RETIREES' CORNER
Retirees' Corner July 2010
Retirees’ Corner
Bill Bowers, Chairman
New International Union Officers: The Convention went as predicted. Your new officers of the International Union are as follows:
President Bob King
Secretary Treasurer Dennis Williams
Vice President Bob Ashton
Vice President General Holiefield
Vice President Jimmy Settles
Vice President Cindy Astrada
We don’t know the VP’s assigned departments but the conversation was that Bob Ashton will take Director of the GM Department. Our Regional Director, Ken Lortz, was re-elected without opposition.
Bob King had opposition for President. A roll call vote was held. After President King achieved a 60% majority of the votes cast, the roll call was suspended, but all opposition votes were allowed to be cast for the record. Bob King received 2023 to 74 votes.
Constitutional Changes: The following are changes to our constitution that governs running of the union.
Article 10, Section 1. Number of Vice Presidents was reduced from 5 to 4 and if any vacancies in VP occur during their term, the IEB can reduce the number of VP’s to 3.
Article 11 Section 1, 2, 3 and 8 – Salaries of IEB. The lump sum payment and COLA was eliminated during this term and will be subject to future bargaining between the Staff Council and IEB. Salaries shall remain at the present levels as set forth:
President $153,248.29
Secretary Treasurer $142,080.87
Vice Presidents $137,718.59
Executive Board Members $126,551.13
International Reps $105,076.96
Newly hired International Reps will start at 70% of the rate and will receive 5% increases over the next six (6) years until full rate is achieved.
Article 16, Section 14. On every third Tuesday in June over the next four (4) years $25 million will be transferred from the Strike Fund to the General Fund. (This helps defray operating expense)
Article 45, Section 2 – Steward and Committeepersons. Members in good standing who are on indefinite layoff, cannot be a candidate or vote in any election that has bargaining responsibilities.
Article 33, Section 4(a) – Appeals. Electronic submissions and electronic signatures will no longer be permitted for appeals. They must be personally signed by the member.
Article 32, Section 2 – Public Review Board. The number of Public Review Board members shall be reduced from 7 to 6 and if any vacancies occur over the next four (4) years, the IEB can further reduce that number to five (5).
Future Meetings: We have invited both President Bob King and Regional Director Ken Lortz to attend a future retirees’ meeting. Once we find out what date they can attend we will notify the membership. In 2010 our meetings are scheduled for September13, October 4 and November 1 with our Christmas Party set for December 5th.
UAW Medical Trust (VEBA): Dan Sherrick will be the UAW contact for the VEBA. He currently is the Chief Council for the International Union. We had an opportunity to meet with Brother Sherrick and question him as to what to expect from the Medical Trust in the future. GM has still not gone public with stock so we have received the monies left in the 2007 VEBA, 2008 VEBA and 2.5 billion when we changed from GM to the UAW Medical Trust. We own 17.5% of GM but until stock is offered we don’t know what the value will be.
The Medical Trust trustees meet quarterly but don’t expect to change our benefit design (what’s covered, costs, deductibles) but once a year based on the financial condition of the Trust. So, as GM gets healthier so does our medical trust.
Next Meeting: Our next meeting is