02-19-2009, 06:55 PM
What’s the Truth
It seems that every day another false statement or exaggeration of the truth appears in the press and on TV. We at the Union Hall spend countless hours trying to keep up with the facts to straighten out the half truths. Less than 24 hours after the last issue of the Headlight was printed, the media announced that our new engine plant was not going to be built. According to both the Regional and the International Union, that is not the case. The project is still supposed to move forward and GM has supposedly requisitioned the steel for the building. Along these same lines are the half truths that have been spewed about UAW wages and benefits. Numbers have been thrown out to the American public that are far from correct. Some politicians have used the economic situation to attempt to destroy unions in this country. The aim of these politicians is the destruction of the American middle class. While most of these hypocrites are Republican, some are also Democrats.
The same people who are hammering the Union’s wages and benefit programs are making many times over the working class wages, and sitting in air conditioning offices in Washington, voting in raises for themselves. They also receive the best health care money can buy and lifetime pensions.
Isn’t it strange that so much is made about Union workers’ wages, when the same people dressing down our members are heading up an organization (the U.S. government) that is running hundreds of billions of dollars in the red, yet their wages and benefits remain intact and unmentioned?
Pre-Retirement Classes
We have a tentative Pre-Retirement Class scheduled for Tuesdays, running 5 weeks, starting February 3rd. People wishing to take the class can sign up at the Union Hall. If we get enough people signed up, we will hold the class. Some of the presentations will be from Benefit Reps, Creative Financial Services, Blue Care Network, Social Security information, vision and hearing, etc. Classes will be held both morning and evenings if needed.
SAP Social Security Deductions
Many members who retired in 2006 have been told that they could receive the money deducted from their SAP for Social Security by filing a special form (843) to the IRS. The best information that we have been able to acquire is that you “should not receive it and could be penalized by the IRS if you do receive it” unless you actually made an overpayment in Social Security for that year. See page 8 for GM’s response.
Who’s Answering the Phones?
Over the past three years, staff at the Union Hall has been reduced by 60%. Officers have been reduced from 4 full-time to one and Benefit Reps from 7 to 2. While the active workforce for our Local has been in steady decline, our retired members’ numbers stay on a steady increase. This results in more work from the fewer people still working in the Union Hall. Along with these difficulties, comes the never-ending fiasco from Fidelity and the back and forth layoff status of members. The net result is inability to get through to an actual human voice on many occasions. Rather than have the phones go to a busy signal, they transfer to a voice mail. Our hope is that the membership will be better served than they would be if the phones showed busy. We are working to service all of our members as efficiently as possible.
It seems that every day another false statement or exaggeration of the truth appears in the press and on TV. We at the Union Hall spend countless hours trying to keep up with the facts to straighten out the half truths. Less than 24 hours after the last issue of the Headlight was printed, the media announced that our new engine plant was not going to be built. According to both the Regional and the International Union, that is not the case. The project is still supposed to move forward and GM has supposedly requisitioned the steel for the building. Along these same lines are the half truths that have been spewed about UAW wages and benefits. Numbers have been thrown out to the American public that are far from correct. Some politicians have used the economic situation to attempt to destroy unions in this country. The aim of these politicians is the destruction of the American middle class. While most of these hypocrites are Republican, some are also Democrats.
The same people who are hammering the Union’s wages and benefit programs are making many times over the working class wages, and sitting in air conditioning offices in Washington, voting in raises for themselves. They also receive the best health care money can buy and lifetime pensions.
Isn’t it strange that so much is made about Union workers’ wages, when the same people dressing down our members are heading up an organization (the U.S. government) that is running hundreds of billions of dollars in the red, yet their wages and benefits remain intact and unmentioned?
Pre-Retirement Classes
We have a tentative Pre-Retirement Class scheduled for Tuesdays, running 5 weeks, starting February 3rd. People wishing to take the class can sign up at the Union Hall. If we get enough people signed up, we will hold the class. Some of the presentations will be from Benefit Reps, Creative Financial Services, Blue Care Network, Social Security information, vision and hearing, etc. Classes will be held both morning and evenings if needed.
SAP Social Security Deductions
Many members who retired in 2006 have been told that they could receive the money deducted from their SAP for Social Security by filing a special form (843) to the IRS. The best information that we have been able to acquire is that you “should not receive it and could be penalized by the IRS if you do receive it” unless you actually made an overpayment in Social Security for that year. See page 8 for GM’s response.
Who’s Answering the Phones?
Over the past three years, staff at the Union Hall has been reduced by 60%. Officers have been reduced from 4 full-time to one and Benefit Reps from 7 to 2. While the active workforce for our Local has been in steady decline, our retired members’ numbers stay on a steady increase. This results in more work from the fewer people still working in the Union Hall. Along with these difficulties, comes the never-ending fiasco from Fidelity and the back and forth layoff status of members. The net result is inability to get through to an actual human voice on many occasions. Rather than have the phones go to a busy signal, they transfer to a voice mail. Our hope is that the membership will be better served than they would be if the phones showed busy. We are working to service all of our members as efficiently as possible.