Big Three retirees hurting

"We're not buying any new cars," he said, noting the uncertainty now surrounding the industry he spent 30 years working in.

Workers like Atchison, who retired as hourly employees about a decade ago from one of the Big Three automakers, receive in the range of $2,300 a month in pension benefits. Many who retired in recent years can expect closer to $35,000 a year, according to experts.

This is money that pensioners planned their lives around, many of them coming for a warm retirement in Southwest Florida. Now the dire troubles facing U.S. automakers have left these retirees apprehensive about what the future holds.

Atchison's wife, Sarah, 62, an occupational therapist, is working past a retirement that was supposed to have started by now. Irv recently applied for a job at Lowe's in North Port, but was one of hundreds the company turned away.

Atchison has seen 60 percent bleed from his retirement accounts, and his house, he estimates, is worth $75,000 less than he paid for it. Meanwhile, his health benefits, free for almost a decade, are beginning to erode.

"I'm afraid my health care, they're going to tell me, I'm going to have to pay 100 percent," he said.

Pensions and benefits vary greatly depending on years put in with automakers, whether a worker was salaried or hourly, and union membership.

Salaried employees are already losing their company health benefits.

According to Jack Dickinson, who runs the Web site www.overthehillcarpeople.com, many workers who once paid around $150 a month for coverage, are paying much more now.

"Most people are going to be paying $300 and $400 a month," he said.

The turn of events is stunning to retirees who placed their welfare in the hands of major companies that, in years past, appeared unshakable.

"You had it in writing from the largest corporation in the world, which GM was when a lot of us worked for them," Dickinson said.

Critics say the Big Three are to blame, allowing themselves to be saddled with billions in costs for pensions and benefits while failing to respond to the changing marketplace.

"It is unrealistic to think that companies who have failed to make tough choices over decades will get their act together now that they have received a down payment from the taxpayer," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said recently when President George W. Bush announced $17.4 billion in loans for GM and Chrysler.

U.S. automakers say that pensions are safe, but a bankruptcy or a industry collapse could land these pension funds in the hands of the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., an agency that is already losing money. Many say the PBGC itself will need its own large bailout in coming years.

From where Irv Atchison stands in his North Port driveway, admiring his son A.J.'s immaculate 1987 Chevy Blazer, Uncle Sam stepping in to help save automakers is the only thing to do.

He said top executives at GM and other companies will not feel the pain -- the brunt will be felt by retired workers. "If you cut my pension in half and make me pay for 100 percent of my health care, my standard of living is definitely going to change," he said.

On Tuesday, the Ohio plant where Atchison ended his career with GM closed its doors, displacing some 1,100 workers. The plant at one time employed 4,200 workers.

Even as he defends the auto industry, Atchison encouraged his 23-year-old son to stay away from manufacturing as a career choice. After getting a master's degree from the University of South Florida, A.J. Atchison is going to law school.

But for many retirees, it is too late to go back to school.

"Who is going to employ 80- year-old, 70-year-old, 65-year-old people?" Dickinson said.

And so their fate remains tied to an industry that faces the biggest challenges in its history.

Betty Mgrditchian, 84, of Englewood, retired from Ford in 1988. She, like so many, has watched the company stock plummet, but she is not ready to let it go.