We seem to have about
as many interested people as we are likely to have in the near future. It is
time to start the action. Below is a list of contact points for a number of the
people we would like to influence, and a generic letter. Your task is to email
each of the people on the list with either the generic letter or a letter of
your own writing. If you donŐt want to be associated with the group, delete the
last line. I have also tacked on the letters I am sending. Feel free to
plagiarize them. I hope to add Richard C. Blum, Office of the Secretary and
Chief of Staff to The Regents and Senator Barbara Boxer to the list.
I have not found an
email link to Blum. Email to Boxer is a multiple guess list with no box for
none of the above.
I would like to try to
time the letters so they arrive Monday morning so, if possible, mail them after
6:00 pm Thursday. Please send me an email when you have sent them so I have a
count of how many were sent. If you write your own, please include a copy as
well.
Joe
_____________________________________________________________________
president@ucop.edu UC President Mark G. Yudof
http://gov.ca.gov/interact
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Fill in form and choose UC/CSU issues/concerns
from drop down subject list.
regentsoffice@ucop.edu
UC Regents
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUS.EmailMe
Senator Dianne Feinstein, fill in form, choose Government Affairs topic.
http://www.tauscher.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=966&Itemid=103
Representative Ellen Tauscher fill in form, use Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory as subject.
___________________________________________________________________
To;
Mark G. Yudof
President of the University of California,
Arnold Schwarzenegger
President of the Board of Regents,
Senator Dianne
Feinstein United States Senate,
Ellen Tauscher United
States House of Representatives,
Regents of the
University of California.
I am writing you to
express my concern for the way my retiree medical benefits are being handled. I
worked for the University of California at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL) until retirement. The University promised me when I retired I
would receive the same medical benefits as those provided for active university
employees. Until the Department of Energy decided to change the management
contractor for LLNL, the promise was kept. Now that a new contractor has been
selected, that promise is being broken. The Department of Energy and the
University have transferred liability for my medical benefits to an
organization that I have never worked for and has no interest in my
welfare.
The new management
contractor has been given a free hand to cut my benefits to conform to their
idea of what is average for the commercial world. They have a 3-year plan
to reduce my benefits and significantly increase my costs. That is not what I
worked for or what I expected. I donŐt understand why an organization that
didnŐt exist when I retired should be in control of my retiree medical
benefits. I understand that UC can modify or eliminate my health benefits, but
only if they do the same for all other employees. I appeal to you for help keep
my health benefits safe and protect me from the new contractor.
I have joined a group
organized by Joe Requa to try to prevent erosion of my medical benefits and I
support his efforts to secure them.
Your Name and address
Letter to the
political types
I am writing you to
protest the way The Department of Energy and the University of California are
illegally reducing the retiree medical benefits provided to Lawrence Livermore
Laboratory (LLNL) retirees. In my case, I retired from LLNL in 1999 and
received retirement benefits from UC as promised. When DOE awarded the
management contract for LLNL to Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS)
LLC, they required LLNS to provide my retirement benefits and gave them free
reign to modify or cancel them at will. This fall, LLNS laid out a 3-year plan,
starting 1/1/09, to cut my benefits and increase my costs, so the liability has
been moved and modified.
UC treated LLNL as a
campus and assured us we would be treated the same as all other UC employees.
Since I am an employee of UC, and not of DOE or LLNS, DOE has no right to
transfer UCŐs liability for my retiree medical benefits to LLNS without my
permission. UC promised us the same retiree benefits as all their other
employees. They reserve the right to modify or terminate our medical benefits,
but they can only do that if they do the same for their other employees.
Discriminating against a group of their employees relative to the others is
illegal.
These changes affect
approximately 5000 LLNL retirees, so I am not the only one. Many of the UC
retirees, including me, are not covered by Medicare, in part because of UC
policies in 1976. Without Medicare to fall back on, termination of medical
benefits would be catastrophic.
You have already
received at least one complaint on this issue from Lillie Mitchell, who also
had a letter to the editor on the subject published in the Livermore Valley
Times on 11/19/08. You are now receiving my complaint and I am organizing a
group of retirees to pursue the issue. You will be hearing from them
soon.
I have been trying to
obtain legal representation to pursue the issue. I have tried lawyer referral
services and calling law offices, but I have not found representation. Under
our legal system, if I canŐt find or afford legal help I loose by default. In
that case, only political intervention can help me and my supporters.
Thank you for your
consideration,
Joe Requa
Letter to UC President
Dear President Yudof;
According to the
newspapers, one of your priorities is cleaning up problems left by the previous
administration. In that vein, I would like to raise a problem you should
address immediately. Are you aware that a group of University of
California retirees have had their retiree medical benefits terminated by the
University? If not, you should investigate the situation. If so, you should
correct the situation. There is no justification for the University segregating
a group of employees, based on campus of employment, and refusing to provide
them equal treatment.
