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Steel workers' pensions discussed
Norma Mendoza , Edwardsville Intelligencer
November 10, 2005
More than 1,000 union retirees and their spouses attended a dinner at the Gateway Center in Collinsville that was sponsored by the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR).
They were invited to learn about the ReUNION Project, a joint effort of USW and the leading producers of domestic steel. Many had worked at SCI Spectrulite Consortium, Laclede Steel and Granite City Steel before they went bankrupt.
When the plants closed or were threatened with closure, the retirees' pensions were taken over by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and they lost their health care benefits. Now, with major airlines going bankrupt and more defined benefit plans terminated and picked up by PBGC, its resources are strained.
Congress is under added pressure to somehow deal with pension security, but union leaders see some damaging provisions in two bills that are currently before the U.S. House and Senate.
They claim they would lessen the value of pension guarantees and require funding demands from companies that are counter productive.
Ike Gittlen, a USW representative from Pittsburgh told those assembled Monday night that the ReUNION Project was established in April of 2004 to deal with the key issues of health care, retirement income security and trade issues and in part to strengthen the union's credibility with its retirees by strengthening SOAR.
"I am a PBGC recipient," Gittlen said.
He said up until April of 2004, the USW was fighting to save the steel industry in the United States. Now that the industry is in a more secure position, the union is looking to protect its retirees.
The ReUNION Project is not limited to union members and union retirees, but is open to business owners and elected officials. Several Metro East mayors were in attendance at the dinner.
"There has been an all-out attack on retirement by this administration," Gittlen said. "They talk about Social Security privatization or the Wall Street Engorgement Act. They developed Medicare Part D, the Aid to Dependent Drug and Insurance Companies Act."
He said PBGC has worked well since it was established in 1974 until the demise of manufacturing in the United States.
"Three million jobs disappeared because of poor trade policies," Gittlen said. "There was deregulation, primarily in the airline industry and the stock market crash in the late 1990s."
Gittlen said funding rules back then allowed slippage and let companies in trouble drop into bankruptcy and drop their pension plans.
He said there are some good portions of the legislation proposed in Congress that will shore up pension plans and make them fully funded in seven years. But, he said USW cannot support the legislation if the bad portions are not amended.
The bad portions would lessen the value of pensions and extreme funding rules would force companies to put too much money into the pension fund which would not increase retirees' benefits, but would sit idle and be counterproductive to the company. He said these rules would drive companies away from defined benefit plans.
USW will support SB1783 only if the DeWine/Mikulski Amendment is adopted to remove some of the requirements the union and steel companies find unacceptable.
Gittlen called on the retirees in attendance to become political activists in their own behalf.
Those in attendance were urged to contact Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama and urge them to vote for the amendment. He asked them to call others with the message about the legislation and if possible, to visit the senators and representatives in person.
State Rep. Jay Hoffman addressed the retirees with the message that Illinois legislators plan to expand health care in the state to cover seniors in the same way the recently enacted All Kids program extends health care coverage to all children under 18 in the state.
"We were the first state in the nation to ensure health care for all of our kids," he said.
"And we were the first state to allow seniors to go to Canada and England to get medicines for less. Prescription medication costs more here -- that's just wrong. We're sending the pharmaceutical companies a message that here in Illinois, we're not going to put up with it."
A woman from Edwardsville shared this reporter's table. She said her husband retired from Granite City Steel and lost his health care benefits when the mill was sold. She said she and her husband depend on the health care coverage she receives as a state retiree from the Alton Mental Health Center.
"I don't know what we would do without it."
Jim Duffett, executive director of the Health Care Justice Campaign in Illinois, came to enlist the support of the retirees in the campaign to reform health care in the state. He spoke of the growing cost to businesses and institutions of providing health care coverage. He noted that the Rockford School District reportedly could fund the salaries of 46 teachers with what it pays to provide health coverage for one year.
Duffett encouraged the retirees' to attend the public hearing about health care that will take place in Collinsville in April. He said the task force needs to hear their personal stories.
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