Engineering Retirees Society
Quarterly Meeting
March 5, 2015
The next meeting is on Thursday, March 5, 2015. We will gather in the SPEEA Tukwila hall.
Come early! 12 noon for lunch, coffee and meeting friends.
Note: Additional parking is available across the street in the south part of the Bricklayers’ union hall lot.
Guest speaker
Elected officers are:
Our guest speaker for our Thursday, March 5, 2015, quarterly meeting will be Michael Bower, from the Alzheimer’s
Association. She talked about “Understanding Dementia” at
the September meeting. Her subject for March is “Knowing
the 10 Signs of Dementia: Early Detection Matters.”
Surviving spouse members
Please be reminded that the spouses of members are
also members of ERS and that a surviving spouse may
continue as a member of the Society after the death of
a partner who had been a SPEEA-represented employee
sometime before retirement.
Boeing gift match funds
The Boeing Total Access gift match page will allow you to
search to see if the organization you donated to is on their
list already. Many are. If the organization is not on their list,
you can nominate the organization. The information that the
Boeing site requests for a nomination can usually be found
on the website for that organization, if they have a website.
Investment Group Meetings
Our ERS investment meetings are held at the SPEEA Tukwila office on the third Thursday of odd months. We start
at noon with a light lunch followed at 12:30 p.m. with a
presentation on investment planning, estate planning and
other financial subjects.
In January, Shane Hansen from American Senior Benefits talked about long-term care insurance and second-to-die life insurance that can be put in an irrevocable insurance trust. If you have insurance questions,
give Shane a call (253) 223-2226. Coming up Thursday, March 19, Matt Boelter with Boya Financial Partners (Boya used to be ING) will talk about estate liquidity, the current market outlook, and answer questions
about your Boeing 401(k) plan. Members and preretirees are invited to bring their partners and friends.
Email address
President ................................................DAVE WATT
425-868-5603
Vice President...................... ................DWIGHT ROUSU
Secretary ................................................JIM EWING
Treasurer ................................................JIM GILLAN
Steering Board Chair ......................DAVE HUNTMAN
425-868-0961
davidhuntman@comcast.net
SPEEA Contact .....................................Dawn Hanks
dawnh@speea.org
The current appointed Committee Chairs , members and Reps
are as follows:
ARA Liaison ...........................................Harvey Kriloff
Badges .....................................................Tom Mechler
Communications (website)................. David Westman/Stan Lind
Finance ....................................................Stuart Buchan
Governing Doc. ...................................Gene Blackman
Insurance................................................OPEN
Investments ..........................................Dave Watt/Ken Kuehnl
L&PA .........................................................Dwight Rousu/Dave Watt
Membership .........................................John Neller
Nominations & Elections ...................OPEN (temporary - Dave Watts)
NRLN Liaison ........................................Dave Watt
Pension ...................................................David Westman
Programs ................................................Dave Watt
Refreshments .......................................................John Meeker/Dave Huntman
Service .....................................................Gary Palmer
Social ........................................................Dave Huntman
SPEEA Liaison ......................................OPEN
Sunshine.................................................Joan Johansen
Taxation ..................................................Rick Terney
Travel........................................................Gary Palmer
Thanks to the people who fill our committee chair positions.
We need your help - please volunteer!
The chair positions noted above are open and need to be filled.
If you’re interested in filling an opening, call Dave Watt
at 425-868-5603.
.
Please make sure that we have your current email address.
It is possible that some email addresses may be revised
by your server. Now that we are online, all members with
email addresses on file will receive an email stating that
the Newsletter has been posted to the website for viewing.
This could be about half of the membership. The annual
savings will be a considerable amount with this system by
reducing the number of newsletters to be mailed.
1
Welcome
The following are the names of new members or firsttime attendees at the previous general meeting:
First-time attendees were: Tom McCarty, Bakul Dave
(pronounced duh-way), Ray Owens, Martin Gibbins, Duc
Tran, Jerry Onufer and Emmett Omar.
