Sears retirees upset with recent Kmart merger

NEW YORK -- With Sears Roebuck & Co. set to merge with Kmart Holding Corp. following shareholder meetings Thursday, there's at least one group that hasn't been convinced it's for the best.\nThe National Association of Retired Sears Employees is opposed to the merger, fearing its members will see their benefits slashed.\n"Sears retirees are concerned about the loss of benefits," said Ron Olbrysh, chairman of NARSE. "But it's not only benefits; it's the question of what will happen to a company that was at one time a premier retailer."\nNearly 90 percent of respondents to a NARSE survey released this week said they don't approve of the merger.\nMore than 92 percent said they were concerned about the future and security of employee and retiree pensions, medical and health care insurance, life insurance and discount benefits.\nThe survey received 1060 responses from both retirees and current employees. According to NARSE, "almost 40 percent of the respondents identified themselves as Sears employees."\nSears has about 150,000 retirees.\nOlbrysh contends Sears Holdings -- the name for the combined companies -- will be "controlled by Wall Street financiers, not merchants looking to restore Sears to its role as a premier retailer."\nUnder such a scenario, he doesn't expect employee, and particularly former employee, benefits to be a priority as the merged company looks to trim costs.\nThere has been speculation that hedge-fund manager Edward Lampert, who also serves as Kmart Holding Corp.'s chairman, is more interested in selling the vast real estate holdings of Kmart and Sears than in building a retailing empire -- a view Lampert has disputed.\nChris Braithwaite, a spokesman for Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears, said the retailer is aware of retiree concerns but that retiree issues are part of "a whole range of issues to be worked out."\nA call to Troy, Mich.-based Kmart seeking comment was not returned.\n"Everybody has concerns about the way Lampert has done business at Kmart and has cut benefits," said Dan Quaid, who heads the Sears Retiree Club of Chicagoland and is on Sears Retiree Advisory Council.\nQuaid, who worked at Sears headquarters for 34 years, said retirees have been guaranteed their benefits only through 2005.\n"The medical benefits are probably the biggest concern," Quaid said, adding he receives about $200 per month from Sears toward medical and prescription drug coverage.\nQuaid says he has kept 800 shares of Sears stock and voted those shares against the merger: "But, it looks like a slam dunk, so it was more of a protest vote," he added.