![]()
June, 2005
Bedford, IN 47421
Phone #279-1113
Home Page
www.iue-cwalocal84907.com
LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL
NEWS
UNION MEETING
Our next regularly scheduled Union meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 1st at the U.A.W. Hall,1411 “H” Street, Bedford, IN.
Meeting Times:
Night Shift: 1:00 am
(TUESDAY, after work)
Day Shift: 4:00 pm
Midnight shift may attend either of the above meetings.
In memory of
Helen Davis
1993 retiree
Carolyn Sue Tolbert
11/01/1949 – 05/21/05
Chiropractic update
In last month’s newsletter we reported that issues with chiropractic and physical therapy issues should have been taken care of. We were a little too hasty in reporting that. According to an e-mail sent to Tom Jones from Mary Weston (Anthem representative) on May 19th, there may still be a few problems. Anthem’s system will not be prepared to automatically pay charges for chiropractic and physical therapy charges until 06/09/05. Any services received before that date will not be paid automatically. If you receive an EOB stating that these charges are not paid, this can be resolved with a phone call. Take your EOB to Tom Jones or David Baker and they will assist you in getting your claim paid.
Thank you
I would like to thank each and every one of you who took the time to vote in the Trustee election last month. The turnout for this election was one of the better ones. Thanks again.
Randy Corbin
Free living wills for members and their spouses
The following is information on a special program created and presented By Greg Gyer in coordination with attorney Matt Lark.
DO NOT MISS THIS PROGRAM.
What: Free living will, plus opportunity for 4 more protective documents for only $20.00
Date: June 1st, 2005
Place: UAW Hall, 1411 “H” Street, Bedford, IN
Time: 9:00 am, 2:00 pm or 7:00 pm
Your Union leaders have arranged an opportunity for you to take advantage of a free program that explains the key legal documents that protect you and your loved ones. Attorney Matt Lark is providing a specialist that focuses on research and document preparation that protects people. Along with the free Living Will, they will explain how to guard your health and finances by using a power - of - attorney.
It’s all about making the right choices. You only have to do this one time, but it needs to be done right. We asked the attorney to design a package of legal documents that would provide complete personal protection. He responded with 5 key legal documents that would typically cost $200 or more through an attorney and is only charging $20. That’s a lifetime of legal protection for less than one month’s cable bill. There is no sales pressure. You are not obligated to buy anything. The offer is there if you want it. I would strongly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity.
Married? We recommend bringing your spouse if they are available. They usually don’t like to be left out of important issues like this. There will be a brief section about the Last Will and Testament (that’s the one usually called a Will) and how you could have an attorney prepare one for as little as $50. Parents, do you have someone named as a legal guardian for your children if something happened to you? Everyone knows it is a good idea. We’ll explain how to get it done.
The speakers at this program are specialists, but they don’t talk like lawyers. They get the message across without all the confusing legal terms and mix in a little humor. It’s actually a very enjoyable program that lasts a little less than one hour.
Note: The Union is hosting this program, but cannot be held liable for any part of the program or documents.
Why we need unions
Better benefits
Why does Right to Work fight so hard against unions? It has to because when workers are given a free choice, they overwhelmingly choose unions. And when you look at the benefits union workers have that others don’t, you see one reason it’s such an easy choice for workers. Unions have been able to preserve important benefits for their members while nonunion workers have suffered employers’ push to cut coverage and shift costs to their employees.
Employer-provided health care: Union: 89%
Nonunion: 67%
Family coverage fully paid by employer: Union: 33%
Nonunion: 7%
Dental care coverage: Union: 73%
Nonunion: 43%
Monthly co-pay for family coverage: Union: $195.00
Nonunion: $273.00
Defined-benefit pension plans: Union 70%
Nonunion: 16%
Paid vacation days after 20 years’ service: Union: 22.3
Nonunion: 18.1
Wage increases in fiscal 2004: Union: 3%
Nonunion: 2.5%
Increased value in wage and benefits packages in 2004:
Union: 5.8%
Nonunion: 3.4%
Some reasons to sign the Social Security petition
A petition to stop the privatization of Social Security has been circulating in the plant. We have gotten quite a few signatures, but we need more! We all know the Social Security program is in trouble. We all want to be able to retire someday and most of us will depend on the Social Security program as a part of our income. If something is not changed by the U.S. government, the Social Security program as we know it today will not be there for us.
Social Security takes in more money from today’s workers and employers than it pays out to beneficiaries, creating a large trust fund.
The trustees who oversee Social Security’s financial health say the program can pay full benefits until 2042. After 2042, even if its problems are not fixed, funds from Social Security payroll taxes will be sufficient to finance nearly 70 percent of the payments owed to beneficiaries.
Social Security’s funding problems – caused in part by Congress and Bush diverting its funds into other programs, such as massive tax giveaways to the wealthy – can be addressed through moderate improvements, not extreme privatizations as Bush proposes.
We have time to strengthen Social Security the right way rather than slashing guaranteed retirement benefits. First, we must require Congress to pay back the money borrowed from the trust fund. We could end the “wealthy wage exemption” so CEOs pay the same Social Security taxes on their salaries as we pay on ours. We can repeal the Bush tax cuts for the top 1 percent of taxpayers. And we can help working families build private pensions and savings on top of Social Security.