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 March 2015
Dave Huntman, editor
President’s Corner
Hi All, Romayne and I will be going to Buffalo, NY, area in mid March for the one year feast in remembrance of the
passing of Romayne’s mother. In May, we fly to Bordeaux, France, where we will spend two days in the wine country.
After that we move to Sarlat-La-Caneda for nine days. We’ll explore the Dordogne region, including the UNESCO world
heritage site of Cap-Blanc and Lascaux to view the cave art/friezes.
National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN)/ERS has a white paper on reducing the cost of prescription drugs at www.
nrln.org. This is one of the subjects Dwight Rousu and I discussed with members of Congress at the NRLN February annual meeting. Over 90% of the active ingredients used in prescription brands and generics are manufactured in China
and India; 85% of the generic drugs sold in the U.S. are manufactured offshore. We need to pass a law that will allow
individuals to import safe drugs from Canada. Medicare, unlike the Veterans Administration, is not allowed to request
competitive bids from the drug companies. We need to pass a law that would empower Medicare to negotiate the best
possible price on drugs. Generic drug application approvals had been backed up until Congress passed user-fee payment legislation in 2012 but more help is needed. We need to support the growth of generic prescription drug sales
by appropriating funds to supplement FDA approval user fees, and support prescription drug importation. Brand-name
manufacturers pay generic drug manufacturers to delay selling a generic version. Legislation is needed to make such
pay-for-delay illegal. Go to www.nrln.org to read the full text of these talking points.
Please read the articles from NRLN elsewhere in this newsletter. Also, look on our ERS website www.engineeringretirees.org for the NRLN trip report.
We hope to send out a 2015 dues reminder soon. The calling committee has been calling members that did not pay
dues in 2011 and 2012. Some have said they would like to reinstate their membership with 2015 dues payment but
some want to be dropped. Those that we do not hear from will be dropped.
Membership Chair John Neller has a list of 160 members that we do not have email addresses for. If you have an email address, please include it with your dues payment. We need the email address to contract members when meetings are cancelled or if a special meeting is called with short notice, as it was during the last SPEEA Puget Sound contract negotiations. In
addition, we would like to send the ERS newsletter by email when possible to reduce printing and mailing costs of snail mail.
Dave Huntman, Dwight Rousu, John Meeker and I have attended SPEEA and Boeing pre-retirement meetings to present information about ERS. Many SPEEA members do not know that there is a SPEEA retirees group. We hand out an
ERS information sheet. In exchange for their email information, we pledge to send them email copies of ERS newsletters and notices of ERS investment and quarterly meetings. The number of scheduled SPEEA pre-retirement meetings
has almost doubled for this year but we will not attend the Boeing meetings since they will no longer be held at SPEEA
offices. ERS membership is growing slowly as a result of our presentations.
Please make a commitment to respond to Action Alerts on our grassroots NRLN network. If you are not receiving
the alerts, go to www.nrln.org to sign up or update your information. Responding to the Action Alerts that address
retiree issues with Congress is very easy. Based on zip codes, your senators and representaives are automatically
displayed. Revise the sample letter as little or as much as you wish, review your changes and send.
Check ERS website www.engineeringretirees.org to review old newsletters, upcoming meeting dates and links of interest.
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Dave Watt, ERS President
ERS online
Don’t forget our ERS website at:
ENGINEERINGRETIREES.ORG
Just click on “ENTER WEBSITE HERE.” From there, you just choose what you want, such as ‘NEWSLETTER,’ and you
will see the most up-to-date information. Also the NRLN website may be accessed from our site to review longer informational articles than may be included in the newsletter. For instance, there is a very interesting NRLN article entitled
“Insurers warn of Medicare premium rise” written in part by Bill Kadereit. It is too long for any newsletter, but can be
accessed through their website www.nrln.org.
December quarterly meeting minutes
ERS President Dave Watt called the December meeting to order at 12:36 p.m. in the South Park IAM hall.
