RCA/Thomson retirees scratching heads over life insurance benefit loss [Herald-Times, Bloomington, Ind.]

June 30--RCA/Thomson retirees scratching heads over life insurance benefit loss

Retirees of the former RCA/Thomson plant in Bloomington, once the largest assembly location for color televisions in the world, have received word that RCA's successor company is dropping payment of life insurance premiums for RCA's retired workers.

The current company, Technicolor, said in an announcement from its human resources department that the company will be dropping payment of the premiums as of July 31. Employees would be given the option to pick up the full cost of the premiums themselves, but with their present age and health status taken into account, according to the announcement. Failure to act by Aug. 31 would mean the policy would lapse.

In the statement, the company said it was cutting off premium payments in an effort to minimize debt and reduce costs.

The cost of maintaining retiree benefits continues to mount, the statement said, and the company "must take steps to control and contain these costs. Due to continuing rate increases from our life insurance carrier," the company therefore is dropping the coverage.

Retirees from the Bloomington plant, which ceased operations in 1998, are left scratching their heads over why they're losing something they thought had already been bought and paid for and which many had been counting on to cover their own "final costs" -- funeral and burial expenses. They say they are feeling especially cheated that just because they have outlived some of their peers whose heirs have collected insurance payouts, their own heirs won't.

They also question how the company can fail to meet what they see as a contractual obligation.

The plant was the largest employer in the city at one time, with more than 10,000 on the payroll. Charles Stickels, secretary of the RCA/GE/Thomson Retirees Association, estimated more than 1,000 Thomson retirees still live in this area.

One of them, Leo Haganman, said he does not understand how such unilateral action could be legal, and that when he retired in 1995 he was led to believe the insurance -- his benefit is set at $12,600 -- was already paid up. He asked why, if premiums have been paid all along, would he not be able to cash in the policy at its current value or at least keep paying the premium at its old rate rather than at a new, certainly much higher rate.

"The way I understood it, it was vested," Haganman said. "It was a deal that was fixed. We got this amount."

Retirees don't know where to turn for advice or clarification, they say, and a significant problem is that there no longer are any company operations in Bloomington, so there is nowhere to go locally to get questions answered. There is a phone number listed on the announcement of the cuts, but those who have called say the only answers they can get deal with specifics of individual policies, not with more general questions of fairness or legality.

Stickels, who retired in 1994 only 10 days short of 43 years with RCA/Thomson, said his insurance payout would be about $16,000 if he were able to afford to keep the policy.

Friday, Haganman found a March 1997 Herald-Times Hotline item in which a reader asked about such things as the continuation of life insurance after the then-recently announced closure of the Bloomington plant.

In the Hotline response, a Thomson benefits specialist said the closure would not affect the life insurance policy and that accounts had already been set aside to cover the needs of those insured through the company.

When a reporter called the number on the cancellation notice, he was told none of his questions would be answered because he was not a retiree. A call to Technicolor headquarters in Indianapolis got a call-back from a Technicolor spokesman in Hollywood. He said he wasn't sure how he ended up with the call-back request, and was himself involved in post-production promotion of entertainment pieces and knew nothing of the concerns of retirees. But he said he would forward the information request on to France, where his bosses reside, and ask that they be in touch. As of the end of the workday Friday, no response was forthcoming.

Dist. 61 Indiana State Rep. Matt Pierce, D, Bloomington, said he forwarded the original announcement of the pending loss of insurance to the state legislative services agency, the research arm of the Legislature, but was told that the matter is likely a federal rather than state matter. He suggested the best route for information might be through the union that represented Thomson's workers.

Local 1424 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Thomson local here, closed about the time the plant did. IBEW International'sDistrict 6 office in Illinois handles retiree concerns from this area. The person who answered the phone there Friday said union officials were aware of the insurance concern but everyone was away at a conference Friday and could not be reached for comment.

An email request Friday to a District 6 union official had not gotten a response by the end of the work day. A copy of the Technicolor announcement also was forwarded late Friday to the office of U.S. Rep. Todd Young, R-Indiana, whose 9th District includes Bloomington. His spokesman, Trevor Foughty, said Young was on a flight back to Indiana and was unreachable at the moment, but the office would be following up.

___

(c)2012 the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.)

Visit the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.) at www.heraldtimesonline.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services