Friday, April 05, 2013

Augsburg Fortress Pension Suit Settled

Shrimp here. Yes, really! We're following up on a post from January 2010, which we called "The ELCA's Economic Justice." There we posted a report of the failure of the pension plan for employees of Augsburg Fortress, the ELCA's publisher.

The Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal reported on Wednesday,

Augsburg Fortress Publishers will pay $4.5 million under a pending settlement to end a lawsuit over its failed pension plan.

The settlement would pay about a quarter of the pension plan's benefits for almost 500 employees and retirees of the Minneapolis-based publishing arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), federal court documents show. More than 20 percent of the settlement would go to lawyers representing the plan members.

The nearly 500 Augsburg Fortress employees and retirees will be receiving just over a quarter of the benefits they were entitled to, reports the Business Journal's Jim Hammerand in a follow-up article from earlier today (Friday) after the Chief U.S. District Judge approved the settlement.

From Wednesday's article,

Augsburg Fortress considers the settlement to be "fair and reasonable," said Faegre Baker Daniels lawyer Chuck Knapp, who represents the publisher. Settling made economic sense, he said, but he declined to say whether insurance would cover the cost.
One can read the entire article here.

Shrimp out.

The good ship ELCA...

The good ship ELCA...
Or the Shellfish blog...