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Association of Ameritech/SBC Retirees
Newsletter The AASBCR holds Annual Meeting The Association of Ameritech/SBC Retirees (AASBCR), Inc. held its second annual meeting in Arlington Heights, Illinois on June 1, 2005. Bruce Beckman (Downers Grove, Illinois) was confirmed as the new President and Ray Sternot (Eastlake, Ohio) was elected Vice President-Legislation. Also installed were Chet Przybyslawski (Arlington Heights, Illinois), Chief Technical Officer and Ralph Kolderup (Palatine, Illinois.), Treasurer. Leaving the board is Robert Papierniak of Barrington Hills, Illinois. Beckman expressed his thanks to outgoing president Ralph Kolderup and to Bob Papierniak for their work in growing the Association to its present membership, and to Ralph Kolderup for his decision to remain as treasurer. Outgoing president Ralph Kolderup said that the most important accomplishment of his term was to start an ongoing dialog with SBC senior management on retiree issues and concerns. Kolderup said, "We have been able to talk to SBC senior management and it’s Board of Directors on multiple occasions on these vital issues critical to its retirees." The Association's new president Bruce Beckman offered several key objectives for next year. He said that, "While the Association has made inroads with SBC on retiree issues, it still needs to gain SBC’s attention on critical medical coverage and pension trust funding issues." Bruce is confident that through the Association's alliance with the National Retiree Legislative Network, together with the cooperation of its membership, it will be able to meet its objectives. President’s Note Change is always inevitable and in June, Ralph Kolderup stepped down as the AASBCR President. To keep the Association relevant, our by-laws state that members of the Board can only serve two one year terms in the same capacity. Ralph has done an outstanding job. His leadership will be missed. I am so pleased he will continue to serve as the Treasurer and provide his counsel. By the way, we are still looking for a VP-Corporate Communications. We have many challenges before us and as always, for us to be successful it will take the active participation of each one of us in some capacity. I have asked the board to determine which two to three objectives we should focus upon in the next year and then establish an achievement plan. One of the items that I have asked to be reviewed is how we can more effectively communicate with the membership. The Board can be busy with meetings and discussions members normally you do not hear about. As an example, today, I had a 90 minute conference call with my ATT retiree association counterparts. Yesterday I met with the SNET retiree president to further discuss the possible development of an “umbrella” relationship that would encompass Pac Bell, SWBT, SNET and ATT retirees on issues that affect all of us. This goes on and on and we need to capture these activities for you. I am looking forward to the next year and with your help and involvement we will continue to be successful. Caremark Issues SBC has claimed to be unaware of any problems with Caremark procedures or processes. So, to bring issues to their attention, the Association has established a contact at SBC for dealing with Caremark issues. SBC has agreed to research the issues and facilitate an explanation and/or resolution on the issues and we have been asked to coordinate the member issues before forwarding to SBC. The association will maintain a tracking log of the issues till a resolution is achieved. (This is not a complaint department for how unfair the plan appears or how it should operate so please keep you communications focused upon your concern). Please remember that this is a service only for Association members. The procedure to submit an issue is as follows: Forward your name, contact telephone number, and brief description of the particular issue to aas-b-cr@sbcglobal.net or mail the same information to the Association postal address - - P.O. Box 3366, Barrington, IL 60011-3366. An acknowledgement of receipt will be provided either electronically or by phone. Synopsis of June 21meeting with SBC Human Resources Bruce Beckman and Ralph Kolderup met privately with Karen Jennings (SBC Senior Executive Vice-President-Human Resources) Sue Colburn and other SBC Human Resources managers on June 21 prior the open retiree session held to discuss the new SBC Medical Plan. Notification of pre-1991 retirees Sue Colburn and Karen Jennings said that pre-1991 retirees are not affected by the changes that are affecting post-1991 retirees. Consequently, in order to save mailing expenses, the company decided against notifying these retirees of changes that do not involve them. However, given that confusion still exists in this group, SBC will look into a postcard distribution to pre-1991 retirees in order to allay confusion. EPR issue EPR retirees cannot be rehired as a direct or indirect contractor. Since the EPR was implemented in November 2000, the Telecom Industry has experienced a significant restructuring. Ms. Jennings said they have had some discussion about this issue and that it’s been five years since EPR was implemented which means any benefit from a 5+5 would be negated at this point. Karen indicated this is an issue for SBC Chairman Ed Whitacre and SBC attorneys. However, the completion of the five-year interval is compelling. Karen promised to pursue the issue. A commitment of two-month turn around was provided. (Estimated date: August 21) Pensions Many pensioners are concerned over whether the SBC/Ameritech Pension Trust Fund is solvent. The news regarding UAL, GM, et al was referenced yet nothing about the