When the attacks on pensions hit blue-collar workers, people shrug. But, increasingly, the disappearing pensions are a fact of life for white-collar workers. GM is now going after its white-collar workforce.

The General Motors Corporation announced extensive changes to the retirement plans of its salaried employees on Tuesday, a decision that will cut its pension costs by $1.6 billion this year and lead to lower benefits for workers.

G.M. said it would freeze its defined-benefits pension plan and shift to less-expensive retirement programs for 42,000 workers in the United States.

A G.M. spokesman, Jerry Dubrowski, said the company could not estimate how the steps would affect the average worker, only that “it will be a reduction.”

But Brian Foley, a lawyer in White Plains who specializes in pension matters, said that for the typical salaried employee at G.M., “this has got to be a significant hit.”

The rest of the story is here.

When white-collar workers get the shaft, look out for new allies for the labor movement and social progressives who want to get us back to a fair economic system where corporate power is not running roughshod over the livelihoods of most Americans.