Union leader: ATI health care intact
"Your health care is intact; that's what I wanted to tell you," Arabia said.He spoke to 217 retirees who attended the meeting Arabia called at
The lockout was announced after two months of negotiations on a labor agreement. Union workers continued working under terms of the old contract, which expired
Although he told the retirees that their insurance won't be affected by the lockout, Arabia advised them to be diligent.
"If anything changes with your health care, call us so we can contact the union attorneys," Arabia said.
Cards with numbers for the union hall and some of its officers were passed out to the retirees as he spoke.
One retiree asked Arabia what effect a long lockout would have on the
"The VEBA fund would be empty by 2016," Arabia said.
He said that one of the proposals ATI listed on its "last, best and final offer" related to VEBA was really not the company's idea.
The company had proposed eliminating the quarterly bonus to workers that was based on
But Arabia said it was not the company that proposed that but the United Steelworkers, in an attempt to help the retirees.
"ATI took the steelworkers idea and they put it in their proposal," Arabia said.
He said changing the bonus and using it for wages and VEBA was a great idea.
Contacted last night, ATI spokesman
"That's between them, that's their conversation and we don't want to get in the middle of that," Greenfield said.
Arabia covered some of the drastically increased health care costs that union workers hired after
"If they break the active workers, what do you think would happen to the retirees?" he asked.
"We are all willing to pay more, we just don't want to lose it," she said. "We all understand that everyone has to pay more for their health insurance, and we're willing to pay more, too."
Retiree
"I would rather pay more in a premium," Grantz said. "I want them to leave my health insurance alone."Arabia told the crowd: "I'm working with everybody (at the USW) in
While Arabia called the meeting to update the retirees, he also asked for their help and support by joining the active union members on the picket lines at the mill along
That brought applause from the retirees, whom Arabia asked to stop by the union hall and sign up when they want to join the picket lines.
Grantz proposed another way to help.
"For any guys who say they can't go to the picket line, pass the hat," Grantz said, holding a
A number of retirees followed Grantz's example.
"We need to help these guys out," Grantz said. "They don't have anything coming in. We still have our money coming in."
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