It is a ludicrous
situation when responsibility for my medical benefits has been transferred to
Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), an LLC that was created long after
I retired and with which I had no prior relationship. LLNS is not required to
provide the same benefits as UC, except on 10/1/2007, when the new management
contract went into effect. The new contractor has been given a free hand to
modify or eliminate my benefits. They have a plan to significantly
deviate from the UC benefits model over the next three years starting 1/1/2009,
reducing my benefits and significantly raising my costs. I am one of the UC
retirees that is not covered by Medicare, in part because of earlier UC
policies in 1976. Elimination of my medical benefit would be catastrophic.
About 5000 retirees from the LLNL campus, are impacted by the situation.
The management
contract between UC and DOE clearly stated that on termination the University
would retain responsibility for pensioners. The parties are in breach of that
clause. Another clause provides that DOE will pay for any unfunded University
liabilities caused by the termination. The fact that DOE is providing funds to
LLNS to pay my benefits implicitly recognizes they are responsible for the
liability, they are just trying to avoid paying the real cost. They have placed
us in a demographic group badly skewed toward higher ages, we are 500 in the
LLNL pool of 7000 rather than the UC pool of 170,000. This assures that
negotiated medical contracts will cost much more than those for UC. The obvious
remedy is to force DOE to pay the costs to UC, so they can provide our medical
benefits rather than letting LLNS give us inferior benefits at a much higher
cost.
I have been trying to
obtain legal representation to pursue the issue. I have tried lawyer referral
services and calling law offices, but I have not found representation. Under
our legal system, unless I can find legal support, I loose even if I am right.
In that case, only appeals to people in positions of power, elected officials
and the public are available to help me. I am organizing a group of affected UC
retirees to help publicize the issues. You can expect to hear from them in the
near future. For your information, there have already been two letters to the
editor on the subject published in the Livermore Valley Times by Lillie
Mitchell on 11/19/08 and Burke Ritchie on 11/24/08.
I am available for
both telephone conversations and direct talks. Being hidebound, I do not have a
cell phone, so if you call me and I donŐt answer, please leave a message with a
good time to call back.
Thank you for your
consideration,
Joe Requa
Letter to the governor
Dear governor
Schwarzenegger
I am writing you roles
of elected public official and regent of the University of California. The of
University of California have stopped paying retiree medical benefits to
retirees from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratort.. There is no
justification for the University segregating a group of employees, based on
campus of employment, and refusing to provide them equal treatment. I implore
you to do something about the situation.
It is a ludicrous
situation when responsibility for my medical benefits has been transferred to
Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), an LLC that was created long after
I retired and with which I had no prior relationship. LLNS is not required to
provide the same benefits as UC, except on 10/1/2007 when the new management
contract went into effect. The new contractor has been given a free hand to
modify or eliminate my benefits. They have a plan to significantly
deviate from the UC benefits model over the next three years starting 1/1/2009,
reducing my benefits and significantly raising my costs. I and the other 5000
affected retirees from the LLNL campus, are up in arms about the situation. I
am one of the UC retirees that is not covered by Medicare, in part because of
earlier UC policies in 1976. Elimination of my medical benefit would be
catastrophic.
The management
contract between UC and DOE clearly stated that on termination the University
would retain responsibility for pensioners. The parties are in breach of that
clause. Another clause provides that DOE will pay for any unfunded University
liabilities caused by the termination. The fact that DOE is providing funds to
LLNS to pay my benefits implicitly recognizes they are responsible for the
liability, they are just trying to avoid paying the real cost. They have placed
us in a demographic group badly skewed toward higher ages, assuring that
negotiated medical contracts will cost much more than those for UC which they
plan on passing on to us.. The obvious remedy is to force DOE to pay the costs
to UC to provide the promised medical benefits rather than letting LLNS give us
inferior benefits at a much higher cost.
I have been trying to
obtain legal representation to pursue the issue. I have tried lawyer referral
services and calling law offices, but I have not found representation. Under
our legal system, unless I can find legal support, I loose even if I am right.
In that case, only appeals to people in positions of power, elected officials
and the public are available to help me.
I am organizing a
group of affected UC retirees to help publicize the issues. You can expect to
hear from them in the near future. For your information, there have already
been two letters to the editor on the subject published in the Livermore Valley
Times by Lillie Mitchell on 11/19/08 and Burke Ritchie on 11/24/08.
Thank you for your
consideration,
Joe Requa