Employee Benefit Plans

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Employee Benefit Plans [Abstract]

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

11. EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

We sponsor defined benefit pension plans that cover substantially all non-union and certain union-represented employees. Benefits are generally based upon the employee’s compensation and years of service. We also have a non-qualified Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (“SERP”). The SERP, which is unfunded, provides defined pension benefits in addition to the defined benefit pension plan to eligible participants based on average earnings, years of service and age at retirement. Effective June 30, 2009, we froze the accrual of benefits under defined benefit pension plans and SERP that cover the majority of our employees.

We sponsor a defined contribution plan covering substantially all non-union and certain union employees. We match a portion of employees’ voluntary contributions to this plan. We suspended our matching contributions in the second quarter of 2009. Our matching contributions were reinstated in July 2010.

Other union-represented employees are covered by defined benefit pension plans jointly sponsored by us and the union, or by union-sponsored multi-employer plans.

The components of the benefit plans expense consisted of the following:

	Three months ended						Six months ended
	June 30,						June 30,
(in thousands)	2011			2010			2011			2010
Service cost	$	12		$	153		$	24		$	306
Interest cost		6,369			6,368			12,738			12,736
Expected return on plan assets, net of expenses		(5,752	)		(6,039	)		(11,504	)		(12,078	)
Amortization of prior service cost		—			5			1			10
Amortization of actuarial loss		672			1,057			1,344			2,114
Curtailment loss		—			50			—			50
Total for defined benefit plans		1,301			1,594			2,603			3,138
Multi-employer plans		126			85			233			339
SERP		270			279			540			559
Defined contribution plans		2,199			—			4,745			—
Net periodic benefit cost		3,896			1,958			8,121			4,036
Allocated to discontinued operations		—			48			—			(103	)
Net periodic benefit cost — continuing operations	$	3,896		$	2,006		$	8,121		$	3,933

We contributed $1.7 million to fund current benefit payments for our SERP during the first six months of 2011. We anticipate contributing an additional $1.7 million to fund the SERP’s benefit payments during the remainder of 2011. No contributions were made to our defined benefit plans during the first six months of 2011.