Retirees Raise Funds, Address Regents
By Independent News 7/16/09
After raising about $50,000 --
half its anticipated legal costs -- the University of California Livermore
Retiree Group plans to argue its case to UC Regents today that the University
is obligated to take Livermore Lab retirees back to its health programs.
Checks donated to the legal fund
have not been cashed yet Òbecause we want to keep the option of returning them
if a miracle happens and UC comes to its senses,Ó said Joe Requa, leader of the
UC Livermore Retiree Group.
The Group contends that
Livermore Lab retirees were removed from UC group health plans illegally at the
end of 2007 when contract responsibility for the Lab was shifted from UC-only
to Lawrence Livermore National Security, a limited liability company in which UC
is a partner.
The Retiree Group has stated
that it would like to avoid legal action but will take it if necessary; hence
the legal fund. It has also sent petitions advocating its position to
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, California senators Dianne Feinstein and
Barbara Boxer, Congressional representatives Jerry McNerny and Ellen Tauscher
(now moved to the State Department) and UC President Mark Yudof.
The Regents' presentation was
arranged in part with the help of California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi,
a Regent by virtue of his office as well as a candidate for the 10th
Congressional District seat recently vacated by Tauscher. The District
includes Livermore and part of Pleasanton .
Presenters are scheduled to be
retirees Manuel Perry, formerly of the LabÕs bio-med and education programs,
and John Holzrichter, formerly of the laser program and now president of the
Hertz Foundation. They will give short presentations on the last day of
the current three-day Regents meeting at the community center of the Mission
Bay campus of UC-San Francisco.
The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m., although the actual time of the retiree presentation is not specified and Regents meeting agendas often change from original plans.