Good of the Society: First-time attendees were Tom McCarty, Bakul Dave (pronounced duh-way), Ray Owens, Martin
Gibbins, Duc Tran, Jerry Onufer, and Emmett Omar.
Guest Speaker: Gary Palmer introduced our guest speaker, Millard Battles, who talked about the Boeing Retiree Volunteers, or Bluebills. Millard was one of about 27 retirees who created the Bluebills in late 1994 and early 1995. The
name comes from the original name of the first airplane built by Bill Boeing in 1915, the Bluebill.
The three major goals for Bluebills are improving our communities, assisting Boeing retirees in need, and enhancing
our lives. There are now about 1,300 active Bluebills in three chapters: Heritage, Olympic Peninsula and Sno-King.
Bluebills donate 80,000 hours and more per year of volunteer work to provide school supplies for kids in need and to
work with the Red Cross, USO, Children’s Hospital, and other organizations. The Boeing Company (continued on page 3)
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December quarterly meeting minutes - continued from page 2
supports Bluebills with about $40,000 per year, mainly for the annual awards banquets.
Millard told us that Bluebills need more young retirees, but privacy laws make it difficult to contact new retirees. People
who are not Boeing retirees may join as associate members. More information is available at www.bluebills.org. The
Bluebills Heritage chapter phone number is (206) 544-6286.
Minutes: Jim Ewing’s minutes of the September 2014 quarterly meeting were approved as written.
Vice President’s Report: He told us that since the 2014 elections, the national picture does not look good for Social
Security, Medicare, and pensions. Dwight asked us to urge our senators and representatives to reintroduce bills that
are supported by NRLN.
Treasurer’s Report: Jim Gillan told us about some of the difficulty he had this year with his mother’s estate.
He said that we have $9,583.50 in savings, about $22,000 in CDs, and—after he pays the bills—about $2,500 in checking.
Steering Board Chair’s Report: He said that he had put our newsletter together; spoken at a pre-retirement meeting in Everett, and hosted a breakfast meeting for four people near Renton.
Committee and Rep Reports: Governing Documents Chair Gene Blackman assured us that there had been no changes to our governing documents in 2014. NRLN Liaison Dave Watt said that two ERS members were planning to attend
the annual NRLN convention in February 2015. Dave Watt also told us that the schedule for investment meetings in 2015
was printed on our meeting agenda, as follows: Jan. 15, March 19, May 21, July 16, Sept. 17, and Nov.19. He said that
the speaker at our January 2015 investment meeting would be Shane Hansen, who would talk about insurance.
Communications Cochair Dave Westman reported that he had posted bulletins from NRLN on our website after first
getting approval from Dave Watt. Pensions Chair Dave Westman said that pensions are under attack in many ways,
including proposed legislation by politicians. Membership Chair John Neller told us that we have 847 members, of
whom about 50 had last paid dues in 2012 or before. John said that we would call these people and encourage them
to pay their dues. Jim Jollimore suggested that we ask BECU to mention us in their newsletter. Refreshments Cochair
John Meeker confessed that a miscommunication caused a shortage of paper plates at the meeting.
Jim Jollimore told us that Chase Bank has good deals, such as free safe deposit boxes, for veterans. Romayne Watt
said that Fred Meyer gives seniors a discount on certain merchandise, such as Fred Meyer and Kroger brands, on the
first Tuesday of each month if the shopper asks for the discount. Also, seniors can get Starbucks coffee for 99₵ at Fred
Meyer any day. McLendon Hardware gives seniors a discount each Tuesday. Laurel Reiff Svingen said that Bed, Bath,
and Beyond has coupons that never expire and that up to five coupons can be used in one transaction.
