Indiana Local Lights up
the Holidays

North of 49°
Canadian Labour Movement Calls for Retirement Security
Reform

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Le Mouvement Syndical Canadien Demande une Réforme sur la Sécurité
des Retraites

2008 NEAP Annual Report, NEAP Notice

HEALTH CARE IN FOCUS
Nevada Retirees Resist Cuts

Tom Bird was different from most baby boomer retirees who hang up their union activism with their tools. For two years, the Reno, Nev., journeyman lineman, a member of Northern California-based Local 1245, and a few other retirees had tried unsuccessfully to form a retiree club.

On October 15, Bird got some unexpected help in his organizing efforts when his former employer, NV Energy, called a meeting for approximately 300 retirees at a Reno casino to announce that all bets were off—the company was planning to cut retiree health care benefits. And it would refuse to negotiate over pensioners’ benefits with Local 1245 during talks on the contract covering 800 active employees which expires on Dec. 31. After the meeting, a number of retirees signed a contact sheet expressing interest in forming a retirement club and in support of a rally on Nov. 7.

Retired lineman Ron Borst stood up to question the company’s benefit manager, who answered that he would meet Borst privately in the back of the hall. “No, I want to talk to you over the microphone so everybody can hear,” said Borst, whose wife, Vickie, also worked for the company for 26 years, serving on several Local 1245 committees.

After Borst, Bird walked up to the microphone to announce the rally. The HR manager, seeing members in Local 1245 shirts standing up, shut off the microphone and ended the meeting.