RMC Minutes
Tuesday, May 04, 2010, 1830 hours
Held at Macayo's Mexican restaurant, 4001 N Central Ave., Phoenix.
Present:
Peggy Dewey, President;
Saundra Cole, Vice-President;
Jill Dvir, Treasurer;
Cid Stiefel, Secretary;
Saundra Cole, Legislative Chair;
Guests: Rosemary Ghirardi, Sharon Gowen, Faye Shaw, Mercedes (Mercy) Tuzik, Ken Yeater.
Special Guest: Judy Fries, President of the District 7 retirees for CWA.
Peggy started the meeting speaking on two points that needed our attention and vote. The first was the email she sent to everyone about the AFA golf tournament for Saturday, May 29, 2010.
It was suggested we sponsor two golfers for $70.00 for this event. After some discussion, Saundra made a motion to sponsor two golfers for the AFA golf tournament on Saturday, May 29, 2010 at $35.00 each.
Kenny seconded.
All in favor.
Motion passed.
We need to send a delegate to Washington D.C. to carry our votes at the National Convention July 24-27, Saturday through Tuesday. The cost will be approximately $1,500.00. The actual RMC convention day is Saturday July 24. Whoever goes is more than welcome to stay as a guest for the rest of the convention. Sunday is usually work shops and the district 7 meeting. Monday and Tuesday will be for the convention itself. Anyone who wants to attend, please let us know. Jill is the only one so far who has volunteered to go.
Saundra made a motion to send one person, to be announced at a later date, to attend the CWA National Convention July 24-27, at a cost of approximately $1,500.00.
Sharon seconded.
All in Favor.
Motion passed.
At 1850 hours, Peggy suggested we go around the table and introduce ourselves and tell a little bit about our history with the company we retired from and our affiliation with the Union. For those who did not attend, you really missed a fun time reminiscing. It brought back a lot of wonderful memories for all of us. Even though we came from California to New York and everywhere in between, it's ironic how similar things were in many departments from coast to coast.
At 1930 hours, Judy started speaking on the issues of healthcare and benefits.
If you have any questions at all about any kind of healthcare or benefit issues, please feel free to call Sean Morrow, who is the very early person in charge of this, at 509 455-2162, or email him at sean.morrow@qwest.com. For later on in the day, please call Carla Floyd at 503 251-7026, or email her at Carla.floyd@qwest.com. This is what they do. This is their job. There is no reason for any retiree to have to worry about healthcare or benefits issues. Sean and Carla are at our disposal, so please us them. You are not alone out there, nor are you forgotten about. Judy has seen many cases where retirees hesitated to speak to anyone about their issues. If you have questions about doctor or any medical bills, call Sean or Carla.
Just a reminder to everyone. Sometimes it's difficult to take our 'work' hat off, even after retirement. Sometimes it's difficult to learn to slow down and breathe. Even though Judy is the President of the district 7 retirees for CWA, this is not a paid position. This is ALL volunteer time she puts in. Even though Peggy Dewey is the Vice-President of the district 7 retirees for CWA, and the President of our local retiree group, these are not paid positions. This is ALL volunteer time she puts in. Judy and Peggy keep us informed because they care. They keep us informed because they still wear their Union hat. Even though they both have very busy lives as retirees, they continue to stay active as Unionists for the benefit of us. Thank you, Judy and Peggy, for still fighting the good fight, even after retiring. We can all show our thanks by attending meetings. We can all show our thanks by paying our $12.00 a year local dues, so we can help send a delegate to the yearly national convention to continue to represent the retirees. We can all show our thanks by getting active in our local retiree group. Think about it, and thanks.
There are 25 retiree groups in district 7.
There are 9 Presidents and 9 Vice-Presidents who sit on the council. Their main focus is on issues that effect retirees. They talk to legislatures. If they're really lucky, they have a legislative chair-person in each group who represents them locally. Here in Phoenix, we are blessed to have Saundra Cole.
At the National Convention in 2009, Larry Cohen stated his strategy was to organize retirees to strengthen the Union and utilize us.
The retirees lost our death benefits in March of 2010. It equaled out to one year of pay. If you took the lump sum, the company 'paid you off'. Managers also lost their death benefits. A.T.&T. still has their death benefits.
Death 'benefits' were not really a 'benefit', per the company. It was just something they gave us out of the goodness of theirs hearts.
Please don't confuse death benefits with life insurance.
And take a few minutes to make sure your beneficiaries are in order for your life insurance. Life insurance goes through Prudential Life. The number is 800 778-3827.
Medical second opinions. Even though it is always strongly suggested we get second opinions on serious medical issues, please make sure you check the doctor out before you get that second opinion. Are they part of your medical plan? If they are, there should be no problem. If they are not, you MUST get an approval from your main doctor.
If you want to save money on lab work, if at all possible, have it done at your network doctor's office. If they have an on-site lab, please have your lab work done there.
Telephone concession. If you lived in the Qwest area and had phone concession, then moved out of the Qwest area, you lost your phone concession. Rumor has it, if you moved back to the Qwest area and requested your phone concession back, the company would deny you your request, stating once you move out of the area, you cannot get your phone concession back. Not true. You CAN get your phone concession back.
