...nor do I believe in the concept of them. This is the kind of crap you get with corporations. No one person has any accountability for anything, and everyone is a slave to the investors, not to the customers. It is remarkable the way decision are made in corporations. It is a wonder they are not all bankrupt already. All I want is a company that resembles a person in some way, shape, or form, not some nebulous blob.
My father is a Kodak Canada retiree. I discussed the information that PE shared with us here about Eastman Kodak ("EK") retirees with him, and he has made enquiries since then.
In short, it appears that the unfortunate situation with the EK retirees and their benefits is limited (at the present time) to the United States. As I've posted before, I expect that the problem is almost entirely related to the incredible escalations in the costs of those benefits (in the USA), and EK's response is one of necessity, rather than convenience, or even business efficacy.
Kodak Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of EK. As such, any cost incurred by Kodak Canada directly affect EK's bottom line. Despite that, there remains a supportive environment for Kodak Canada retirees. My father retired 24 years ago. He was middle level management. There are a few middle to upper level management people who worked with my father who are still working at Kodak Canada. None of them hesitate to accept or return his call. Although that involves cost to the company, my sense is that it is encouraged, rather than discouraged.
There is still a community of employees, and they include the retirees. My father still receives regular newsletters, and could still access some employee discounts, if he so chose.
When Kodak Canada closed down most of their extensive manufacturing and other facilities in Toronto, they didn't try to minimize the fact, but instead decided to celebrate the history, and invited all the current and retired employees to participate in that celebration. Every employee, current and retired, received a DVD full of historical images of the Toronto site, highlighting all that was accomplished there.
My father, and everyone he knows who once worked with him, still seem to remain incredibly loyal to Kodak Canada. Despite huge reductions to their business, it seems to me that Kodak Canada remains incredibly faithful to their retirees, and continues to support them, at least to the extent that it is able.
As far as I can tell, that means it is far from a "nebulous blob".
By the way, my father, and I expect most of the other Kodak retirees, remain as passionate advocates of Kodak products. I expect that that behaviour is enough of a business benefit for Kodak to make it easy for Kodak to defend any retiree expenses when accounting to their shareholders.
Also by the way, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a significant number of outstanding Kodak shares are owned directly, or indirectly, by Kodak employees, or Kodak retirees.
On the customer side, I shoot Kodak film almost exclusively, and am convinced that Kodak has my best consumer interests in mind.
Matt
