Since our unions merged there are a couple things going on in not terribly excited about. 1 being the sick/vacation time change. Holding our money for 6 months to 1 year instead of sick time being paid out as requested from the employer and vacation time being paid monthly. The bigger issue for me though, is the switch from a 401k to a pension. I'm earning the money, I want to be able to control it. I don't want a pension that pays out 100% till I die, then 50% to my spouse till her death, then nothing to our heirs. I want a 401k that I own and control which will be passed down to my heirs, she will experience no additional hardship on my demise and hopefully, on hers there will be a decent inheritance to pass on to our children. Maybe even grandkids. On top of that, memories of how our pension was r@ped are still very fresh. $200 million, gone. People working 20 years with $40k in retirement. My question is: is there a way to opt out? Keep the 401k, continue to pay into it till I retire? SWM carpenters can keep their damn pension.