| May
2010
A
MESSAGE FROM YOUR VICE PRESIDENT MONTE BAGGS
The recent passage of the Healthcare Bill by President Obama
has caused a good deal of consternation around the country but
in particular the retirees of America. I have received numerous
calls and emails from our members asking for information about
its impact on TelCo retirees. In particular they want to know
what AT&T is going to do with our healthcare plans.
This interest was of course inflamed by the recent filing with
the FCC in which it announced it would have to take a $ 1 billion
charge against earnings as a result of this bill. Making it
worse AT&T also said it would have to take a look at its
healthcare plans for current and retired employees. This, of
course peaked our interest, so we asked for a special meeting
with Marty Webb, AT&T Vice President of Benefits, to discuss
the issue. Our request was granted and we decided to hold the
meeting in conjunction with the AT&T annual meeting in Chattanooga,
Tennessee (kill two birds with one stone).
Marty agreed to meet with Chuck Gilbert and I the night before
the annual meeting.
We had two major issues on our agenda:
1) Pension adjustments and
2) Healthcare changes.
I’ll try to summarize our discussion on these issues next.
Pension adjustments:
Mr. Webb was quick to point out that “pension adjustments”
is an issue decided far above his level, but he added he will
certainly carry our input to the proper people within the company.
He stated that to his knowledge there are no adjustments planned
for this year however, the issue is discussed each year. Our
next question was “Under what conditions do you see an
adjustment being made?” He said he hadn’t been asked
that question before so he couldn’t answer that right
off. He promised to get back to us with an answer.
He pointed out that AT&T would have to, for the first time
in a number of years, contribute to the pension trust in order
to get it 100% funded for this year. He added that this and
other factors, such as the stock market’s performance,
will obviously impact any decision to make adjustments in the
future.
I have inserted Mr. Webb’s formal reply to our question
(“Under what conditions do you see an adjustment being
made?”) below:
Healthcare changes:
We asked Mr. Webb if, as a result of the recent passage of the
Healthcare Bill, AT&T is planning any changes in “retirees”
healthcare plans? His response was not surprising. He told us
that of course, they had looked very carefully at the impact
on their financials of the new healthcare bill. He added that,
at this time, they have no plans to change anything. However,
he continued to say that the way the bill is constructed there
are still many unknowns which they will have to monitor over
time. The bill provides for implementation of the various phases
over several years and there could still be some amendments
to the bill. So, as you would expect, Mr. Webb said they will
continue to monitor the impact as it settles in place. Mr. Webb
added that they have concerns about the stated cost containment
provisions of the plan, as many others are. However, this too
will take time to evaluate.
The following morning Chuck Gilbert and I attended the annual
meeting of AT&T, and as usual there were many retiree organizations
represented there. Most if not all lobbied the Chairman, Mr.
Randall Stephenson, for pension adjustments, as we had with
Mr. Webb. Mr. Stephenson confirmed “no pension adjustments.”
He also confirmed that they plan no changes to retiree healthcare
plans at this time. He stated “we are at stand down at
the present time, while we study where to go next.”
Other “official” business went about as usual. Three
stockholder proposals were narrowly defeated and all Board members
were re-elected except for a number who retired.
Chuck
and I asked Mr. Webb to allow us to have our pictures taken
with him, just to be sure all of you would believe we were really
there and we did indeed meet with him.
So, see below:
| Monte
Baggs, Marty Webb, |
Chuck
Gilbert, Marty Webb |
After the
Annual Meeting we took the opportunity to meet with Marty and
his boss Mr. Bill Blase, Senior Executive Vice President Human
Resources. Interestingly enough, Mr. Blase was a former executive
at Pacific Bell in charge of External Affairs in the 1990’s.
He shared some thoughts with us about the difficult regulatory
environment we all faced in those days.
If you have any questions about this subject please feel free
to call me on our new
800 number (1-877-34TelCo;ot 1-877-348-3526).
