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Couple of News Reports

I quess a few news articles and a spot on the 6:00 news covered a bunch of nobodys. Glad to see the media coverage. It will keep ohfl customers informed that they are still out on strike no matter how much their sales dept and scum linecrossers lie.:nutkick:
 
I have a question about one of the articles. In the Willamette Week piece, they mentioned a retiree that is now paying three times his previous cost for health premiums, from $300 to over $900 per month.

Can someone please explain, without too much emotion, how this works. Are retirees now having to purchase their own health care insurance due to the strike?

I can understand the company cancelling health care benefits for active employees out on strike. However, the retirees don't have the option of whether to strike or not.

Thanks.
 
chuckandbob said:
I can understand the company cancelling health care benefits for active employees out on strike. However, the retirees don't have the option of whether to strike or not.

Thanks.
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I agree my mom's total income is a little over 1200 a month that is why before the government came up with prescription plans I had to buy all her drugs or she wouldn't take them - couldn't afford them.
 
chuckandbob said:
I have a question about one of the articles. In the Willamette Week piece, they mentioned a retiree that is now paying three times his previous cost for health premiums, from $300 to over $900 per month.

Can someone please explain, without too much emotion, how this works. Are retirees now having to purchase their own health care insurance due to the strike?
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Here is how it works, the company pays the trust in washington an amount per active employee per month($58)so that the retired employees have access to buy the insurance at a set price. if you go to the jc28.org site it is something like $359 per person for early retirement insurance or 128 per person for medicare supplimental insurance. so a husband and wife would would still have to pay $718 per month for the rwt-plus coverage. there was 52 employees in washington in that plan most of which were on the supplimental plan.

the oregon plan is similar however instead of having a seperate premium to pay the retiree amount was added to the monthly healthcare premium for each active member in oregon. 19 employees participated in that plan. (there is a list of the employees, without identification, as part the the last best and final proposall).

When the strike occured and the company stopped paying into the trust the retirees were then required to pay a higher, "orphaned" rate. for the majority of the participants which are on the supplimental plan, the monthly increase is $58 per month, some however had to pay much higher amounts. the list in the LBF shows how much they would have to pay, for example the highest were $718 to $1384 in wa or $450 to $942.39 in OR. most were $123 -$181.

The strike has caused them a hardship, however it is untrue to state that the company cut them off as most of the press releases state.

I know that some of the retirees I know have found similar plans for less money that is why less than half of our retirees are participating in the rwt-plus.

Oak Harbor put in over $1 million in 4 years into the plan for 71 people to have the right to buy insurance. In the last best and final the offer was 2 options, 1. the company would stop paying into the trust and cover the increase in premium for the current retirees and 1 year of new retirees for 2 years and give the employees .35 in wage increase. or 2. give the employees .35 in wage increase and they can contribute that to the trust to keep the program intact. the .35 would not cover the increases in the future, however it would continue the program just as it is now.

everything i have said is verifable in the Last best and final, (the real one) and on the jc28 site in the retiree healtcare section.
 
And no response from Happlyltlguy's posting. Just more name calling and lies about what is really going on here. Thank you happyltlgy, I knew there wouldn't be any intelligent responses from the handful of regular posters here.
 
Also you cannot forget that many of the retired employee's who could use it have not started to use it for one reason or another. They may have began using it sometime in the future when it fit their needs. The company harped on this as well. It seemed that if they were paying for it they wanted them to use it now, even though they may have had full coverage from a spouses insurance or any number of other scenarios that could be relevant. It is all about greed!!!!!!!
 
happyltlguy said:
Oak Harbor put in over $1 million in 4 years into the plan for 71 people to have the right to buy insurance. In the last best and final the offer was 2 options, 1. the company would stop paying into the trust and cover the increase in premium for the current retirees and 1 year of new retirees for 2 years and give the employees .35 in wage increase. or 2. give the employees .35 in wage increase and they can contribute that to the trust to keep the program intact. the .35 would not cover the increases in the future, however it would continue the program just as it is now.

everything i have said is verifable in the Last best and final, (the real one) and on the jc28 site in the retiree healtcare section.
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So you are saying that you only have an option for retiree insurance for 2 years after you retire? Like a previous post pointed out most of us have dual coverage right now but later in life we will need this health insurance.
 
After 65 Medicare kicks in and you don't need other health insurance. so why have the company kick in alot of money for something few use or want.
 
iron eagle said:
After 65 Medicare kicks in and you don't need other health insurance. so why have the company kick in alot of money for something few use or want.
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We have been working at union companies most of our lives for this protection when we retire. I am working with a senior citizen who does not have union retirement and now I have to give all of her assests to the government. you may not be old enough to undertand what this means. We have worked hard for Oak Harbor and we are entitled to this benefit. We made them a lot of money! Now they need to provide us with the health care for our senior years.
 
Strike at Northwest Trucking Company in Third Month
By TDU
Created 2009-01-02 19:17
January 2, 2009: Teamsters drivers are in their third month of a bitter strike against Oak Harbor Freight Lines, a large regional freight carrier in the Northwest. The day after the strike began in September, the company cut health care to workers and retirees. Some have been forced to pay three times more to maintain coverage.

