Retiree
information Retiree
information
The Regular monthly meeting for the SOAR Retirees will be on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 1:00 unless otherwise noted.
The Soar Report
SOAR currently has over 58,000 members in the U.S. and over 8,000
members in Canada. SOAR has over 230 Chapters in North America.
The website is still a work in progress. The Communications Department now runs
the site. The USWA has updated and improved the site dramatically.
All SOAR Chapter elections will be held this November. We placed a notice in
the summer and fall SOAR editions of Steelabor and we are sending this notice
to all of the Chapters in August to remind them of the election.
Both the SOAR and Steelworkers Conventions are scheduled for April 2005 in Las
Vegas, NV. The USWA Convention will be held at the Hilton Convention Center.
The SOAR International Conference will be held at the Riviera. We are still
working on finalizing our arrangements with the hotel and airlines. When additional
information is available we notify all of our Chapters in writing once the Conference
is set. Please do not make any reservations until we complete our work and you
are requested to do so.
Notification has been sent to all of the SOAR Chapters with more than 250 dues
paying members in order for them to elect their allotted delegate(s) at their
regularly scheduled meeting in September 2004.
Notification has been sent to all of Chapters with less than 250 members about
the "at-large delegates" selection process that will take place within
the Districts during the month of October 2004. The rules and procedures were
mailed to each Chapter during the month of May 2004.
The USWA has created a new effort to help mobilize and energize our union's
retirees called the Steel ReUnion Program. There will be extensive coverage
on this initiative in the next issue of the Oldtimer. The program is designed
to strengthen SOAR by drawing more retirees into the fight for National public
policies that preserve and improve the quality of life of our retirees and working
families.
Unfortunately, retirees are still under attack. Halliburton Company
which purchased a number of USWA represented facilities has petitioned the courts
to do away with retiree health care coverage for those retirees that are Medicare
eligible. We are still engaged in the bankruptcy struggles of Kaiser Aluminum
and Chemical Company, which has over 6,000 retirees, scattered across the U.S.
and RBX a rubber company with locations scattered across the country.
We have had some success in establishing Retiree Benefit Trust Programs for
a number of our retirees and they are now receiving some benefits through these
programs. The Trust Funds are up and running for retirees from National Steel,
Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Company, Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel and others.
We have started the process of gathering information from retirees from LTV,
Bethlehem and Acme Steel Companies in an effort to get the ISG Retiree Trust
Fund up. and running. Once all of the data is collected, the actuaries will
be able to come up with funding estimate to allow us to move forward in establishing
a benefit plan for this group of retirees.
The fight for a good prescription drug bill is not over. We need to scrap the
bill that President Bush just signed into law and replace it with a comprehensive
plan that provides real benefits, not the smoke and mirrors that exists today.
We need to strengthen Medicare, not weaken it as proposed by the current administration.
As I stated in my last report, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) introduced The Defense
of Medicare Act" - a bill that would end the HMO's $46 billion payoff included
in the Bush Medicare deal. The Defense of Medicare Act calls for an immediate
end to the $12 billion "slush fund" -a straight giveaway for private
insurance plans. It also eliminates the $34 billion over payment to the HMO's
the Bush deal crafted - giving HMO's an average of 109% MORE than what traditional
Medicare costs. We are continuing our efforts to defend and protect Social Security
from the greedy hands of Wall Street investors. A new report released June 14,
2004 by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the financial state of Social
Security finds that the program will be solvent longer than estimated earlier
this year by the Social Security Board of Trustees. According to the CBO report,
the long-range deficit in Social Security is only about half as large as projected
by the Trustees, and Social Security funds will be able to pay full benefits
for almost 50 years, until 2052 - a decade longer than previously projected.
The CBO report confirms that Social Security is not in crisis and the financial
challenges are manageable. The CBO's findings reinforce previous indicators
that Social Security is continuing a decade-long trend of stability and even
improvement in the long-range health of the system. Congressman Robert T. Matsui
(D-5-CA) stated in a press release that, "The Administration has tried
to portray Social Security as unsustainable to push for privatization of the
system. The new CBO report builds on evidence in the Trustees' reports that
Social Security is affordable and sustainable. Creating private accounts would
only exacerbate the system's financial challenges.
The biggest challenge ahead for all us is the upcoming presidential election.
We need to marshal all of our resources to elect a President that cares about
the needs and wants of the working class and retirees and we believe John Kerry
is the candidate that will best address the needs of our membership! I have
enclosed a Steelworker "Election '04" Report for you information.
I believe it does a great job of outlining the different priorities of the 2
candidates and clearly states why John Kerry is the right choice for retirees
and working families.
James F. Centner, Director
Respectfully submitted by:
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