Employee and Retiree Benefits

3 Months Ended

Feb. 25, 2012

Compensation and Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

Employee and Retiree Benefits

Postretirement health care and deferred compensation benefits are as follows:

(In thousands)	February 25, 2012			August 27, 2011
Postretirement health care benefit cost	$	37,372		$	41,370
Non-qualified deferred compensation	24,162			24,622
Executive share option plan liability	9,418			9,286
SERP benefit liability	3,162			3,086
Executive deferred compensation	96			93
Total postretirement health care and deferred compensation benefits	74,210			78,457
Less current portion	(4,761		)	(3,965		)
Long-term postretirement health care and deferred compensation benefits	$	69,449		$	74,492

Postretirement Health Care Benefits

We provide certain health care and other benefits for retired employees hired before April 1, 2001, who have fulfilled eligibility requirements of age 55 with 15 years of continuous service. We use a September 1 measurement date for this plan and our postretirement health care plan currently is not funded. In Fiscal 2005, we established dollar caps on the amount that we will pay for postretirement health care benefits per retiree on an annual basis so that we were not exposed to continued medical inflation. Retirees are required to pay a monthly premium in excess of the employer dollar caps for medical coverage based on years of service and age at retirement. Net periodic postretirement benefit income consisted of the following components:

	Quarter Ended						Six Months Ended
(In thousands)	February 25, 2012			February 26, 2011			February 25, 2012			February 26, 2011
Interest cost	$	463		$	477		$	944		$	953
Service cost	135			152			275			304
Net amortization and deferral	(884		)	(776		)	(1,648		)	(1,552		)
Net periodic postretirement benefit income	$	(286	)	$	(147	)	$	(429	)	$	(295	)
Payments for postretirement health care	$	296		$	299		$	619		$	605

For accounting purposes, we recognized net periodic postretirement income as presented in the table above, due to the amortization of prior service credit associated with the establishment of caps on the employer portion of benefits in Fiscal 2005. In January 2012 the employer established dollar caps for postretirement health care benefits per eligible employee were reduced by 10%, which reduced our liability for postretirement health care by approximately $4.6 million and is being amortized as prior service credit over a period of eight years.