Association of
Ameritech /SBC Retirees, Inc
|
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Bruce Beckman |
President |
|
Ray Sternot |
Vice President |
|
|
Chet Przybyslawski |
Vice President |
|
|
Gary Durochik |
Secretary |
|
|
Ralph Kolderup |
Treasurer |
|
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James Kempe |
Attorney - Agent |
AASBCR
NEWSLETTER
FALL 2005
Meeting of the SBC (and AT&T) Retiree
Groups
On
October 26th and 27th the Presidents and Treasurers/Vice
Presidents of the SBC PAC, Ameritech, and SNET and
AT&T retiree groups met to explore ways to work together and to swap
organizational and operational methods.
Bruce Beckman (President) and Ralph Kolderup (Treasurer/Past President)
represented AASBCR.
According
to Bruce: “(We discussed) how we can
create an umbrella coalition on matters that are common to all yet retain a
regional focus on matters that are specific to the regions. It became very
apparent that the days of the AASBCR as we know it may be numbered. It won’t be
tomorrow or even next year but with the obvious overlapping of issues and the
major changes taking place at SBC(ATT), for us to be a force, we will need to
change.”
The
tentative name of the umbrella organization is THE RETIREE
ASSOCIATIONS OF SBC (or AT&T). A mission statement is under development. Also discussed were: Differences in area benefit plans; Leadership Structure; Membership Expansion; SBC (or AT&T) recognition of the new
organization; Relationship with the NRLN; In-house communications
plans; Incorporation or informal
structure? Long range
goals; Future meetings; Legal counsel?
Dues structure?
Difference in organizations’ current plans and
programs.
According
to the TelCo (SBC-West) release: “It was the belief of all retiree
leaders attending this conference that a unified and committed all encompassing
SBC retiree organization will expand the recognition and influence of our
“stand alone” organizations exponentially.”
From the President’s Note Pad:
This
has been a tumultuous year with many events such as Katrina, the White Sox
winning the World Series and last winter’s Tsunami in the Pacific. One of this
year’s major business events is the SBC purchase of ATT.
To
many folks, the key issue is how the merger will affect the company, its
employees, and customers. Of course, we are keeping a watchful eye on how it
will affect the benefits we retirees have earned over many years of dedicated
service. The Association has noticed a reduction in SBC Human Resources responsiveness
to our requests. On a temporary basis, this might be expected due to the volume
of responsibilities they have during this very intense period. Also, many of us
know full well that acquisitions of this size will bring a host of
restructurings with some folks moving on. One immediate impact has been pushing
back the lifting of the “non-rehire cap” for those who retired from November,
2000 till November, 2001. It is my intention to raise the question of
lifting the cap at the Annual Shareholders Meeting next spring on the basis
that it no longer serves the Shareholders and is a detriment to the
Corporation. Time will tell.
The
Association is still seeking any copies of Yellow and Blue Employee bulletins
from the period between 1988 and 1999. If you have any old copies of these
bulletins and/or any documents regarding Ameritech Management Benefits during
that era, please contact me, Bruce Beckman, via my e-mail address
(pres@aasbcr.org). These are critical for us to precisely determine whether
certain benefits promised then are being properly executed today. The time we
have to do this is limited. For those who have responded, thank you. For those
who haven’t had a chance, while you’re taking out the holiday decorations, keep
an eye out for the filed away material up in the attic or down in the
basement.
Our
membership is growing at a rapid rate with
Finally
please review the legislative segment in this Newsletter. These may be keys to
our retention of future benefits. Contact your Congressman and Senators to let
them know how you feel and what you think.
With
our rapid growth, the Association will be changing and that is good. To all of
the new and “charter” members, your support is critical for the successful
conclusion to our initiatives.
I
look forward to next year and plan to spend some time in our next Newsletter
discussing our accomplishments so we can focus upon the future initiatives
Happy
Holidays,
Bruce
Beckman
President,
AASBCR, Inc.
