AGRE Update -- December 2009

The next AGRE Monthly Meeting will be held on Thursday, January 7, at 6:00 p.m. at 133 Raleigh Road, Oak Ridge, TN.

2009 AGRE Accomplishments

In June 2009, approximately 87 signed letters were collected by AGRE and mailed to Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker; Congressmen Lincoln Davis, John Duncan, and Zach Wamp; Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen; Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Anderson County Mayor Rex Lynch ; DOE Oak Ridge Operations Manager Gerald Boyd, and the DOE Contracting Officer in Cincinnati, Ohio. These letters protested the proposal to move the management of the Grandfathered employees pension and benefits from Oak Ridge to the Portsmouth D&D Project. This effort to “save Tennessee jobs” and keep the management here in Oak Ridge was successful, and the language in the final Portsmouth contract was revised.

In June, AGRE representatives shared a table with CORRE at the Oak Ridge Secret City Festival. This gave AGRE an opportunity to talk with Grandfathered employees and retirees about AGRE objectives and activities.

In July, E-mails from the AGRE e-mail address (which is gfemployee@yahoo.com) were blocked by BJC management to prevent Grandfathered employees from receiving updates and meeting information at work. Apparently BJC realized they could not discriminate against AGRE and in August the block was removed.

Vision enhancements went into effect on July 1 for Grandfathered employees and retirees. BJC communicated these enhancements to employees on July 6, but they did not plan to announce this to the retirees until November in their Open Enrollment Packages. AGRE discussed this issue with BJC HR, and a notice was mailed out to retirees on September 8, 2009.

BJC Human Resources agreed to mail out brochures about joining AGRE and CORRE to all grandfathered retirees. A total of 757 envelopes were stuffed and stamped, then given to BJC to address and mail out. BJC also agreed to include these AGRE and CORRE brochures in future retirement packages. As a result of this mail-out, approximately 100 GF retirees joined CORRE and about 76 responded to AGRE.

BJC issued RFIs for medical provider considerations, which included vision and dental benefits for post-65 retirees. The companies who responded were United Health Care, Aetna, Cigna, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Unfortunately, Aetna was again selected as the medical provider, and no benefits for dental were included for the post-65 retirees. The only plus is that the rates do not increase for 2010 for retirees, although the rates for Y-12 and ORNL retirees are being REDUCED!

AGRE representatives developed an informational display which was placed at the Oak Ridge Public Library during the month of September. In October, the display was placed in the lobby of the Oak Ridge Enrichment Federal Credit Union. In November, it was moved to the Kingston Community Center and then to the Frank Strang Sr. Center in Knoxville in December.

AGRE representatives had a table at the BJC Health and Safety Fair on September 17, 2009 and obtained a total of 31 sign-ups.

An announcement about monthly AGRE meetings was made at the Annual Union Picnic at Roane County Park on September 19.

In early September, AGRE learned that the Benefits Employee Handbook, which is long overdue to be mailed to retirees, was sent to DOE for approval. Unfortunately, retirees still have not received their copies of the handbooks which are supposed to be issued every 5 years, per ERISA guidelines. The last time issued was around 1999.

In September, an AGRE presentation was made by Pete Peterson to the CORRE Board of Directors.

On November 2, AGRE representatives had a display in the lobby at the annual CORRE Meeting. About 250 were in attendance at this annual meeting. Dub Shults gave a good presentation entitled “An Up and Down Year,” which can be found on the CORRE web site (http://www.corre.info/).

In December, BJC Grandfathered post-65 retirees will get half of the Medicare Part D subsidy in a lump sum payment of $210.74 for a single and $421.48 for dual. This is the second year in a row that BJC has shared the subsidy with retirees.

AGRE representatives continue to discuss AGRE objectives and concerns with government representatives, both locally and in Washington, DC; with local DOE representatives; and with BJC Human Resources management.