We just had an active member who had lost his eligibility, he had not worked the agreed to amount of hours to make him eligible for health benefits, he did not qualify, because of health reasons (ironically) he had to retire, guess what, the minuite he walked out the door he became eligible, he qualified, this is simply because of his status as a pensioner. This is nothing new, it has been a right and privledge since 1951. It amazes me how Union members can still take the employers line in the face of so much historical and legal evidence. Why do you think there have been hundreds upon hundreds of law cases where a group of retirees, much like our own, have had to sue an employer to secure the promise of lifetime benefits, that the employer had reneged upon. In an abundance of these cases the retirees rely upon language contained in the SPD, just like us. You cannot down play the importance of the SPD it is a binding legal document. The Dept. Of Labor, published a brief titled “Can The Retiree Health Benefits Provided By Your Employer Be Cut ?” This was widly circulated at the caucuses in 1997 and 1998, It speaks of the importance of the SPD language to all pensioners. It states under one section titled “What If The Language Is Conflicting Or Ambiguous ?” that “Some courts have enforced clear promise language in an SPD, even in cases where the plan document contained a right by the employer to amend the promise. ” This is what initially made me suspicious and led me to do much research on the issue. You do not Know more than our Union Trustees that were the originators of the Plan. In each Issue of the Dispatcher in the early 50’s there was a question and answere section, one for Pensions, and one for Welfare. Here are a couple of questions to the Union Trustees by our Old Timers
#1) Dispatcher 3-30-51
Q: What if I retired during the year with out having made the full hours.
A: If you were Eligible at any time since the plan started i. e; Feb. 1, 1950 and you now have been dropped because of insufficient hours, you fill out a form which your local will have. You will be covered completely For The Rest Of Your Life for hospital-medical-surgical benefits and 500.oo life insurance. Providing you are 65 years of age and have been in the industry 20, years the last five of which must be consecutive. (see the word eligible, its your favorite)
#2) Dispatcher 3-28-52
Q: What happens to my welfare benefits when I retire.
A: Your hospital-medical-surgical coverage for you and your family continue For The Rest Of Your Life. Your life insurance continues for 500. oo rather than 1,000. oo with double indemnity for accidental death
#3) Dispatcher 5-9- 52 “The Pension Plan. ”
Q: Does a retired man continue to be covered under the Welfare Plan. A: Yes he and his family remain Eligible for Permanente As Long As He Lives. And at his death his widow or heir will recieve 500. oo life insurance if his death is due to natural causes and 1,000.oo if his death is accidental.
If you log onto the Local #13 unofficial webpage at http://home.earthlink.net/~chwbiii/summery.htm you will find a volume of references to the guarantee of LifeTime hospital-medical surgical benefits. Think logically for one moment and look at the facts from a Union standpoint rather than an employer standpoint. Harry Bridges and the Union trustees at the inception of the pension and welfare plans definitely had the correct meaning of the word ELIGIBILITY. What makes you think for one second that they would outright lie to the members that inquired with the above posted questions. They were the ones that drafted the plan. They were proud of it and so were the Old-Timers. There is also futher proof surrounding the the M & M agreement of 1960. Why did our Union officials when printing the Unions History Book “THE ILWU STORY Two Decades Of Militant Unionism” (1955) Insert the following under pensions. “Under a 10 Year Agreement Pensioner’s recieve 100. oo a month, plus social security payments. plus life insurance, and plus Health Care For Life for themselves and their dependents. When the same History Book THE ILWU STORY was reprinted in 1963 It contained this phrase under the section titled M & M ”All Pensioners under the regular Pension and Welfare agreements, receive LifeTime Medical and Hospital care for themselves and their dependents and paid up life insurance of $1000- all at No Cost To Themselves. Their widows continue to receive the pension and welfare for one year. In return for these guartantees and benefits, backed by the $29 million fund, the Employers Benefit from changes in working rules dealing with slingl loads, first place of rest, multiple handling, gang sizes and manning scales“ It is clear to me that Harry Bridges and our other Union Officials and Trustees Meant what they said. And as I reffered to in my HEALTH BENEFITS SELLOUT post of July 21, 2000 the trade-offs the Union bargained with the employers in the M & M agreement secured LifeTime benefits for all Pensioners. The Problem is funding, that is what the attorney Richard Schwarts was trying to explain to the delegates at the Caucus. Getting the language back in the SPD’s does not solve the problem, the Employers OWE us a fund. All of the pension and Welfare agreements happened prior to the financial reporting requirement of ERISA. And because of all of our history, the Employers In over 40 years have never challenged The Union when the documents containing the LifeTime language were distributed, in fact the PMA had contained the same LIFETIME language in their Annual Reports. Of course this language has also been changed. So, Who’s Changing The History ?? It’s not Me, Its not Harry Bridges, Its people like you.
DID YOU KNOW?? That when Brian McWilliams had the Edition of “THE ILWU STORY” republished in 1997 all references to Pensioner’s LifeTime Health benefits were removed from the history book. The language was removed in two places, under the M & M section and under the PENSION section. It is no less than a traitorious act What Brian McWilliams and his Cronies have done surrounding the SPD Fraud and the 26th amendent to the Pension Plan Fraud. for you to join in and support these types of activities is just doing futher damage to the ILWU, I dont give a Rats A@# About the election other than we get rid of that Crook McWilliams before he does futher damage to our Union. My personal wish is that he Rot In Hell with that other imfamous former Labor leader turned traitor Ronald Regan.
Jack Mulcahy
#8 Portland