Three months before you turn 65 years of age, sign up for Medicare Part B. It takes about three months to process. At this time, do NOT sign up for Medicare Part D. That is the prescription part of Medicare, and it is NOT as good as what we have right now.
If you have time on your hands, go to the Qwest HR page and browse around.
Initialing is as legal as signing. How many times have you been somewhere filling out paperwork, where you've been asked to initial several places, instead of signing your full official name? Initialing is just as legal as signing your full official name. Please read everything very carefully before you initial anything.
If you know someone who is vested, when they turn 65 years of age, have them call Qwest to find out what they will get for their vested pension. It is a two
page formula.
Committee Reports:
Jill Dvir, Treasurer;
none.
Saundra Cole, Legislative Chair;
If you retired from A.T.&T., it is now established you can no longer add anyone on to your long term care through Metlife.
John Hancock is the primary long term care provider, through May.
Call Kim Wilburn if you have any questions, which would include Medicare spousal reimbursement; 614 501-2442, or email her at kwilburn@ems.att.com.
Saundra Cole won the door prize, which was a beautiful handmade necklace and earrings to match made by the Union jeweler who attended the District 7 Convention being held at the Wyndham downtown Phoenix from Saturday May 1st through Wednesday May 5th.
The jewelry looked like it was made from copper, though it could have passed for rose or pink gold, and it had the initials CWA on the necklace and earrings. Thank you, Peggy, for furnishing these beautiful items.
Thank you, Judy, for taking time to visit with us and sharing so much valuable information. We appreciate your time, energy and dedication.
Meeting adjourned at 2040 hours.
In Unity,
Cid Stiefel
Arizona RMC Meeting
October 8, 2009
Serrano’s, Chandler, AZ
The location was Serrano’s Mexican Food in Chandler, AZ. Officer in attendance was Linda Glass, VP.
Due to the lack of participation, the dinner was a social meeting with no action taken on any items.
Respectfully,
Linda Glass
VP
RMC Meeting, 10-23-08
Macayo’s Restaurant
Peggy called the meeting to order at 12:39pm.
Roll Call of Officers:
Previous meeting minutes: Nicki handed out copies of the previous meeting minutes.
President: Peggy
stated the Retired Members Chapter is a statewide organization that belongs to
Local 70003 . Some of the locals did not have enough
members to form their own chapters; so the meetings travel around the state to
Peggy handed out the Member Free-choice postcards to be mailed in.
Peggy gave copies of the AFL-CIO Election recommendations list for the 2008 elections. It is important to endorse candidates who support Healthcare for everyone and CWA endorses candidates who support working family issues.
Membership: We have 152 members. The cost is $25.00 the first year which is paid to the national and then $12.00 to the local every year after that. Peggy said she has received calls from non-members asking about the contract – she has referred them to Qwest. The member list and email list will be purged this month.
Vice President: We
are holding a raffle to raise funds to send delegates to the CWA National
Convention in
Treasurer: Jill reported a balance of $1700.00 in the treasury and ticket sales have brought in $300.00.
Committee Reports:
Mobilization: Peggy said there is an opening for our Mobilization committee.
Old Business: A thank you plaque was given to Jim Weeks for printing all of our 2008 flyers and office stationery.
Qwest Contract: Peggy explained the changes in the second tentative agreement that will be voted on. It is now a 4 year contract and any healthcare amounts for 2012 will be the same for 2011. And that both CWA and Qwest hired financial experts to go over the books. A question was asked about whether retirees get paid for picketing – no, since we don’t pay into the defense fund. Peggy answered another question about what happens to retiree healthcare if the new tentative agreement is not ratified and members go on strike – it depends on what the company wants to give the retirees.
AT&T contract: AT&T’s contract is due in 2009.
ByLaws: The RMC needs someone who is good at re-writing bylaws to volunteer for re-writing our bylaws.
Good and Welfare: Linda Glass’s mother is in Mayo hospital.
Wayne Doty won the gift certificate to Krogers (Fry’s Food Store).
Meeting adjourned at 1:45pm
Respectfully submitted,
Nicki Jones
Secretary
30
RMC Meeting
La Perla Restaurant
August 19, 2008
6:30 pm
Officers in Attendance:
Linda Glass, VP
Since we had so many new members, we introduced ourselves.
Peggy shared that the next RMC convention and CWA
International Convention will be in
Peggy explained that COPE (Committee on Political Education) at the International is changing and we will be able to do monthly Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT) to give money to support candidates that support our retiree issues.
Due to the large number of changes in the Qwest/CWA
healthcare plan (tentative) we will hold the September meeting in
We now have 139 paid members, with new ones coming in the mail on a daily basis. We explained, again, the $25.00 vs the $12.00 dues. If you do not pay your dues, you will be dropped from our email list. We also explained you can still be a dues paying member of your local if you want. Many retirees were dropped out of the International’s database, so we trying to help rebuild it.
