Printable Version
June 14, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Update
for Verizon Retirees
On May 3,
2007, the Alliance for Retired Americans issued
a press release which indicated that the
Verizon Corporation had told the Communications
Workers of America that it “wanted to
eliminate all retiree health care in
2008.” For the record, this statement
is not a correct one. CWA has advised us
that Verizon has not officially communicated
this goal to CWA.
However, the Company
did unilaterally change benefits for
non-represented employees in 2006, including
changes to health care and pensions for
prospective retirees. These changes took
effect on July 1, 2006. As a result, many
younger employees will have no health care and
most other employees can look forward to paying
significant costs to get coverage in
retirement. It is also true that Verizon,
like many other employers, continues to reduce
the quality of coverage and shift increasing
costs to non-represented employees and
retirees.