retirees will vote a certain way because quite simply, they have for ... Oregon. The real question you should be asking
SENIORS ADVOCATE
P U B L I S H E D
B Y
P R O T E C T S E N I O R S . O R G
VOL.4. NO. 12
OCTOBER 2018
Claw-Back Fears Real: Retirees Forced to Give Back Pensions
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iat Chrysler recently notified over 100 of their retirees that years ago, the company made an error in their pension calculation and that the retirees must now pay the company back. As you can imagine, this is devastating news for retirees who live on a fixed income and count every penny going in and going out. Fiat Chrysler’s action is called a “pension clawback” and it is currently legal in the US. Not only is this legal, but the practice is on the rise. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, AT&T has gone to the great lengths of enlisting a collection agency to help shake down the retirees they accidentally overpaid. Might you be one of those retirees? Retiree advocates, pension lawyers, and Treasury Department officials agree that AT&T’s aggressive tactics are “unusual,” yet nothing is legally stopping the world’s largest telecommunications company from badgering and shaking down their retirees. A law to restrict clawbacks has been drafted in the past but was never passed by Congress. In fact, in 2015, the Internal Revenue Service issued a notice to all corporation that claw-backs were not necessary.
The unfortunate reality is that pension claw-backs could happen to any retiree with a pension at any time. A recent campaign by ProtectSeniors.Org to support our fellow Fiat Chrysler retirees resulted in hundreds of letters to newspaper editorial pages via our own membership network. During the recession of 2008, Chrysler went bankrupt and received federal taxpayer stimulus money to stay afloat. Everyone—retirees, customers, current employees, dealers, all of America, really —gave Chrysler a second chance. Retirees were particularly supportive, taking benefit cuts and continuing to rally behind their former employer. Sadly, it appears the corporation has a selective memory and has not returned that generosity and team spirit. Fiat Chrysler could easily add additional funds to the pension plan to make up for the loss: last year they reported over 110 billion dollars in revenue. But the company has refused, despite advocacy efforts from other retiree organizations. This is nothing short of a mugging, and rest assured ProtectSeniors is working to make sure these heartless corporations are held accountable for their mistreatment of their pension plan holders.
Help Wanted: Looking For Our Next Local Hero
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very time we share one of our legislative accomplishments with our members, we always hear the same response: “This is great! Can you get something like this passed in Maryland?” Or Florida. Or Illinois. Or Oregon. The real question you should be asking is whether YOU can get something passed in your home state. ProtectSeniors is always seeking local champions in each and every state to make a defining difference. Is your dance card already totally full for 2019? If not, consider getting involved to make the difference in your home state for yourself and fellow retirees. Is there nothing more rewarding and noble than standing up for issues and the people in your community? We are challenging you to fight as a field commander alongside ProtectSeniors to bring home more victories for our retirees in all states.
We can provide you with the resources and technical support to get the job done effectively. We are ready and willing to deploy our organization’s resources and expertise to help you be prepared and successful. Our track record speaks for itself! Even if you’re a snowbird or have relocated to another state, get involved! This past year, Virginia resident Dave Edmunds did not let being a relative newcomer to his state prevent him from getting a new law passed. He had only moved from West Virginia a couple of years earlier and decided sitting on the sidelines was not for him when it comes to protecting his and our earned retirement benefits. We encourage you to take Dave Edmunds’ inspirational lead and become a champion on behalf of retirees throughout your state. Please email us at
[email protected] or call us at 1800-398-3044 if you’re interested!