Sunshine Cochair Myrv Johansen reported that Len Stephan had passed but that a sympathy card sent to his address
had been returned. The Sunshine Committee sent a card to Vicky Brown, wife of John D. Brown, who passed away in
October. They also sent a “Thinking of You” card to Ken Frazier, who is ill. ARA Liaison Harvey Kriloff told us that seniors
are now targets for people, including politicians, who will try to take away our Social Security, Medicare, and other benefits. He said that we should not let politicians take away the benefits that we have earned. Harvey said that ARA has a
state convention on Feb. 10, 2015, and that up to five more people from ERS may attend. Anyone who wishes to attend
the ARA convention should contact someone on the board and be prepared to pay $50 to attend. Dick Ferguson told us
that he had received a call from someone impersonating Dick Ferguson and calling, according to caller ID, from Dick’s
own telephone! Badges Chair Tom Mechler reported that 45 members attended the meeting.
Unfinished Business: Dwight Rousu told us that we have been avoiding a company that wants us to pay for innocently and unknowingly using a copyrighted image on our website.
New Business: Dwight Rousu presented the ERS budget for 2015 and the budget was approved without dissent. Dave
Huntman conducted the election of officers and Dave Watt and Jim Ewing were re-elected as President and Secretary, respectively. The members voted to donate $50 to each of the following charities: Millionaire Club Charity, Northwest Harvest,
Meals on Wheels, Renton Food Bank, and Food Lifeline. In addition, the members voted to send a $50 honorarium to the Alzheimer’s Association. Dave Huntman conducted a drawing for seven poinsettias and two gift cards to Anthony’s Restaurants.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:30 p.m., The 2015 quarterly meetings are scheduled for March 5, June 4, Sept. 3,
and Dec. 3, 2015.
Respectfully submitted,
James M. Ewing, Secretary
National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN)
When Medicare Advantage Drops Doctors
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced it will offer in 2015 some Medicare Advantage
participants an opportunity to leave their health care insurance plans if a “significant” number of doctors or other
health care providers drop out of their Medicare Advantage plan.
CMS will make a “case-by-case” determination based on the number of beneficiaries affected and whether they received adequate and timely advance notice, the size of the plan’s service area, when during the (continued on page 4)
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National Retiree Legislative Network - continued from page 3
year the provider terminations occur and other factors. Once CMS decides that a Medicare Advantage plan’s members
should be allowed to leave their plan, the agency will require the plan to notify its members about their new options.
CMS will create a special three-month enrollment period following network changes “considered significant based on the [effect] or potential to affect, current plan enrollees,” according to an update to Medicare’s Managed Care Manual. During that
time, they could join traditional Medicare or another Medicare Advantage plan whose provider network includes their doctors.
Only CMS will make a determination of the need for this provision. Individual beneficiaries who are concerned after
their doctor is dropped from a Medicare Advantage plan cannot request the special enrollment period.
The special enrollment option comes after CMS established stricter notification rules for Medicare Advantage network
changes that also took effect Jan. 1, 2015. Insurers must tell CMS at least 90 days before instituting network “significant” changes. The rules also recommend that insurers provide more than the required 30 days’ advance notice to
beneficiaries. It should include the name of the provider being terminated and how members can request continuation
of ongoing medical treatment from that provider.
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Bill Kadereit, President, NRLN
Support Retirees in 114th Congress
The 114th Congress convened. The NRLN’s Legislative Action Priorities Committee (LAPC) has identified bills that it
advocated but died in the 113th Congress that we want reintroduced and passed by the new Congress. The LAPC’s
actions have included my sending letters to specific reps and senators, targeted Action Alerts to specific members of
Congress and Marta Bascom, our Executive Director, contacting staff members.
Now we need your help to put your reps and senators on notice that you expect them to protect retiree income
security (pensions and Social Security) and retiree health care security (Medicare). Please take just a few minutes
to email your members of Congress.
As one of our members told me after responding to our last Action Alert, “If I had known it was so easy, I would have
been sending your letters all along.”
- Bill Kadereit, President, NRLN
National Retiree Legislative Network -- 2015 Conference
Executive Summary: The conference provided topics of interest, discussion of objectives, and discussion of processes to further those objectives, followed by visits to The Hill Feb. 2-4.