status of ours is ever mentioned. Also mentioned was the fact that over the past 10-12 years, the Ameritech Pension Fund has moved from $10B to $5.8B. The 2003 SBC Annual Report noted that Ameritech Pension funds are meeting only the minimum standards according to ERISA. What sources of data can be provided to retirees that will assure them that their pension funding will indeed be solvent? SBC promised a 2-week response time to provide more information on this issue. (Estimated due date: July 12, 2005) SBC AVP has just responded and we are reviewing his comments. His surface position is that the Trust is adequately funded. More to come on this issue. Health Care Medical coverage variances AIT management retirees who left in the 1991 time period continue to pay premiums that are significantly higher than SWBT retirees with the same retirement dates. SBC claims that these different dates are based on published information at the time. SBC provided AASBCR an old Ameritech document that gives data supporting who receives free coverage and who must pay. SBC stated that it’s interested in securing additional documentation regarding this issue because it is a bone of contention for its various companies. (Ameritech retirees who have yellow and blue bulletins from 1990 through 1993, please contact the AASBCR at info@aasbcr.org.) New Medical Plan versus Custom Care We again stressed that monthly retiree premiums continue to mount and the large percentage increase over the past 4-5 years is difficult to understand. Furthermore, we now see a new plan coming on board that is drastically different from the current one. This raises several questions and concerns: 1) There is no mention of Vision, Dental and Prescription drug coverage in the new plan. SBC’s response was that the vision and dental plan will be unaffected and the prescription part will be rolled out separately. They are not prepared to discuss it at this time. Given the fact they were not prepared to discuss the prescription portion raises deep concerns for the Association board. SBC gave an October time frame. (Estimated date: October 1, 2005) 2) According to the Wall Street Journal, experience has demonstrated that programs with high deductibles can have a detrimental effect upon the elderly and low-income employees. We asked, “How do you believe the plan will address these elements”? It is their belief that the $50,000 divider will help this issue and because this is a consumer driven program some choices will be made by individuals. They stressed that most participants will actually see a reduction of their overall costs. 3) The material sent SBC retirees contained much information about the use of Health Savings Accounts. SBC was asked how they would accommodate Medicare retirees who are not eligible for HSA’s? Sue Colburn stated SBC would be announcing a similar program for Medicare folks. An October Time Frame was given for the Medicare program rollout. (Estimated date: October 1, 2005) 4) Many retirees believe this new plan to be somewhat of a forced march to a new system that will in fact reduce SBC support. SBC was asked why it did not retain the Custom Care Plan as an option (at any cost). SBC said that by retaining this option, it would degrade the new plan and its strategy to reduce costs. However, union employees will stay on the old plan. Also, with the implementation of this new plan, SBC will eliminate the practice of funding the plan using a per employee base. 5) No mention of union employees was made in the materials sent to retirees. Karen Jennings said that union members (including retirees) are covered by the existing contract. She indicated that in time this will also change. However, Jennings stressed that she was not at liberty to comment any further. At this point the Custom Care plan remains in effect for the represented employees but not for managers. 6) It is possible that a better understanding to various questions about the new plan are available in various documents such as the Complete Plan Description for the new plan commonly called “new” SBC Medical Plan. SBC agreed to share a copy of the Complete Plan Description in October when it will be available. (Estimated date” October 1, 2005) 7) Dependent/Spousal coverage will continue at the partner rates for retirees in the plan outline. SBC stated that the rate will be $500 per month for non-Medicare survivor participants and $300 per month for Medicare eligible participants 8) Cigna Caremark UHC support Much time was spent on discussing the poor quality of support being provided by Caremark and United Health Care when calling them. The SBC team seemed surprised. This is not the first time this has been brought top there attention. (The Pac Bell retirees and the AASBCR have been discussing this issue with SBC for some time.) SBC promised to look into this problem and have a meeting with UHC and Caremark. No response time had been established. The AASBCR will continue to pursue this issue. Ohio Membership Drive VP Ray Sternot and Carol Lovell are currently in the middle of a membership drive, focusing upon retirees in Ohio. Early results indicate a very successful campaign. If you are interested in assisting their work in Ohio by providing potential candidates names and addresses, etc.; Please contact Ray Sternot at rsternot@ameritech.net. E-MAIL DELIVERY If you have changes your e-mail address or think you have not received some recent Association e-mail, send a message to aas-b-cr@sbcglobal.net. We continue to receive various invalid address error messages after sending Association memos to our existing member address book. In addition, to facilitate the issue of SPAM blockers, all Association e-mails have the constant subject of - AASBCR. |