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Lab Retirees: Funds Raised, Legal Action To Start
By The Independent
The UC Livermore Lab Retiree Group has raised enough money to begin legal efforts to try to regain membership in University of California health plans, group leader Joe Requa announced.
He said that a formal contract will come first. “Lawyers work on court time, which seems to run much slower than real time, so there may be a short delay before that (legal action) happens,” he wrote in an email.
The financial target was $150,000, which attorneys told the retiree group would be needed to support the initial phase of the legal effort. The target has now been reached, prompting Requa to joke that he should be able to proclaim “mission accomplished” as President Bush famously did seven years ago ¬ only to see the Iraq war continue for years more.
The legal effort will also be a continuing one and in time may require still more funds, Requa said. “Unfortunately, we just won one battle. I expect the war to persist for some time so I will need your continued help.”
The retiree group’s law firms are developing strategy now. First steps are likely to involve opening a court case aimed at uncovering documents and policy statements that bear on the decision to remove Lawrence Livermore Lab retirees from UC group health coverage.
The retirees were covered by the University’s group plans under a succession of contracts that began in 1952 and ended at the beginning of 2008, when a for-profit contractor took over Laboratory management from University of California. The new contract specified benefits “substantially equivalent” to UC’s group plans. However, the contract wording was changed a year later under circumstances that have never been explained to retirees.
The new health arrangements have come across as a patchwork of plans that appear to abandon individual retirees to fend for themselves in a complex system. Retirees share painful stories with one another about former colleagues or their spouses who have been unable to obtain service from the health consulting firms that now separate retirees from the Laboratory and University that once took an interest in their welfare.
Not all retirees report dissatisfaction in the current year. Some are paying no more for health care than in the past. However, concern remains for the future, that being forced out of UC group plans and into individual plans will make them vulnerable to rapid price hikes or even to being dropped as they age and require more care.
5 comments:
what a shame. these poor retirees have been duped by a bunch of ambulance chasers. say good bye to your hard earned retirement money.
It's great that something is being done to fight against these injustices, and I say more power to you. It's been close to 2 years now since the union represented skilled craftsmen were illegaly laid-off and we are still to see any results or even any news from the union on this matter. An update on the union website or mention of the case in a flyer would be nice but we don't even get that. Get ready for a long haul to get any justice in this matter.
Why isn't this lawsuit being done as class-action?? Both LLNL and LANL are involved, since their contract evolutions were handled the same way. Both sets of retirees are affected the same way. Why, as a LANL retiree, was I not contacted to contribute to the lawsuit fund (which I would have gladly done)? Who is missing the boat here??
NNSA is just itching to have both LLNS and LANS dump their retiree medical coverage.
You can count on NNSA ordering the "for-profit" LLCs to do do some time down the road. The NNSA's promise of "substantially equivalent" was a lie.
Why, as a LANL retiree, was I not contacted to contribute to the lawsuit fund?
While this action was started by LLNL retirees it would seem that LANL retirees are in the same boat and could be easily be included. The website for UCLRG is http://llnlretiree.com/
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