ERS officers David Watt and Dwight Rousu joined with NRLN vice president Judy Stenberg from Bellevue for visits with
legislators. Judy represents members of NRLN from Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii, so we had a reason to meet
with representatives outside of our ERS local area. We focused on meeting with representatives from the region who sit on
committees handling health and pension issues that are the current focus for the NRLN. We joined Judy on visits to the offices
of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), Sen. Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (Ore.),
Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), Rep. Jim McDermott (Wash.), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), Rep. Cathy
McMorris-Rodgers (Wash.), and Rep. Dennis Heck (Wash.). David and Dwight visited the office of Rep. Rick Larsen (Wash.).
After David returned to Seattle, Dwight met with Rep. Suzan DelBene (Wash.). Your over-the-hill gang was all over ‘The Hill.’
Right now, there is an immediate window following our visits when responses from our members to their legislators
who were visited could be important in advocating for laws or putting pressure on agencies to protect retirees regarding pensions and healthcare, as well as Social Security.
First Day NRLN Talks
NRLN President Bill Kadereit opened the meeting, reporting that total NRLN income was about steady, with less income from member groups, but more income from chapters.
Attorney Michael Calebrese, Legislative Adviser, reported on the progress in the forming of a 501(C)3 foundation,
American Retirees Education Foundation (AREF), that will work on educational issues alongside the NRLN, with the
benefit that donations to the AREF will be tax deductible (and perhaps be matched by Boeing in our case). It now exists legally, pending final review of all the submitted paperwork.
Professor Brian Biles from Georgetown University visited the meeting and presented data on health care costs for
various Medicare plan options related to various regions across the United States. The data may be useful in developing NRLN positions on Medicare Advantage, HMOs, and fee for service systems. To focus on the effects of the plans
themselves, all the U.S. counties were ranked by average cost of traditional Medicare, then grouped into 10 groups
from lowest to the highest cost. This enabled them to assess the relationships between Medicare Advantage cost and
traditional Medicare cost in groups of counties with similar cost structures. He distributed copies of his study which
can be found at http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/34/1/56.abstract. It is not easy reading, but is a
(continued on page 5)
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National Retiree Legislative Network - continued from page 4
new look at data. You know how engineers like data. There are even graphs.
Lee Graczyk, lead organizer of www.RxRights.org and a former employee of Chrysler, talked about information on
prescription drug prices and his experiences with busloads of people buying prescription drugs in Canada and bringing
them back into the U.S. Average yearly spending on drugs in the U.S. is more than $1,000, and many people take
dangerous steps to cut medication costs, such as not filling prescriptions or reducing dosages. The recent spike in
insulin prices was noted. Lee reported he is very concerned what the effects will be of the secret TPP “trade” agreement upon prescription drug prices and the importing and re-importing of prescription drugs.
Bob Martina, NRLN VP, presented the status of efforts to build up NRLN grassroots advocacy efforts. He reported on
a new “report card” effort NRLN has undertaken. We in the ERS delegation have reservations about the NRLN report
card scheme. The NRLN report card is based not upon votes for bills, as are most “report cards” that we are accustomed to from other organizations, but rather is based upon whether the legislator has “signed on” to a bill as a
supporter. This has the potential of spreading an impression that a legislator is opposed to a bill, when in fact they
may be supportive of the bill but have not signed on as a supporter for strategic reasons, or because they support a
different similar bill. We recommend not using the NRLN “report card” to confront our legislators. We do not want to
inadvertently publicly bash legislators who support or may well support our issues. In our visits to Capitol Hill, we are
often impressed both with legislators and with highly motivated, informed, and hard-working staff members who are
working every day to support the average citizen, including seniors and retirees.
Marta Bascom, NRLN Executive Director, noted concern with the 2014 budget bill having enabled cutting pension benefits to the already retired in troubled multi-employer pension plans. Though there is not yet a NRLN position on this
subject, reducing payments to the already retired is a bright red line that had not previously been crossed. Although
in this case it was limited to troubled multi-employer plans, there are concerns lest this practice spread to other cases.
