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The following is a report
given by Terry Elfers and Matt Louiso following a recent
trip to the Retiree’s-GE meeting held in Fairfield, Ct.
There was
a historic meeting in Fairfield Ct. on October 18, 2011 with
Jeff Inmelt, GE corporate officials, GE union retirees, and
IAM LL 912 president, Matt Louiso.
Kevin
Mahar did a great job chairing the meeting for the retirees,
outlining the concerns we had and reviewing our agenda.
Kevin and the retirees with 503 years of service thanked the
Company for this meeting. He thanked Jeff Immelt for
mentioning Helen Quirini at the
stockholders meeting. She was a great union activist and a
key person in the GE Retirees Justice Fund. She will be
missed. Mike Desantis gave us some history on Fairfield and
John Lynch gave us a business update and said he would like
to hear our concerns and issues.
We
thanked the company for the 13th check going to
retirees, but felt that to be fair, people that have been
retired the longest should get more because their pensions
are much smaller than newer retirees, and also their
dividends have been cut. J. Lynch said he understands our
concerns but the 13th check is the way we can
keep the fund secure.
There
will be about 130,000 people getting the check and they will
be notified sometime in November. We asked for a cost of
living adjustment (COLA) now that no new people will be
getting in the plan after this year. We asked what happens
to the money when the last person in the fund is gone? Mike
Gorman said we have people in their 20’s that will draw out
of this fund and we must keep it funded. We asked for a
list of what the plan is invested in and the company said it
is public record that you can get. We also asked for a
retiree representative on the pension board to help answer
some of the questions we have about the plan.
There
was a discussion on prescription drug issues and they
company said when problems occur call ASAP. There was a
question on how safe the drugs are coming from outside the
US, ie. India. They said the FDA controls them. There was
a question about why drug companies are not sending bills
anymore. The company said Medco lost thousands of dollars
when outstanding bills were not paid. There was a question
on putting something in place where GE retirees can get back
into GE medical when they are not in any plan. The company
said they now have a default in place for auto-enroll.
Jeff
Immelt gave us a business update and listened to some of our
retiree issues and concerns. It was a very informative
meeting with Mary-Beth and her benefit resource team who
answered many of our concerns and gave us contact people for
future reference. Any retirees with benefit problems can
call their union office at 513-243-2695, check IAM 912 web,
or contact Terry Elfers at
513-563-5084.
Respectfully
Submitted,
Terry Elfers and Matt Louiso
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