Executive Directors Report: By Paul Miller
Teddy Roosevelt Led the Charge Up San Juan Hill. YOU Will Lead Retirees on Capitol Hill This October
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rotectSeniors.Org members, we need a retiree wave come November! The upcoming elections are going to dictate the direction of this country until 2020 and retirees need to more forcefully propel themselves into the national conversation and not be pushed aside. How can it be that politically retirees are treated like punching bags in D.C.? Well, Members of Congress know retirees will vote a certain way because quite simply, they have for generations. They are taking advantage of your loyalty. Now it is time to show them enough is enough. No more voting for candidates that do not support retirees over the interests of large corporations that are stealing our earned benefits en-masse, post-retirement. To say it plainly, we cannot expect change if we do not create the driving force for change. Currently, we are fighting for congressional support for H.R 2578, the “Employee Benefits Protection Act.” This bill will put the law on the side of retirees when large corporations terminate or reduce your hard EARNED health care benefits. With the passing of Congresswoman Louise Slaughter earlier this year, we will be introducing a new version of the bill in 2019. This is why it is important that retirees vote for Representatives that support the theory and believe in the protection of your earned retirement benefits. For H.R. 2578 to become law, we need more supportive Members of Congress to help push us over the goal line. The time to act is now. You need your earned health care benefits; your lives are on the line. I believe you should be angry. The only things retirees and seniors hear out of D.C is how things keep getting worse and worse, with Social Security insolvency, corporations stealing pensions and earned health care benefits, and government programs tailored to help seniors and retirees often being first on the chopping block. On top of all this turbulance, we all know the cost of living isn’t going down. Companies, like Verizon and G.E., spend tens of millions of dollars annually on lobbying and political campaign contributions to keep and preserve that status quo, which is good for them, bad for you. This won’t change unless retirees all start working together much more frequently (Continued on page 3)
SENIORS ADVOCATE
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President’s Report: By Jim Casey
Bankruptcy Soars for Retirees in U.S.A.
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his August, a widely-shared pension benefits in retirement are New York Times article now finding that we must absorb reported on some sobering large cost increases at a time when we findings from a new study: bankruptare living on limited incomes. Cost of cy is booming among older Ameriliving increases are nonexistent, pencans. sions are being threatened, and drug According to the Consumer Bankcosts have skyrocketed. ruptcy Project, the While these issues rate of people 65 and impact Americans “I am here to older filing for bankacross many demoruptcy is three times graphics, retirees are tell you that what it was in 1991, often hit hardest. and the same group Many of us do not ProtectSeniors accounts for a far have the option of greater share of all finding another job has your back!” bankruptcy filers. The to pay unexpected reasons they cite are bills or the time to ones very familiar to ProtectSeget back on our feet after filing for niors.Org: the continued shift of bankruptcy. To make matters worse, financial risk from employers and the due to the malicious practice of “Pengovernment to individuals. sion Stripping” by former employers, We’ve seen firsthand how retirees retirees’ federally unprotected penwho were promised healthcare and sion annuities are subject to creditor
OCTOBER 2018
claims, including in the case of bankruptcy. Reading the harrowing accounts of seniors in financial distress, one question persisted in my mind: who has their back? Who has the back of the next generation of older Americans, which is also filing for bankruptcy in greater numbers as they approach retirement? I am here to tell you that ProtectSeniors has your back! As our recent legislative successes in Virginia and Connecticut show, we can still protect our retirement security if we band together and make our voices heard. Elected officials will finally have to stand up to greedy corporations and force them to stop mistreating their retirees. Just last month, the retirees of Fiat Chrysler turned to us to help them fight a draconian pension claw-back on some of their members. We were ready and took action, harnessing the strength of our membership base. When you feel like you have nowhere to turn, remember that there is a powerful organization working for you in state capitals and in Washington, DC. Please get involved in the fight before it is too late! To learn more about what you can do to help, please visit ProtectSeniors.Org.
Tune in to Our Latest Advocacy Video
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ere at ProtectSeniors.Org, we’re always looking for new ways to get our message out. In addition to our aggressive lobbying on Capitol Hill and in the states, we also work hard to make sure members stay abreast of all the threats facing retirees’ earned health and retirement benefits by constantly updating our website and social media channels. We also bring you “news you can use.” One avenue we’ve been heavily utilizing is YouTube—you may even remember our 13-part “Broken Promises” series from a few years ago. To date, our videos have amassed over 50,000 views. Our newest video, “e Value of ProtectSeniors.Org,” features interviews with Executive Director Paul Miller, Special Counsel Edward Stone and President Jim Casey outlining the threats facing retirees and our organization’s approach to fighting for you on the state and federal levels. Not only is it nice to put faces and voices to names you’ve read many times in the newsletter and in out emails, but this
video is perfect for sharing information with those who may not be familiar with our issues and are not yet ProtectSeniors members. If you know anyone who is a current, recent or soon-to-be retiree, getting them to watch a 4-minute information-filled video may be much easier than asking them to read a dense and technical article explaining “Pension Stripping.” Give it a shot! We also recommend you subscribe to the channel, which is free, so that you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. ‘Like’ the videos and share them on your social networks so others in your circle of friends can see them. You can find the channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/ProtectSeniors/ All our videos are cross-posted to our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/protectseniors/) as well, so if you prefer that platform, please view, ‘like’ and share it with your friends there. If even one person gains enlightenment about the risks facing their earned retirement and health benefits, it will be more than worth it.
