May 5, 2005
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| CORRE Letter to Senator
Lamar Alexander May 5, 2005 |
Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees (CORRE) Working for Fair, Equitable, and Competitive Benefits For Former K-25, Y-12, and ORNL Employees P. O. Box 4266 Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-4266 May 10, 2005 Senator Lamar Alexander Same Letter to: Sen. Frist United States Senate Rep. Davis 302 Hart Senate Office Building Rep. Duncan Washington, C. C. 20510 Rep. Wamp Dear Senator Alexander: Contacting Secretary of Energy on Behalf of Oak Ridge Retirees We are writing to request that you contact directly the Secretary of Energy on behalf of retirees of DOE contractors in Oak Ridge to request equitable treatment in administration of the Oak Ridge retiree pension fund. It is urgent that this be done now as Secretary Bodman, according to information we just received from DOE in Oak Ridge, is currently reviewing DOE policy on the administration of benefits (health and pension) of DOE employees/retirees, as well as those of DOE prime contractors. We appreciate your concern and work in the past to achieve equitable treatment of Oak Ridge contractor retirees, but there remains serious injustices and inequity in the administration of the pension fund. Because of the lack of adequate adjustments, the pensions of Oak Ridge retirees now average less than 50 percent of their original value. Moreover, retirees of some DOE facilities have received larger pensions from larger multipliers for years of service and annual cost-of-living adjustments. While DOE makes current annual contributions to most of the retiree pension plans, none has been made to the Oak Ridge Contractor Retiree Pension Plan since 1984. This means that no payments have been made even for employees on the rolls during the last 21 years, contrary to the current funding that is budgeted for many of the DOE contractor pension plans. While the retirees have not received adjustments, despite the ability of the pension fund to pay them, additional benefits have been added recently to current employees. Just last year, BWXT and UT-Battelle decreased the spousal option penalty to 2%. The average penalty for retirees is 8%. (This change was not passed on to retirees.) This practice is clearly unfair in that the companies are treating two different classes of beneficiaries of the same pension fund differently. It is clear that the contractor and DOE management did not think of retirees when they considered this raid on the pension fund to help establish a new labor contract. We have made clear to local DOE and the contractors that we expect reasonable and fair treatment _ certainly on par with the average of how DOE contractor pensioners are treated. We are not receiving fair treatment, and we need your help to rectify this. Attached is a 2005 Position Paper of the Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees (CORRE), an organization representing over 12,000 former employees of DOE contractor-managed facilities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We request that you ask DOE to review and analyze this document to determine what is equitable for the government to do with respect to the requests of CORRE for adjustments of pensions of Oak Ridge retirees. All of the benefits for DOE contractor employees are paid out of taxpayer dollars. The local DOE office has stated that the contractors must take the initiative for any proposed changes to the retirement system. However, CORRE believes DOE does determine pension policy by what it puts in its contracts and by how it administers those contracts. It logically follows that DOE is the appropriate entity to initiate the review and changes requested by CORRE. The contractors cannot make changes in the plan benefits without DOE concurrence. However, the pension plan is being administered in Oak Ridge in such a way that Tennessee retirees from DOE facilities in Oak Ridge have dramatically reduced initial pensions and inadequate adjustments to compensate for inflation. Moreover, there is not at this time any incentive for DOE or the contractors to treat the retirees equitably. We believe you must help provide that incentive to the DOE and to the contractors. We are prepared to brief DOE, you, or your staff, or anyone else in Congress or the government on the Oak Ridge pension issues. As you no doubt know, we met with local representatives of your office and other local Congressmen and the Senators just two weeks ago (April 28) to discuss our concerns. At that time, we provided detailed information on the pension program, the shortcomings in its administration, and the analysis showing that the adjustments we are requesting can be afforded by the plan fund balance, which is significant. We insist that you engage Secretary Bodman on this issue so that respectful attention is given to our requests and that they are not ignored. We appreciate continued assistance with this difficult issue by you and your staff. Identical letters are being sent to Senator Frist and Congressmen Davis, Duncan, and Wamp. Sincerely, David E. Reichle CORRE President DER:MHR Attachment: 2005 Position Paper cc: Patrick Jaynes, Knoxville Office Faxed to 202-228-3398 |
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Working for Fair, Equitable, and Competitive Benefitsfor13,000 Former K-25, Y-12, and ORNL EmployeesCoalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees P.O. Box 4266, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-4366
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| Date Modified: 18 March 2007 |