Monte Baggs
From
Mr. Monte Baggs, Vice President of TelCo Retirees Association,
Inc. I
am often asked "what exactly has TelCo done for us lately?"
In
fact I was asked that recently in an email from a couple who
have been members for some time. In an attempt to answer their
questions I chronicled our efforts such that it became obvious
we should share the information with all of our members.
For
that reason I am going to copy the text of that message here
for you to read. I hope you find it so inspiring you will want
to share it with friends and encourage them to join our association.
Here
is my message:
Susan and Steve:
Your request is certainly understandable. Mr. Emery was certainly
the driving force in this association for several years and we
all miss his leadership. Since he has departed we have tried to
divide his duties among a number of directors in the organization.
I have taken on the duties of liaison with the AT&T Benefits
organization and handle the questions/complaints from members
who aren't getting what they need from either Fidelity or AT&T
directly. We recently added an 800 #, which terminates at my home
(877-348-3526) to provide better communication capabilities for
those who would rather talk with someone than email, text, twitter
or blog. Also, we have continued to improve our website by adding
information links to AT&T and Fidelity websites as a convenience
to those members who use our website for directions to information.
In that regard, we are planning a complete overhaul of our website
this year.
We are planning
to meet with AT&T's Vice President of HR at their annual
meeting this year to discuss their future plans with regard
to our members benefits, including how the current healthcare
initiative in Washington D.C. will affect us, among other issues.
It has been our practice to meet regularly with AT&T whenever
we have significant and substantive issues to place on the agenda.
Since the "open enrollment debacle" of a couple of
years ago AT&T, under the leadership of Marty Webb, VP of
HR has done a remarkable job of serving our membership. Let
me remind you that I, personally, along with Chuck Gilbert sat
with Mr. Webb and his staff and counseled them with regard to
the issues that required their attention. Since then we have
had few instances in which we needed face to face meetings.
We have found that often times it isn't what we actually accomplish
that is important as much as it is what we don't allow to happen.Our
"watchdog" presence is certainly a factor in AT&T's
actions. In fact they have frequently used us as a resource
in planning changes in our benefits plans.
On a national
level we have allied ourselves with the NRLN (National Retirees
Legislative Network), a group in Washington D.C. that represents
retiree organizations of the largest fortune 500 companies in
the USA. Our President, Chuck Gilbert is on their Board of Directors
and just returned from a meeting with members of President Obama's
white house staff working on healthcare reform in Washington.
If you haven't visited the NRLN's website I urge you to do so
(www.nrln.org) and look for the link to the NRLN Legislative
Agenda. It spells out their position with regard to all kinds
of retiree issues, all of which TelCo Retirees Assn. supports.
We believe
it is important to include a focus on the national scene as
well as on AT&T directly. Many of the issues we face with
AT&T, other retiree organizations face with their respective
companies and these issues are gaining attention in Congress.
We can play an important role in structuring the changes they
plan for our future especially with healthcare reform.
I live in Salinas, Ca., Larry Love lives in the Sacramento area
and we try to represent the No. Cal. membership. We understand
your concerns regarding the So. Cal. issue. As you know the
organization got its start in the San Diego area and most of
the directors are from that vicinity as well as all our banking
interests, so for that reason it makes sense to leave the headquarters
there. In no way, however, does that diminish the efforts the
association exerts on behalf of the members in the No. Cal.
area.
We have
attempted to have meetings in the North but got very little
attendance. For expense reasons we have tried to limit the number
of locations of our Annual meetings, although we discuss this
option each year.
Regarding
your question of membership... as you would expect, due to the
aging process, we have lost a few relative to our highest membership
numbers. We still work hard at recruiting however and have found
that "word of mouth" is the very best recruiter. You
can find the membership list on the Website by going to the
"Members Only" tab then to the "Membership Roster"
tab.
I hope I
have convinced you to stay with us and hopefully help us recruit
others, but in case I haven't please know that we appreciate
your past support. Feel free to contact me directly using the
877 number referenced earlier or email me here.
Sincerely,
Monte Baggs |
