This group had a first meeting December
2002 at the small meeting room at the
IBEW union hall chaired by Marlene Majeski. 40-45 retirees attended.
I then
chaired the January 2003 meeting and monthly meeting thru June 2003 when
election
of officers was held. Our bylaws were voted on and accepted.
We have had several speakers at our meetings.
Aimee McKim from V.I.E:
Volunteers Intervening for Equity explaining the services they provide.
Another guest speaker from V.I.E. on supplemental insurance (medicare):
A guest speaker from Southwest Eight, Council Bluffs, Kelly McAtee:
Kelly
explaining the services provided to the Southwest Eight counties of Iowa.
March 1, 2003 started the twenty month Lucent contract till October 31,
2004.
That contract raised the Doctor and prescription co-pays.
March 1, 2003 also changed the OCC buy up provision.
Now if you did not do the buy up at retirement you can do it now.
However,
when you call you may be told you cannot do it. Then ask to speak to a
supervisor
because you know you can do it.
At our October 2004 meeting we had Shelly Wedergren from United Healthcare
Medicare Complete and Harriet (Sam) Poole from United Healthcare Traditional
Indemnity coverage.
We held two meetings in December, the 2nd and the 6th, where we went over
the
Lucent contract proposed medical changes in the new 7 yr 7 month contract,
also,
Steve Lasko, was here to go over the United Healthcare Medicare Complete
Choice
Plan which now covers ten counties. In Nebraska, Douglas, Sarpy,
Washington,
Burt, Cass and Otoe, in Iowa, Pottawattamie, Crawford, Page and Shelby.
The new contract was ratified. There are now about 3000 active CWA
union
members and less than 300 IBEW members.
Election of new officers will be at the July 2003 meeting.
Officers and Executive Board Members Elected:
President: Howard Clark
Vice-President: Everett Peterson
Secretary: Pauline Lieth
Treasurer: Claude Welch
Executive Board Members:
Andy Barges
Betsy Church
Nick Johnson
Dan Kovar
Jeanine Krogmann
Bev Opfer
John Pinkerton
Cheryl Todd
Richard Townsend
Our name is IBEW Lucent/Avaya Pensioners Association:
We are associated with groups in Allentown, Pennsylvania; Columbus, Ohio;
and
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Representatives from the groups met with the IBEW representatives,
negotiators
and Lucent representatives in August at IBEW Headquarters in Washington DC.
We
formed Retiree Council 1.
However, we have yet to receive information pertaining to ratified contract.
The information we have is from the CWA union.
It is that the IBEW does not consider BA members as retirees.
We have another meeting in DC in February or March. I hope to work
further on
changing that.
Until the October meeting all meetings were at the union hall except,
January,
2004.
Proposed medical changes and premiums for formerly represented Lucent
retirees.
Formerly represented Lucent retiree numbers:
CWA
38,087 2005
IBEW 27,885 2005
Other 2,490 2005
68,012 2005
Dependents 45,139 2005
Pre age 65 19,725
Post age 65 48,287
Nancy Griswold and Marie Pope help take minutes at the beginning of this group.
This summary of minutes was written up by Everett Peterson:
Contributed by: Pauline L.
