain from a form of lupus that
attacks the lungs and muscles....
Across the corporate landscape, disabled workers are
becoming an increasingly common casualty of the drive to
cut costs. As recently as three to five years ago most
companies paid health benefits for the long-term
disabled until they were 65 years old, according to James
Curcio, a senior consultant for Washington Business Group
on Health, a trade association that helps companies contain
health-care costs. At 65, federal Medicare benefits
kick in.
But as health-insurance costs and the number of disabled
employees climb, more companies are firing them. A Mercer
Human Resource Consulting study last year found that 27% of
the 723 companies surveyed dismiss employees as soon as
they go on long-term disability and that 24% dismiss them
at a set time thereafter, usually six to 12 months. (Dow
Jones & Co., which publishes The Wall Street Journal,
terminates employees six months afterward.) The survey
found 15% keep the disabled on as employees with benefits
until age 65.There. That's my four paragraphs. You get the idea. As company after company goes through bankruptcy and/or a takeover, millions of people like these will find themselves treated as "legacy costs", nothing more than obstacles standing in the way of almighty Profit. Pensions are disappearing just as fast. If they aren't already, I'm sure that companies will start pulling bogus Chapter 11 stunts just to screw the pension and insurance holders! :grr:
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