The company forced the strike by attempting to eliminate sick leave and seniority rights in contract talks last summer. Oak Harbor also sought to shift members from the Teamsters health plan to the company’s, which doesn’t cover retirees, and has attempted to permanently replace striking workers by hiring ***** from out of state.

In late November the NLRB decided to pursue several unfair labor practice charges the Teamsters brought against the company—ending the threat of permanent replacement.

Teamsters officials say Oak Harbor’s business is off by two-thirds as major customers, including REI, Urban Outfitters, and JCPenney, have dropped the company. Oak Harbor says 130 of the company’s 578 union workers are scabbing on the strike, but many of the ***** are casuals and office workers. Only 33 drivers in the Seattle area and Portland have crossed picket lines, according to Teamsters officials.

Union-Busting Bank

The strike has garnered much solidarity in the Northwest. Students and members of many other unions have rallied at actions spotlighting companies that contract with Oak Harbor, including the Gap and Nike.

Now national attention has been brought to KeyBank, which is providing a financial lifeline to Oak Harbor as it tries to crush the union. The bank is set to receive $2.5 billion from the taxpayer-funded bank bailout.

On December 10, International Human Rights Day, more than 150 supporters rallied at KeyBank as part of Jobs with Justice’s “peoples’ bailout” actions. A delegation of faith and community leaders tried to enter the bank to speak with management only to find it had closed 40 minutes early.

Oak Harbor is owned by brothers Ed and Dave Vander Pol. The brothers, recent recipients of the Portland Jobs with Justice Grinch of the Year Award, are members of the Tacoma Christian Reformed Community Church and have stated that the company “belongs to God.”

“The Vander Pols say that they are Christians,” said Doug Walls, who has driven truck for Oak Harbor for more than five years. “Why are they breaking all these labor laws, and leaving their workers out in the cold during the holidays? It’s heartbreaking what has happened here.”
 
TRUCK DRIVER - LOCAL P&D
--Description-- Now hiring Class A drivers! Permanent Replacements A Strike is in progress A leader in the LTL industry for more than 90 years, now hiring permanent strike replacements. Oak Harbor offers competitive wages Up to $20.00/hr DOE, local ...
Location: Auburn, WA Employer: Oak Harbor Freight Lines Inc. Type: permanent

Posted 7 hours ago by CAREERBUILDER

This is posted in Abbotsford BC
 
iron eagle said:
After 65 Medicare kicks in and you don't need other health insurance. so why have the company kick in alot of money for something few use or want.
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I have no idea how old you are but i you think medicare is the answer you need to wake up. I am dealing with my mother right now and medicare doesn't take care of SH*******t. With out her additional insurance she would have been bankrupt along time ago. If you think the retirement insurance is not important then you haven't walked in my shoes or the shoes of all of the people who have built up your future.
 
some more trash about keybank

Radio Ad Highlights Bank's Financing of Worker Abuses


WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Teamster's Union launched a nationwide radio ad on Air America today condemning KeyBank (KEY) for betraying taxpayers and for financing Oak Harbor Freight Lines' labor abuses. Oak Harbor workers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho were forced to strike Sept. 22 to protest the freight company's violations of U.S. labor laws, as well as hostile efforts by company representatives to intimidate workers. A day later, Oak Harbor took the extraordinary step of cutting off health benefits to its workers and retirees.


Cleveland-based KeyBank, which is set to receive $2.5 billion from the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP), is on the board of several mortgage industry associations that lobbied to stop a Senate bill that would have prevented well over half a million home foreclosures. KeyBank also serves as the principle financial institution for Oak Harbor Freight Lines.


"KeyBank's irresponsible decisions are putting working families in a bind," said Margaret Butler, the Director of Portland Jobs with Justice, who led a protest at KeyBank's main branch in Portland last week as part of Jobs with Justice's "People's Bailout" National Week of Action. "At this moment of crisis, KeyBank needs to extend relief to working Americans instead of financing a rogue company like Oak Harbor that has broken U.S. labor law and violated international labor standards during a 3-month strike in the Northwest."


"Momentum is growing against KeyBank's support of Oak Harbor," said Al Hobart, President of Teamsters Joint Council 28 and International Vice President. "We are going to continue to take our message to the public and inform them of the anguish KeyBank is causing American workers and families."
 
millstone coffee

OCA: Take Action
Tell Millstone Coffee: Unfair Trade is Rotten!
To: Mr. Byrd
Millstone Coffee has multiple lines of organic and fair trade coffee, but it is currently using a rogue company called Oak Harbor Freight Lines as its distribution hub in the Seattle area. Oak Harbor Freight Lines workers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho have been on strike for four months now in protest of the freight company's violations of U.S. labor laws, as well as hostile efforts by the company to intimidate workers. Oak Harbor even cut off health benefits to its retirees.
JC Penney, Urban Outfitters, the State of Washington and other companies have elected to suspend their relationship with Oak Harbor until the company finds a just and lasting resolution to the ongoing labor dispute. But Millstone Coffee
 
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