| Employee Benefit Plans and Other Postretirement Benefits |
Employee Benefit Plans and Other Postretirement Benefits
The components of net periodic benefit cost for our pension plans were as follows (dollars in thousands): | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pension Plans | | Three Months Ended
September 30 | | Nine Months Ended
September 30 | | 2014 | | 2013 | | 2014 | | 2013 | Service cost | $ | 5,828 |
| | $ | 5,825 |
| | $ | 17,428 |
| | $ | 18,322 |
| Interest cost | 11,507 |
| | 4,269 |
| | 34,400 |
| | 12,250 |
| Expected return on plan assets | (12,657 | ) | | (3,796 | ) | | (38,008 | ) | | (11,297 | ) | Net amortization of unrecognized amounts | | | | | | | | Prior service cost | 1,641 |
| | 163 |
| | 4,922 |
| | 3,284 |
| Actuarial loss | 155 |
| | 2,217 |
| | 465 |
| | 5,221 |
| Curtailment loss (a) | — |
| | 3,132 |
| | — |
| | 10,908 |
| Net periodic benefit cost | $ | 6,474 |
| | $ | 11,810 |
| | $ | 19,207 |
| | $ | 38,688 |
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___________ | | (a) | In June 2013, the United Steelworkers (“USW”) ratified a master labor agreement with PCA under which we froze certain USW-represented corrugated plant employees pension accruals under PCA’s hourly pension plan. Additionally, in September 2013, the USW ratified a master labor agreement with PCA under which we froze certain USW-represented containerboard mill employees pension accruals under PCA’s hourly pension plan. Following the pension freezes, affected USW-represented employees will transition to a defined contribution 401k plan. We recorded a $3.1 million and $10.9 million pre-tax pension curtailment charge related to the unrecognized prior service costs of employees impacted by the pension freezes during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2013, respectively. We also remeasured the hourly pension plan benefit obligation using current fair values of plan assets and current assumptions, resulting in a decrease in the benefit obligation of $21.9 million with a corresponding decrease in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) of $13.4 million and deferred taxes of $8.5 million. |
PCA makes pension plan contributions that are sufficient to fund its actuarially determined costs, generally equal to the minimum amounts required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). During the nine months ended September 30, 2014, we contributed $0.4 million to our pension plans, which exceeds our 2014 minimum required contributions, calculated under the pension provisions of the Highway and Transportation Funding Act passed in August 2014. We do not expect to make any additional contributions during the fourth quarter of 2014.
The components of net periodic benefit cost for our postretirement plans were as follows (dollars in thousands): | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Postretirement Plans | | Three Months Ended
September 30 | | Nine Months Ended
September 30 | | 2014 | | 2013 | | 2014 | | 2013 | Service cost | $ | 392 |
| | $ | 515 |
| | $ | 1,177 |
| | $ | 1,545 |
| Interest cost | 311 |
| | 311 |
| | 933 |
| | 934 |
| Net amortization of unrecognized amounts | | | | | | | | Prior service benefit | (57 | ) | | (106 | ) | | (170 | ) | | (319 | ) | Actuarial loss | 26 |
| | 134 |
| | 77 |
| | 401 |
| Net periodic benefit cost | $ | 672 |
| | $ | 854 |
| | $ | 2,017 |
| | $ | 2,561 |
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