Bottom line: Social Security works and responsible measures, not extreme privatization, can make sure it’s there for future generations.
Source: America @ work February/March 2005 issue
The following article was published in America @ work, a magazine for AFL-CIO leaders and activists. It was written by Laureen Lazarovici. It is being published in our Local’s newsletter in an attempt to give information, probably raise some questions and help get the signatures we so desperately need to get the message to our politicians that the working people NEED our Social Security program.
Social security
Don’t privatize it,
Strengthen It!
By Laureen Lazarovici
Ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Social Security into law in 1943, millions of America’s workers have earned benefits by paying into the system, creating a safety net that keeps retirees, survivors of workers who die young and people with disabilities out of poverty. The Social Security program has proved remarkably durable and adaptable, never missing a paycheck and reliably meeting the needs of successive generations. Now, 70 years later, President Bush wants to privatize Social Security. His plan would replace Social Security’s guaranteed benefits with risky private accounts. The Bush plan would force drastic cuts in benefits and saddle future generations with $4.9 trillion in debt over the next 20 years, most of which would be owed to foreign countries.
Bush and his corporate allies are trying to scare Americans into believing Social Security faces a crisis so they can sell privatization. But while Social Security does face problems that must be addressed, privatization will make the situation worse, not better.
Privatizing Social Security will:
Ø Slash guaranteed benefits by as much as $152,000.
Ø Take away 70 cents in retirement benefits for every $1 in a private account and return the money to government coffers.
Ø Reduce your Social Security retirement benefits even if you do not choose a private account.
Ø Politicians will pick Wall Street firms to control your investment accounts, a process corrupted by politics.
Bush Plan cuts Social Security benefits
While Bush says he won’t cut Social Security benefits for workers 55 and older, his plan to cut benefits and privatize Social Security would leave many future seniors in poverty. Between 1960 and 2004, Social Security helped the poverty rate among seniors from 35 percent to 10 percent. But Bush’s plan would mean average retirees would lose $152,000 in benefits if they live for 20 years after they retire, according to the Center for Economic Policy Research, a research and public education group. Taxpayers would have to somehow take care of our nation’s seniors.
A secret White House memo that circulated in January called for a change in the way that guaranteed benefits are calculated that would cut payments nearly in half for today’s workers when they retire. The confidential memo called for freezing the standard of living for retirees by pegging Social Security benefits to the increase in prices rather than wages. Because wages rise faster than prices, this would slash the amount of retirees’ Social Security benefits.
After 35 years of working as a teacher and paying into the Social Security system, Joan King and her husband are now retired and rely on Social Security retirement benefits as well as their pensions. King, a retired member of the Classroom Teachers’ Association, Orlando’s joint affiliate of AFT and the National Education Association, says retirees like her would find it hard to get by if they faced 40 percent smaller Social Security checks every month. “I’d be sacrificing for sure,” she says. “I postpone getting some medication now, so I would have to take a hard look at medical costs. It’s not a luxury. It’s something you have to do.”
Bush plan takes 70 cents of $1
Although he has not provided specifics, Bush appears to want to allow younger workers to divert about one-third of their Social Security contribution to private accounts so they could invest in the stock market.
Although Bush says private accounts would be voluntary, his plan would cut a retiree’s benefits by 40 percent – even if that person didn’t choose a private account. And for workers who choose a private investment account, the government would take back 70 cents in retirement benefits for every $1 in their private accounts on top of the 40% benefit cut – to pay back the trust funds for the payroll tax contributions diverted into individual accounts.
Bush plan creates trillions of dollars of U.S. debt
If Bush privatizes Social Security and diverts millions of dollars from that fund, the money to pay benefits to today’s retirees would have to come from somewhere else. Bush says the federal government would have to borrow the money – analysts project about $4.9 trillion over the next 20 years alone.
Much of the borrowing would involve selling U.S. government bonds to foreign countries – meaning U.S. workers’ retirement would depend on the willingness of foreign countries to lend the money. Bush’s plan actually weakens the Social Security trust fund. Since Bush took office, the federal deficit has risen to $413 billion, and his plan to privatize Social Security would pass more debt to future generations.
Bush plan bars workers from controlling their private retirement investments
In selling his plan to privatize Social Security, Bush emphasizes workers’ ability to control their own retirement money through private accounts. What he doesn’t say is politicians, not workers, will pick the Wall Street firms to control the accounts. Politicians would decide which companies would be poised to make billions of dollars in profits from the fees they would collect to administer the private accounts.
A recent study by the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business shoes Wall Street firms would enjoy a whopping $940 billion windfall over 75 years. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney has called on financial firms – many of which administer union pension funds – to publicly oppose Bush’s privatization plan. In late January, members of the Greater Boston Central Labor Council rallied in the city’s financial district, saying Wall Street should not profit while working Americans see their retirement benefits slashed. “The whole point of privatization is to fill the pockets of Wall Street”, says King.
With Bush attacking Social Security, King is working to mobilize the state and local chapters of her retiree organizations to save the nation’s most important family protection program. “We’re talking to our families and to our senators and representatives,” she says. “We’re telling people to call today,” says King. “Don’t wait.”
