When I worked at Nortel (formerly Bell Northern Research) they gave me a pension. After 5 years at that job I left and received a letter from HR to the effect: "We have cancelled your pension. You are welcome to sue us, but because the amount of your pension was small, we don't think it will be worth your while." A few years after I left, the company ran into trouble (including accounting fraud). At it's height, this was a company of over 100K employees. Once the company went into bankruptcy proceedings, it appealed to the judge to allow them to use the pension money to pay "executive retension bonuses". The idea was that since it was a sinking ship, all the executives would leave, meaning that no financial restructure would be possible. In exchange for pocketing the pension money, they agreed to stay on to the bitter end. True to their word, they did. And people who had pensions were invited to join the list of creditors (in a non-preferred position).

Don't rely on your pension.