Pension is not bonus. You don’t get to modulate the amount depending on how generous you’re feeling in a given year. Workers have as much right to it as to the wages they’ve earned and saved into a 401k or IRA. It’s the enployee’s money; the employer is just a steward. Failing to pay a pension is the same as robbing a former employee’s house to take back the wages you’be already paid them.
I'd never take a pension over a 401k. I'd much rather be able to pick some of the investments my retirement is funding/being funded by then none. Seems crazy to me not researching and picking the investments, but maybe I'm bias by my understanding and intelligence versus the average American.