Also, at 7019, if you do not pay your dues, you no longer receive the local’s newsletter. Linda told the group the local was considering not mailing a newsletter any more, but sending it via email. There was a lot of concern from the members that many people still don’t have emails or don’t check them on a regular basis. This will be an issue at the local’s convention.
Peggy told everyone we still are looking for a S/T. All the work falls to her and Linda right now. Nicki Jones volunteered for Secretary and Jill Krenitz-Dvir volunteered for Treasurer. YEAH!!
NEW BUSINESS:
Nicki Jones moved to buy a GPS
system, to be raffled off next year to raise money to send our delegates to the
RMC and International convention in
Linda Glass introduced Keith Peters, who is part of the CWA Retiree Committee that was put together after 2005 bargaining to address the issues of retiree health care. He also was one of our health care coordinators before retiring from Qwest. Keith was on a conference call last night that gave an overview of the health care changes. He asked that we not hold him to all things as they were not given a chance to ask questions and have nothing in writing so it is all based on what he could capture in notes. We handed out the excerpt from his September 2006 of the healthcare crisis at Qwest. Keith also explained the caps that we had in the contract regarding retiree healthcare and what they meant.
To the best of his knowledge, this is what he thinks the new benefits will have, but there could be other things, so don’t hold him to this being all there was!
Active-
Premiums monthly-Single=$75.00, E+1=$150.00, Family=? Didn’t catch the amt
Retirees:
Under 65
S=$75.00, Retiree+1=$150.00, Family=$408.00 (about 20% have dependents)
Over 65/on Medicare
There are differences in whether you are both on Medicare or only 1 is on Medicare and if you are single and over or under 65.
The Medicare reimbursement of $48.10 has been eliminated.
We do not know how you will be billed--taken out of your pension check, EFT or what.
Co-pays went up $5.00.
The RX drugs are going up depending on the tiers 1, 2 or 3.
Keith believes the deductibles will remain the same.
There is also an Alternative High Deductible Plan that will have an 80/20 split. Individual=$3,000 and Family=$6,000.
October will be the open enrollment where people will be able to choose what plan they would like to be on. It was clarified that is you have another job with healthcare, that is your primary and Qwest is the secondary. The same applies with Medicare, it is your primary and Qwest is your secondary.
We have a question that Linda will attempt to get answered: Can I stop my Qwest healthcare plan and then come back? For example some people have other jobs where they now have healthcare, but if they quit the job, then can they pick their health care back up at Qwest.
Thank you, Keith for sharing the information!! We have several members share that we knew this was coming. We had been talking about it at our meetings since the last contract in 2005. We just didn’t know how bad it would be. The bargaining committee did the best they could and we thank them for their efforts. It had to be grueling.
Rosemary Ghirardi, a member of the 7019 Multi Media Committee and also very involved in the legislative process was asked to speak on the issues that face us in November and how it all ties in with our bargaining process.
Rosemary started by stating she heard Rossie state at the countdown rally that…. If you don’t vote for Obama, unions will be gone. The right to organize will be gone.
Rosemary went on to say, in a most matter of fact way, if we do not elect Obama and a Congress that supports our issues: You will not see health care addressed, there will be no unions and no more pensions. We will be torn down with another republican administration. We are not a one issue group, for example gun control. As Dee Cantoni stated-if we don’t have relief from healthcare costs and have good union wages, you won’t be able to afford a gun! Rosemary went on to state that we not only need to vote for Obama, but we need to give him a Congress that supports our issues and his issues. Then we must turn to the state level and elect those officials that support our issues as retirees. Rosemary said as a state employee now she can not “politic” at the job site, but she does have a bulletin board that she has a quote that says “If you don’t vote-You don’t count.” This is our most important election ever. You need to know who your state legislators are and your senators. She shared her fear of the Supreme Court Justices that could be appointed (yes-for their life time) by another Republican administration. We can’t afford any more conservative appointments. It will not only affect us, but our children and our grandchildren. John McCain has already voted no to a national health care plan. He has voted no on the paycheck protection act. He continues to try to portray us as the thugs, the old union bosses that go out and bang heads.
The choices we make now, will make tremendous differences in the future!
We and those that came before us stood out on the picket lines for the healthcare we have today and now because we still have no national healthcare we are faced with paying premiums and higher deductibles as Keith has told us. It’s not the fault of our Bargaining Team. They did the best they could. We have lost our power as unions and we must gain that back by electing officials like Obama that supports labor and national health care.
THANK YOU, Rosemary!
Penny Kuche said the Pioneers need help with materials to make their Hugga Bears for the children that the police fire and hospitals help. The Pioneers have volunteers that do this. If you are interested, contact Penny, Peggy or Linda.
Penny also raised the issue about 7019 selling the hall and her opinion that it should have been done before now. Now we can’t afford a small hall??? We not only have problems with having to pay for our health care, but also with our own local.
Dee Cantoni said that Michael Moore the documentary movie maker will be on Larry King this Friday night. His latest movie was called “Sicko.” It was great. The RMC showed it at one of the meetings that was held at Linda’s house.
We will send out the notice for the September meeting as soon as we have the details and confirmation with Bob Lucca.
Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully,
Linda Glass
Vice President