Penalizing old retirees should not be the forefront of solutions to pension plan difficulties. Many old retirees are unable
to work to recoup income decreases. Preventive medicine for pension funding problems should be a priority, doing
things such as enforcing fuller funding of all plans, and in a broader frame, staunching the overseas flow of jobs, so
new young employees would be helping to continue funding the pension system.
The Monday afternoon meeting was followed by a social and dinner. Talking with the NRLN members from around the
nation who have had their retiree benefits threatened and often severely reduced was a reminder to continue to act to
prevent other companies, such as Boeing, from attacking retirees, as Boeing has been no recent friend of pensions.
Legislative meetings
At each meeting, we gave a folder outlining the key focus NRLN issues this year. The key issues for this visit were pension risk-shifting onto retirees, and health care. The health care topics were prescription costs, Medigap improvements,
and the three-day inpatient requirement for rehab. As noted above, we met with the following legislative offices:
Sen. Murkowski of Alaska - We met with Legislative Assistant Garrett Boyle. He noted that the senator had a policy
of not signing on to a bill unless she planned to actively advocate for it, so not signing onto a bill as co-signer did
not mean opposition to a bill. Garrett suggested that snail mail letters got more attention, but they should be sent
to the local state office, where they scan them and forward them to D.C., thereby avoiding the anthrax (screening)
three-week delay. A question arose as to how many people have Medigap insurance, to get a scope of how major the
Medigap questions are. Since Republicans generally oppose Medigap, such information might help inform any debate.
Medicare Advantage plans are too expensive in Alaska so almost everyone has Medigap policies.
Sen. Murray of Washington - We met with Staff Member Madeleine Pannell, who coordinates health related issues
for the senator. Causes for the three-day hospital stay problem were discussed: Is it because inpatient stays cost
more and auditors object, or is it because if an inpatient is re-hospitalized within 30 days, their quality of care record
is dinged? Both reasons have been postulated and more information is desired.
Sen. Cantwell of Washington - We met with Legislative Assistant Nico Janssen who coordinates health issues, and
Legislative Correspondent Rory Macleod Stanley who coordinates on pension issues. One question is whether statutory law or regulatory law mostly sets Medigap policies. We had a good discussion of our issues.
Rep. Bonamici of Oregon - We met with Legislative Assistant Adrian Anderson. Adrian was attentive to our issues and
was taking lots of notes. Adrian said that Suzanne was supportive of NRLN positions on Medicare and Social Security.
Rep. Smith of Washington - We met with Legislative Assistant Rebecca Nathanson, who coordinates pension and health
issues. With regards to the Verizon pension lawsuit, she inquired how many Verizon employees/retirees were in Adam
Smith’s district. For reintroduced bills, she requested information on who sponsored similar bills in the 113th Congress. She
mentioned Smith’s support for strengthening Social Security and the MediFair Act of 2002. Rebecca noted that the Medicare
reimbursement model is not consistent and that King County is on the low end of reimbursement.
Rep. McDermott of Washington - We met with Health Counsel Daniel Foster. We discussed pension de-risking
(shifting risk to retirees) and he wanted to be informed if additional companies take action similar to Verizon or General Motors. Regarding Medicare rehab hospital stays, McDermott had sponsored HR3144 in the last Congress propos(continued on page 6)
ing repeal of three-day observation/inpatient periods.
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National Retiree Legislative Network - continued from page 5
Rep. Blumenauer of Oregon - We met with Legislative Assistant Kristen Donheffner. She said importing drugs is
only one part of comprehensive health care policy, and there are tactical questions about whether to push each part in
a separate bill or whether to push a single bill that combines several issues. Drug import issues may also get serious
review from the energy and commerce committee. She informed us that Obama’s proposed budget bill recommends
some funding for bargaining on high-priced prescription drugs. Kristen also said a better Social Security Number
(SSN) card has been designed with plastic and a chip that does not have the SSN on the face and does not deteriorate
like the old cardstock SSN cards.