VP – Legislation’s Report
My role as the
AASBCR VP-Legislation is to inform you of pending Congressional bills which may
affect your healthcare and pensions and encourage you to review those
bills. If you feel strongly about needed
improvements in pensions and healthcare, as your AASBCR officers do, you should
let your Congress persons and the various controlling committee chairpersons/members
know how you feel about your position also.
Your Congress persons and the various committee chairpersons need to
hear from you about your position on a particular bill.
You may not be aware
how many bills are pending before both houses of Congress that could affect your
pensions and healthcare. Many of the
bills duplicate some parts of other bills making it very difficult to
comprehend which bills are good and which are not. Some are Republican
initiated while others are Democrat initiated.
And, unfortunately, many are poorly written and unclear when it comes to
their overall intent. AASCBR will point out for you
the bills in Congress that relate to your pensions and health care. We will comment on those bills that we feel
meet the AASBCR objectives: keeping your company-provided healthcare insurance
affordable and ensuring that your pensions aren't diminished like those of
United Airlines employees. We will be working with the Company and we will be
providing input to Congress to guarantee that your deferred benefits don’t
go away.
We believe all the
bills currently introduced to date in the 109th Congress are listed
on our AASBCR WEB site so you may conveniently review them. Click the HOME
link in the sites menu, on the left, scroll down to and click on “UPDATE
TO PENDING LEGISLATION - 8/27/05” – Be sure to click on the
If enacted, several
of these bills would offer improvements to your healthcare and pension. However, we need your help to get these bills
out of committee and on to the floor of both chambers with changes that reflect
our views and objectives. Here are a few that are on our list:
Ø
H.R.1322 calls for
protection of retiree health benefits.
Ø
S.16 and
S. 334 (Bipartisan) which both call for allowing safe re-importation of drugs
Ø
H.R.2233 and S.991
have been introduced to limit the availability of benefits under an employer’s
nonqualified deferred compensation plans in the event that any of the
employer’s defined pension plans are subjected to distress or PBGC termination.
These bills also call for more information and pension plan
disclosures.
Ø
S.608 is
intended to create an independent office in the Department of Labor on behalf
of pension participants. (You may or may
not remember but it was one of Elaine Chao’s people
in the Department of Labor who said that you as retirees are no longer their
constituents. Yet their published charter says otherwise and we aim to make
sure that they do look out for retirees better than they have.)
To find your
Representative, go to www.house.gov and
enter your 9-digit zip code.
To find your
Senators, go to www.senate.gov and enter
your state.
Click on the name
for more information on each Representative/Senator
Ray Sternot, VP – Legislation
Please periodically
(at least weekly, if you can) look at the AASBCR web site. We will be asking members to take action on
bills that are important to the organization and our members. So far we’ve asked to contact your representatives
on (the calls to action bills). As we
get better at mass e-mails, we will notify you of action items via e-mail. (We will mail action items to members who do
not have e-mail addresses. We are still
working out procedures and expenses. And
we may combine several alerts in one mailing.)
To find information on a specific bill go to http://thomas.loc.gov/. This will get you to the “Thomas” web site
(for Thomas Jefferson – maintained by the Library of Congress), which provides
all pertinent information from the text of all current bills, to the sponsors,
to the companion bill in the other House of Congress, to the current status. It is an interesting site. (If you have no access to a computer, most
local libraries provide computer access and the technical assistance to get
started.) -Ed
Membership Committee
We
have campaigned in
Carole Lovell, Membership Chair
Suspension of Medical Plan
If there is one question that is more often
asked than others it is whether or not Retirees can suspend their SBC medical
plan for a period of time and then resume it. I recently received this response
from the SBC Executive Response team concerning this question and here it
is:
-
You may
re-enroll in a SBC medical insurance plan or any other option made available to
you by the Company in any future year you choose during the appropriate
enrollment period, if the coverage is still an eligible benefit.
-
Re-enrollment
would not be contingent on current health status, e.g., pre-existing
conditions.
