Kodak's Chapter 11 filing: Retiree benefit costs a big part of the problem

The Wall Street Journal: Retiree Imbalance Underlies Filing
Here's one way of understanding Eastman Kodak Co.'s problems: The company has twice as many retirees drawing benefits in the U.S. as it has active employees world-wide. … Kodak has been whittling away at those benefits for years and says it wants to accelerate the process in Chapter 11 proceedings. … The company said in a filing Thursday that it is liable for $1.3 billion in U.S. retirement benefits such as health care. … That could mean smaller payments to former workers like 62-year-old Robert Webster, who was a Kodak electrician from 1967 to 2005. Mr. Webster retired in 2005 and is worried about losing the health-care benefits he and his wife receive. He does small electrical jobs from time to time, but said he isn't sure they would pay enough to cover the couple's medical costs (Mattioli, 1/20).