Sen. Wyden of Oregon - We met with Senior Health Adviser Matt Kazan. He suggested more information on the
insulin price hike would inform the debate on drug costs and requested more details if we research the problem. On
the question of pre-existing conditions, he said some states will not allow “pre-existing” exclusions on health care insurance policies, providing another avenue to pursue if the U.S. Congress does not act. He said that Wyden and others
had exchanged letters with drug companies in regards to high prices on the hepatitis C drug. Such “jawboning” actions can be added to the arsenal of tools such as changes in statutory law or agency law when trying to help seniors.
Rep. McMorris-Rodgers from Washington - We met with Health Policy Adviser Nick Magallanes. He said it is a priority
to protect from fraud in prescription drug policies, and the U.S. has the best system in the world. With regard to imports,
he said there are many problems in Canada. He said the insulin price spike was a market problem and could be worked out
by the market. He said pay-to-delay had been upheld in court. He provided an article that advocated that Medicare allow
health plans to negotiate aggressively with pharmaceutical companies, as an alternative to socialist solutions.
Rep. Heck from Washington - We met with Chief of Staff Hart Edmonson and Staff Assistant Larkin Corrigan who
is coming on-board to coordinate health issues. Occasionally, it was hard to hear, because somebody was raising heck
in the next room. But we had an informative and receptive talk on our issues. Hart said they were willing to follow up
with the DOL on risk-shifting and that Heck would support HR290 on rehab hospital stays. Hart suggested that due
attention should be given to Rep. McDermott, as many representatives from the state respect and follow his strategic
advice on health care issues.
Rep. Larsen of Washington - We met with Legislative Assistant Kate Craddock and Legislative Correspondent Matthew Renninger. Pension risk-shifting got some informed discussion.
Dave departed Feb. 4 for his scheduled flight home.
Rep. DelBene of Washington - On Thursday, Dwight met with Rep. DelBene and Legislative Assistant Casey Katims.
Since I was the only one from NRLN there, I took no notes. In the 15 minutes before Suzan had to leave for another
meeting, we had a cordial meeting (she is my representative after all), and she seemed interested and positive, as
we covered all the top 2015 NRLN issues on pensions and health care deftly and quickly.
Dwight flew home the evening of Feb. 5, joined on the plane by our state’s U.S. representatives, including DelBene,
Kilmer, Heck, and Reichert.
Endnote:
Dave and Dwight hope we represented your interests as well as possible on this trip. Though it is a bit stressful, it is
a notable experience to make these trips. If you have further questions, feel free to ask either of us. We were busy
trying to present the issues rather than take extensive notes, so some of the meeting descriptions above might be a
bit sketchy. By the way, we were flying from Seattle to D.C. during the Super Bowl. What happened?
Issues:
You are invited to go to NRLN.org and read up on each of the focus issues, currently and throughout the coming
year as they get updated.
For accessing more on the issues, the following links will take you there. These sources can inform your emails, local
meetings, and faxes to our elected leaders.
Some of the papers are much better written than others, and vice versa. Listed below is the URL for the NRLN legislative agenda. Each topic has an executive summary there. The full position papers and white papers can also be found
on the NRLN.org website for greater details and references:
http://www.nrln.org/documents/NRLN%20Legislative%20Agenda%202014.pdf
NRLN President’s Forum: NRLN Scores Major Pension Plan De-Risking Gain
The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), insurers of retiree defined benefit pension plans, has announced that
it intends to hold plan sponsors, such as AT&T and Verizon, responsible for “certain undertakings” to cash-out or annuitize
benefits for specific groups of employees under defined benefit pension plans.
The NRLN has been meeting with members of Congress and the PBGC seeking legislation but also PBGC policy changes and
regulation changes (through our VP Regulatory Affairs) that would protect retirees in de-risking and bankruptcy situations.
In February, your NRLN Association and Chapter leaders plus grassroots members from key U.S.
