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The U.K’s surprise vote to leave the European Union took a bite out of corporate pension plans in the U.S., as investors fled stocks for the safety of bonds last month, pushing interest rates lower. Under accounting rules, the declining rates triggered an increase in pension obligations for companies with defined-benefit plans, which offer retirees a set payout, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Now, those companies are pursuing a variety of tactics as they struggle to close the resulting gap in pension funding and to avoid steep increases in premium payments to the nation’s pension insurer. The combined pension deficit for S&P 1500 companies ballooned to $568 billion at the end of June, a $164 billion increase from the end of 2015, according to Mercer, a benefits consulting firm. But the market’s turmoil could help increase the coffers of the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which backstops the private-sector pensions that cover about 40 million Americans. The federal agency collects a fixed fee for each person enrolled in private-sector pension plans and a separate fee, or variable premium, for every dollar that pension plans are in deficit. So, there could be a fee windfall heading its way in coming months and years as pension deficits balloon.

When a federal judge approved Alpha Natural Resources’ bankruptcy exit plan two weeks ago, regulators, industry leaders and environmentalists breathed a collective sigh of relief, but while the plan will keep two large coal mines operating and set the stage for a stricter approach to self-bonding, the long-term outlook for Alpha is murkier, the Casper (Wyo.) Star Tribune reported today. Alpha was the first of three large coal companies operating in Wyoming to file for bankruptcy amid one of the most difficult years for coal in three decades. Arch Coal, which operates the Black Thunder Mine, and Peabody Energy, which runs the North Antelope Rochelle Mine, soon followed. But as the first company to reach a restructuring agreement with regulators and the courts, Alpha is expected to set a precedent for the other companies. Environmentalist hope Alpha’s plan will change the state’s approach to environmental bonding. State regulators want pragmatic deals that preserve Wyoming jobs. However, in a bearish market with hesitant lenders and federal oversight, widespread uncertainty remains about the viability of Alpha’s financial plan post-bankruptcy.

Participants in SunEdison Inc.’s $155 million retirement plan suffered heavy losses on their investments in company stock last year in the months before the renewable power plant developer landed in bankruptcy, Reuters reported yesterday. The retirement savings plan yesterday disclosed $10.3 million in losses from investments in 2015. Nearly all of that came from investments in SunEdison stock, according to the retirement plan's annual report. SunEdison filed for bankruptcy in April after an aggressive growth plan proved unsuccessful. Last month, SunEdison received final bankruptcy court approval of debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing in the form of new capital totaling up to $300 million. At the start of 2015, about $17 million, or 13 percent of the retirement plan's $133.1 million in total investments, was held in SunEdison stock, according to the annual report. SunEdison shares plunged 75 percent in 2015 as the company signaled troubles from its heavy debt load. The stock traded at 14 cents a share yesterday. By the end of 2015, the plan had $155.5 million in net assets available for benefits, but only $5 million of that was in SunEdison stock.

The retirement savings of tens of millions of people have come under new threat since the surprise U.K. vote to leave the European Union, thanks to a plunge in global interest rates, the Wall Street Journal reported today. A post-Brexit scramble for safer bonds pulled yields lower and upended global markets just as many public pension funds wrapped up their fiscal year on June 30, eating into any annual gains and widening already-large deficits. Many public pensions that were already having a bad year are expected this month to report their worst annual performances since the last financial crisis in 2008-09. A sustained period of rock-bottom rates in the U.S. and negative rates overseas is contorting financial plans for investors and consumers globally, from insurers that rely on bond income to retirees who have to live with lower returns on their certificates of deposit. For officials who manage retirements of public and private-sector workers, Brexit exacerbated problems that have been roiling pensions around the world for years. The low-rate environment has pulled down returns, inflated funding gaps, encouraged larger investment risks and prompted plan officials to scale back future investment assumptions.

Workers at the Trump Taj Mahal casino and hotel in Atlantic City walked off the job early Friday morning and took to picket lines after contract negotiations broke down, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Unite Here Local 54, the union representing nearly 1,000 Taj workers, organized the strike after determining that the casino, owned by activist investor Carl Icahn, wasn’t offering a serious proposal to cover their health insurance, union spokesman Ben Begleiter said. The company said in the statement that it was bargaining “in good faith” with the union and threatened that the casino might close as a result of the strike. The Taj wasn’t accepting hotel reservations for the next 10 days on its website as of Friday afternoon. A company official said in the statement that the casino was fully open and welcoming guests through the July 4 holiday weekend and beyond.

About a thousand workers at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, plan to go on strike today ahead of the busy July 4 weekend, another blow to the resort city’s long-struggling tourism business, Bloomberg News reported today. Workers including housekeepers, bartenders, cooks and cocktail servers are seeking higher wages and health care benefits lost when Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. declared bankruptcy in 2014. The Taj Mahal is controlled by investor Carl Icahn. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, no longer has a management role. Talks with Trump Taj Mahal failed to reach an agreement that the negotiating committee could recommend, Unite Here, the union representing casino workers, said in an e-mailed statement Friday. Atlantic City, once the second-largest casino market in the U.S. after Las Vegas, has struggled in recent years as neighbors expanded their gambling offerings. Casino revenue in the city totaled $2.4 billion last year, half the take from ten years ago.