Week 7 Assignment

37583Safeway participates in various multi-employer retirement plans, covering substantially all Company employees not covered under the Company’s non-contributory retirement plans. These multi-employer retirement plans are generally defined benefit plans and are pursuant to agreements between the Company and various unions. In many cases, specific benefit lev- els are not negotiated with contributing employers or in some cases even known by contrib- uting employers. Contributions of $292.3 million in 2010, $278.1 million in 2009 and $286.9 million in 2008 were made and charged to expense.
Required:
a. What were the contributions to multi-employer plans for 2010, 2009 and 2008? Comment on the trend.
b. Determine the total liability for multi-employer pension plans at the end of 2010.
c. What control does Safeway Inc. have over multi-employer pension plans

Note: Please provide a heading for each of these items. Your paper should be written in APA Style and be should 2 to 3 pages in length. Please include at least two (2) reputable sources.