SENIORS ADVOCATE
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OCTOBER 2018
Executive Director’s Report
Expertise Has a Cost and Requires Your Support Dear fellow members: In 2006, in partnership with the Association of BellTel Retirees Inc., Jim Casey, Eileen Lawrence and I formed a new 501(c)(4) nonprofit volunteer lobbying organization: ProtectSeniors.Org. Since then, we have been proactive at the state and federal levels in protecting your earned benefits, while producing results and impact. e Association of BellTel Retirees had been in business since 1996 and had attracted a loyal membership to help support our efforts. Improvements in benefits and cost-of-living pension increases had been fairly routine up until 1996, something now-Verizon retirees took for granted. We were told, and always knew, that our benefits had been earned as part of our Total Cash Compensation (salaries + benefits). But something had started to change: suddenly we were required to pay a portion of the costs of our healthcare on a sliding scale basis. And it kept increasing. In 2006, it became apparent that retirees needed the power of federal and state laws to protect these vital earned benefits. e trend in the business world was to cut back and pass more costs to retirees, further maximizing profits for the corporation at our expense. us, ProtectSeniors was formed in order to legally lobby for legislative agenda with state and federal representatives to protect what we have earned. We have made progress along the way, and provided you with good tools to accomplish this. We provide you with online access to easily contact your federal and state representatives, and draft messages that you can edit.
By C. William Jones Chairman of the Board ProtectSeniors.Org We design and personalize suggested Letters to the Editor for you to edit and send to your local newspapers to highlight senior issues. We instituted “Virtual Fly Ins” for our members to easily “visit” their Members of Congress with easy to follow steps and draft messages. When our pension funds for retired Verizon managers were removed from the protection of the federal PBGC by Verizon and replaced with individual insurance annuities, subject to weaker state laws, we began pursuing state legislation to protect those annuities and restore some of the protections that were lost. We have State designated ProtectSeniors representatives working locally to introduce/pass state legislation to protect our earned pensions. With dedicated help from our members, we have achieved successes in Connecticut and Virginia, and have strong legislative foundations in place in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. We have implemented what we learned in our working years: e Importance of Communication! Our board members are all volunteers, and devote unlimited hours each year to managing the organization and complying with state and federal regulations. But we need to pay our outstanding professional support team. Please insure our continued success and contribute today. ank you, friends, for your time and efforts! We are in this together, and we are providing a foundation for future retirees.
toward a single-minded goal. is is why ProtectSeniors is building off the success of our recent summer Capitol Hill virtual fly-in by activating our membership once again, to stand up for themselves against the corporate bullies and their lobbyists and let Washington, DC know that enough is enough. Let’s join together to advance our message through the halls of Congress and in the home districts of your elected officials during ProtectSeniors upcoming Virtual Advocacy Week. An advocacy day or week usually means attendees are storming Capitol Hill and speaking to their own Members of Congress in person about issues of importance to them and the organization. Unfortunately, not everyone has the freedom and flexibility to travel to D.C. to advocate. So we are bringing our campaign advocacy tools to your own home, your own computer and telephone and your own local community news outlets!
Be an integral part of ProtectSeniors Virtual Advocacy Event. Please reserve October 9-11 on your schedules and set aside a few hours each day to be a constituent that is finally asking for something important from your Member of Congress and U.S. Senate. Believe that you can and you will make a difference. I am counting on your support. In fact, every one of our members is counting on a single-minded unity that will show Members of Congress what we are made of! I am so proud to be part of such a distinguished group of selfless individuals. Now let’s go make a difference in October and November, and change the way Washington and the political world views retirees.
