The pension funds are protected, but that does not mean anything close to your promised benefit is available for you to receive. It also creates a recurring lia

The pension funds are protected, but that does not mean anything close to your promised benefit is available for you to receive. It also creates a recurring liability that the company is on the hook for. This has historically worked out to cases where employees must either get a partial payout from available funds and tank the loss, or have the company fold and everyone gets laid off. Pensions are a better deal until they catastrophically fail.