[rwd imageid=’4879′ align=’center’ size=’medium-img’ link=’https://www.npr.org/2019/10/03/763512852/why-is-there-nothing-left-pension-funds-failing-at-catholic-hospitals’ caption=” alt=”]
For 24 years, Karen Bradley worked as a nurse at St. Clare’s Hospital in Schenectady, N.Y. The pay wasn’t great, she says, but it was a good hospital, the place where her father once worked as a pharmacist. Bradley thought that if she stayed she’d have a nice pension for retirement.
“I enjoyed what I did there and believed in the promises that were made about the pension,” she says.
But a year ago, Bradley got a letter saying her pension was gone.
“Why is there nothing left? Who screwed up?” she wondered.
Bradley, 56, is one of the hundreds of workers at St. Clare’s, which was founded by the Catholic Church, who lost their pensions after its retirement fund collapsed.