I would like to share with all of you a letter to the editor from Patricia Pudik (Aliqippa, PA)
As most of you know I have been appointed to the Benefit Committee for the VEBA. At times it seems to be a thankless job but its comments like this that make it all worth while.
Submitted by:
Pete Trinidad, Vice President LU 6787
I'm a spouse of a steelworker who used to work for LTV in Aliquippa.
After LTV went bankrupt, I was among the many thousands who lost the retirement health-care benefits that we had earned during our working days. Luckily, we were members of a union that doesn't forget about its retiree members.
After the LTV plants were sold to International Steel Group, the USW negotiated an agreement with ISG to set up a trust fund to be used to provide some benefits to replace what we had lost.
The VEBA offered a prescription drug benefit that costs only $10 per month and is much better than what Medicare offers. Last year, we received a payment to help reduce the cost of our Medicare Part B premiums.
This is the payment that letter writer Frank Mater wrote about saying that he knew nothing about. I don't why he says he didn't receive the notice. Everyone I know got the letter and received the payment.
In fact, the other day I received another letter from the VEBA trust announcing another Part B benefit that will provide me with $300 this year.
What really disturbs me is that one person like Mahr can complain to The Times that just because he may not have received a letter, he concludes that "USW has lost its voice." It's too bad that he didn't receive his reimbursement, but because of our union's commitment to retirees, more than 40,000 retirees have been helped out. Mahr should not have ignored the point that without our union we would have nothing today. Just ask the management retirees.
Never have my husband and I been more proud of our union, the United Steelworkers. We have nothing but gratitude for what it's done for us in the past and what it continues to do for us today.
Patricia Pudik
Aliquippa