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Oct. 2018
SENIORS ADVOCATE
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OCTOBER 2018
Our Latest Virtual U.S. Capitol Fly-In: We Need YOU! Forget the ‘Blue Wave’ or the ‘Red Wave’—How About a Retiree Wave Sweeping rough Congress? Building off the success of May’s national virtual fly-in week, we’re asking our members to participate in another one ahead of the midterm elections. What is a virtual fly-in, you might ask? is October 9th, 10th, and 11th, ProtectSeniors is arranging a campaign where our members from across all states will reach out to key federal elected officials via phone, email, social media and letters to stand up for earned retiree health benefits. Specifically, we are working on getting H.R. 2578, the Employee Benefits Protection Act, passed by Congress. is bill will protect retirees from ambiguous contract language that large corporations use to cut health care benefits that have already been earned by retirees through a lifetime of hard work. It will ensure that more retirees can keep their employersponsored health insurance, decreasing the cost of Medicare for the federal government. Companies should stick to their promises and commitments, not shift responsibility to the government and make taxpayers foot the bill, and our elected officials should care about that the health benefits of seniors—a large, loyal voting bloc—are being stolen.
So how is this virtual fly-in going to work? Day 1 (October 9, 2018): Write to your elected official. e ProtectSeniors team will have a pre-drafted message for you to send via our online access portal. In addition, we encourage you to modify this message and personalize it with your own words. Elected officials pay attention when their constituents contact them on a particular issue. Day 2 (October 10, 2018): Share your personal story with us on social media so we can help you promote it and highlight your concerns. Day 3 (October 11, 2018): Call your elected official on the phone. Our office can provide you with a contact list and talk points. Make your voice heard.
You can sign up to participate by emailing us at psoadvocacyday@ gmail.com and let us know you are interested. Also, please look out for emails from ProtectSeniors before and during the virtual fly-in for detailed instructions. Of course, you do not have to wait until fly-in week to contact your elected official. You can reach out many times beforehand and many times afterwards, but please make sure to participate during the fly-in. We need to hold those in power accountable to retirees! Make sure they know that we will not blindly pull the lever for a candidate who does not support our interests. ank you for your participation.
Don’t Be Left in the Waiting Room is Flu Season! Get 1.800MD Free with ProtectSeniors Membership
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s the weather gets chillier and supermarket shelves fill with “pumpkin spice” products, it also means flu season is once again upon us. e Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already begun warning Americans that this year will likely be another bad one like last year, when over 700,000 people were hospitalized for the flu, reaching epidemic levels for 16 straight weeks. e good news? You don’t have to be one of those 700,000! In addition to getting a flu shot, you can sign up for the incredibly useful telemedicine service 1.800MD through ProtectSeniors. A $65 donation to our organization will get you a one year enrollment and convenient access to a medical doctor in your state 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Don’t waste your time and money at the doctor’s office when you can simply pick up the phone, speak to a doctor in your state, and get your medicine prescribed in minutes and ready for pick up at your pharmacy of choice. It could not be easier! is is truly the future of affordable,
accessible medicine. Cold and flu is one of the most common conditions treated by 1.800MD’s team of doctors in every U.S. state, as well as allergies, arthritic pain, bronchitis, headaches, gastroenteritis, respiratory infections, sinus infections, stomach pain, UTIs, and minor burns. Even if you just have a general question and would like some information from a licensed doctor, 1.800MD is there for you. All day, every day. ProtectSeniors leaders sought a partnership with 1.800MD as a value-added benefit for our members because we are invested in you, and this includes your health. is is a very special offer exclusive to our members, and many have
already taken advantage of it. We have updated our contribution card included inside the newsletter and online so that members can sign up for 1.800MD when they make their donation of $65 or more directly on the card. You can also sign up online at https://bit.ly/2QnFkRU To learn more about 1.800MD, please visit https://1800md.com/about/telemedicine. Don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-800-398-3044 or
[email protected] with any questions.
SENIORS ADVOCATE
ProtectSeniors.Org Keep the Retiree Benefits You Earned! 601 Pennsylvania Ave N.W., Suite 900 South Building, Washington, D.C. 20004 Phone: (800) 398-3044 Fax (540) 439-9570 Email:
[email protected] Website: www.ProtectSeniors.Org Paul Miller, Executive Director DIRECTORS:
C. William Jones, Chairman of Board Jim Casey, President Eileen Lawrence, Secretary & Treasurer
