After corporate bankruptcy, if you retired before 65, your pension is reduce significantly due to the rules of the government administereed system for such situations. It could possibly even be eliminated. That happened to the retired air line pilots who have mandatory retirement at age 60. The guys that took early retirement are going to get screwed big time. With the new bankruptcy laws, there won't be any way out when their pensions get cut by law. Since GM is such a huge company, this will have resonating effects on the economy. Fortunately, GM doesn't dominate the economy like it once did.
That was in addition to health benefits you’d kill for. That was also when they were extorting things like 25-and-out at ANY age, so you could easily have a 45 or 46 year old “retiree” drawing it – for literally 35+ years.
Hey, I'm sure the ones working now will "sacrifice" for their union brothers....who have "gone fishin" for these last many years...