-
Eligibility
for the Care Plus, the Dental Plan and other entitled benefits would continue
even if you drop the medical coverage in 2006 and in future years. If you drop medical coverage, prescription
drug coverage discontinues, because the drug plan is part of the medical plan.
For additional information, please see page
28 in the SBC Medical Plan SPD.
Please save this information.
Bruce
Beckman, President
Enhanced
Pension Retiree (EPR) Class Action Suit Update
12/1/05)
For those of you who are EPR
retirees, were Service Pension eligible as of July 1, 1999 and took a lump sum,
there is a rumor floating about that the “Linda Call vs. Ameritech Management
Pension Plan” law suit holding Class Action Status has been settled and the
checks are in the mail.
In order to better understand where the Suit
actually stands, I had asked the Association's General Counsel, Jim Kempe, and fellow member Mike Pabian,
also an attorney and an EPR retiree, to gather any
pertinent information.
After some investigation and a discussion
with the Plaintiff's attorney, we now have a more accurate understanding of its
status.
1) The law suit had been settled in the
Plaintiff's favor and a Judgment had been entered.
2) The Ameritech Management Pension Plan
administrators have indicated that they plan to appeal the judgment based
(apparently) on their belief they have a right to determine the lump sum
calculation method (the basis for the suit). The plaintiff's attorney told the
Association they believe it will be at least 12 to 18 months until a final
judgment is rendered.
While the Association has not taken a
position yet on this Class Action Suit, we believe it is our responsibility to
keep those members potentially affected by the suit informed. To that end, we
have established a communications link with the plaintiff's law firm and will
continue to share any pertinent news on this item.
Bruce
Beckman. President.
United Health vs. Advocate Hospitals
Rift Continues
The Association President,
Bruce Beckman recently wrote a letter to SBC Senior Management expressing our
dismay over an article published in the Chicago Tribune regarding the continued
rift between United Health and
As you may know by now, the
rift between the Advocate Group and United Health seems to be wider than
ever. This has been an issue that has spawned considerable concern and
much inconvenience with many of our retirees. Your Association had been
assured that progress was being made between United and Advocate during a
meeting held earlier this year with Karen Jennings, Senior VP-HR.
It is the Association’s
belief that had this problem been known during the coverage selection process,
some of SBC retirees in the
This high-profile rift
began two years ago between United Health and Advocate. They only recently
returned to informal discussions after a private arbitration panel ruled
against United's antitrust complaint versus Oak
Brook-based Advocate, the
The dispute was about rates
paid by the insurer to Advocate doctors and
hospitals. The private arbitration panel recently ruled in Advocate's
favor, dismissing all counts against the medical-care provider. Yet
neither Advocate nor United can say when, or if, there will be new
negotiations.
Because many SBC retirees
have been deeply affected by this impasse, the Association has requested that
SBC extend or re-open the enrollment period for
Planning Meeting
On
October 7 the Board of Directors (and Communications Chair) met for the first
annual all-day planning session. In
attendance were President Bruce Beckman, Vice Presidents Ray Sternot and Chet Pryzbyslawski,
Secretary Gary Durochik, Treasurer Ralph Kolderup,
and Communications Chair Art Comings.
With much discussion AASBCR objectives and Goals were set and/or
affirmed:
AASBCR objectives:
1)
Preserve
and enhance pension benefits.
2)
Preserve
and enhance healthcare benefits.
3)
Preserve
and enhance other benefits.
4)
Support
SBC legislative agenda, as appropriate.
AASBCR goals:
1)
Grow
membership.
2)
Increase
member participation in all AASBCR activities.
3)
Communicate
retiree issues to SBC.
4)
Promote
awareness of AASBCR, both internal and external.
5)
Monitor
legislative issues relative to stated objectives and take appropriate action.
AASBCR Needs Help
Your Association has
adopted a State Director program. We are looking for State Directors in
In
addition, the AASBCR is looking for members who are willing to provide some of
their time to make our Association more successful. Whether it is simply making
calls, serve as a clearing house volunteer or attends Board meetings to provide
insight, your participation is important.