What Does Kodak Bankruptcy Mean for Retirees?

Kodak has churned out a number of employees over the years.

At the company's height, there were more than 60-thousand employees working for Kodak in Rochester in the 1980's.

As of 2010, there were just over 7-thousand employees in Rochester at Kodak.

Worldwide, currently 18,800 employees. And the worldwide peak was around 145-thousand employees in the late 1980's.

Those numbers mean that there are many retirees, many of whom still live in the Rochester region.

20-thousand retirees are estimated to live the local area.

This bankruptcy news hits those former workers hard because many of them recall good memories with the Rochester company.

But now that same company they loved, may not be able to provide all of the benefits once promised because of its financial problems.

"Employment at Kodak allowed many people to have jobs and provide for their families so it's unfortunate that the crisis is here with us now and I'm concerned about employees as well as retirees," said Paul Marlin, a former Kodak engineer who worked at the company for over 30 years.

"The main concern I have is retirees being unsettled by all of this and I want to reassure people that they don't need to do anything right away. Don't do anything rash. As Perez said about active employees, things will continue, that's true for retirees as well," said Bob Volpe,

President of the Eastman Kodak Retirees Association.

Bob Volpe, president of EKRA, says there is no need for retirees to make decisions yet regarding 401(k) plans for healthcare benefits.

He says it's expected that those Kodak pension and 401(k) benefits to be protected.

The major concern is over healthcare. That is something that EKRA plans to fight in bankruptcy court with Kodak.

So far, no decisions have been made.

If you want to find out more information about EKRA and their latest updates on the Kodak situation you can click here.