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At the same time, following World War II, employers began to expand retirement benefits for their full-time employees, providing them with defined-benefit pensions and other important benefits for old age.

A pension, a defined-benefit plan, relies on employer rather than employee contributions.

And if Boeing were to restore the defined-benefit pension, it would be pioneering a reversal of a longtime trend in corporate America to get rid of such plans.

Striking members of the United Automobile Workers union made waves this year when the union’s leaders demanded the reopening of defined-benefit pension plans for workers hired after late 2007.

While IAM members expect the wage rates to be raised substantially in the coming contract, Holden said many are also asking him to try to get the defined-benefit pension back.