BENEFIT PLANS

The Company has qualified pension plans covering certain U.S. employees that have been closed to new participants since 2003. Plans that cover salaried employees provide pension benefits based on the employee’s compensation during the ten years before retirement. The Company’s funding policy for salaried plans is to contribute annually based on actuarial projections and applicable regulations. Plans covering hourly employees and union members generally provide benefits of stated amounts for each year of service. The Company’s funding policy for hourly plans is to make at least the minimum annual contributions required by applicable regulations. Employees of the Company’s operations in countries outside of the United States participate to varying degrees in local pension plans, which in the aggregate are not significant.

The Company has non-qualified pension plans to provide supplemental retirement benefits to certain officers. Benefits are payable at retirement based upon a percentage of the participant’s compensation, as defined.

In July 2013, the Company's board of directors approved freezing certain pension and SERP plan benefits effective as of December 31, 2013 for U.S.-based salaried employees. The Company recognized the plan freeze in the three months ended September 30, 2013 as a curtailment, since it eliminates for a significant number of participants the accrual of defined benefits for all of their future services. The impact of the curtailment includes the one-time accelerated recognition of outstanding unamortized pre-tax prior service cost of $809 within general and administrative expense and a pre-tax reduction in AOCI of $52,550, attributable to the decrease in long-term pension liabilities. This curtailment event triggered a re-measurement for the affected benefit plans as of July 31, 2013 using a discount rate of 5.06 percent. The process for establishing the discount rate was consistent with the process utilized at our annual plan re-measurement date. The re-measurement resulted in a further reduction of long-term pension liabilities and AOCI (pre-tax) related to the actuarial gain occurring during the year of $71,008

In addition to providing pension benefits, the Company provides post-retirement healthcare and life insurance benefits (referred to as other benefits) for certain retired employees. Eligible employees may be entitled to these benefits based upon years of service with the Company, age at retirement and collective bargaining agreements. Currently, the Company has made no commitments to increase these benefits for existing retirees or for employees who may become eligible for these benefits in the future. Currently there are no plan assets and the Company funds the benefits as the claims are paid.

The following table sets forth the net periodic benefit cost for the Company’s defined benefit pension plans and other benefits for the three months ended September 30:



	Pension Benefits						Other Benefits
	2014			2013			2014			2013
Components of net periodic benefit cost
Service cost	$	732		$	2,647		$	—		$	—
Interest cost	5,751			6,865			157			157
Expected return on plan assets	(6,450		)	(9,017		)	—			—
Amortization of prior service benefit	(39		)	(136		)	(56		)	(122		)
Recognized net actuarial loss	756			2,529			50			105
Curtailment loss (1)	—			809			—			—
Net periodic pension benefit cost	$	750		$	3,697		$	151		$	140

The following table sets forth the net periodic benefit cost for the Company’s defined benefit pension plans and other benefits for the nine months ended September 30:



	Pension Benefits						Other Benefits
	2014			2013			2014			2013
Components of net periodic benefit cost
Service cost	$	2,196		$	9,308		$	—		$	—
Interest cost	17,251			20,778			471			471
Expected return on plan assets	(19,348		)	(26,622		)	—			—
Amortization of prior service benefit	(117		)	(99		)	(169		)	(366		)
Recognized net actuarial loss	2,268			13,385			151			317
Curtailment loss (1)	—			1,968			—			—
Net periodic pension benefit cost	$	2,250		$	18,718		$	453		$	422

(1) Curtailment loss during the first nine months ended September 30, 2013 resulted from the departure of certain executive officers and was recorded within selling and administrative expense in the condensed consolidated statement of operations.

Contributions

In the third quarter of 2014, the Company made a voluntary contribution to its qualified pension plan of $5,000. For the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, contributions of $8,674 and $2,662, respectively, were made to the qualified and non-qualified pension plans.