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National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN) - continued from page 6
Congressional Districts came together at the NRLN’s annual Fly-In in Washington, D.C. We reviewed PBGC’s practices
with the agency’s Participants and Plan Sponsor Advocate who reports to the PBGC’s governing board and Congress.
We had a dialogue with the Pension Rights Center’s Executive Vice President and Policy Director. Then a day and a half
was spent in 36 separate meetings with staffs of members of Congress.
When the General Motors de-risking was announced, the NRLN objected to lump sum offers that always leave pension
plans weaker for those who do not accept lump sums. After the Verizon de-risking announcement, we added our objection and called for policy change to stop selective inclusion rights for annuities that would deny all plan participants
the same choices.
The PBGC has now stated in a filing published in the Federal Register it would require reporting “certain undertakings”
regarding lump-sum distributions or annuitized benefits for specific groups of employees. This reporting will be a part
of the PBGC 2015 premium filing procedures. The PBGC referred to the inequities these changes can create and that
“Some pension rights advocates raised concerns…” To read an Oct. 2 article, go to http://www.natlawreview.
com/article/pension-benefit-guaranty-corporation-pbgc-intends-to-monitor-lump-sum-and-annuityca). The NRLN has been a leader of this effort to urge the PBGC to step in to help AT&T, Alcatel-Lucent and Verizon
and all other U.S. retirees over the past two years.
While it is unclear what PBGC’s enforcement authority will be, we are very pleased with this progress and will be using this proposed policy change as leverage on Capitol Hill to persuade members of Congress to enact even better
protection for retirees’ pension plans.
We are continuing to work on a comprehensive proposal that includes all of our de-risking and bankruptcy reforms.
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Bill Kadereit, President, NRLN
To Engineering Retirees Society Members:
How You Can Help: Contact your members of Congress when an NRLN Action Alert is issued. Ask friends to sign up at
http://capwiz.com/abtr/mlm/signup/ to receive NRLN emails. If you know someone interested in forming an
NRLN Chapter in your area, let us know by sending an email to contact@nrln.org or call toll free 1-866-360-7197.
Please make an annual contribution of $25, $50, $75 or more. Any amount you can contribute will be appreciated. You may make your check or money order payable to NRLN, Inc. and mail it with the Contribution Form below
to the address on the form. Or, make your contribution online with your credit card on the NRLN website at www.
nrln.org by clicking on the “Join Us” tab on the home page and selecting “Support the NRLN.”
Dave Watt
Dave Watt, President, Engineering Retirees Society
Bill Kadereit, President, NRLN
NRLN MEMBERSHIP CONTRIBUTION Engineering Retirees Society The NRLN is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. Contributions are not tax deductible.
Name: _______________________________Age: __under 55; __ 55-64; __ 65 or over
Address: ________________________City: _____________State: ___Zip: __________________
Phone: _______________ Email Address (if available): __________________________
I draw my retirement benefits from_____________________________________ (name of company) Mail this form with your check or money order (no cash please) for $25, $50, $75 or more (any amount will be appreciated)
payable to NRLN, Inc., P.O. Box 18757, Washington, D.C. 20036-8757.
Passages
Harry Dzewaltowski passed away at age 93 on April 28, 2014. Survived by his son Harry J. Dzewaltowski
Theron Hayne passed away on June 14, 2014, at age 93. He is survived by his wife Norma. He was one of the
founding people of E.R.S.
Albert Hamway passed away on June 2, 2014 at age 99. No other data is known.
Charles M. Srock passed away on Jan. 4, 2014. No other data is known.
(Recent information for the above named members.)
NOTE: Any member who loses a spouse is encouraged to let us know at ERS so members can attend a funeral or memorial service
7
 March 2015
Engineering Retirees Society
15205 52nd Avenue S
Seattle, WA 98188
On the lighter side
A group of 15-year-old boys discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would meet at the McDonald’s next to Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because they only had six dollars among them, they could ride their bikes
there and Jennie Webster, that cute girl in Social Studies, lived on the same street and they might see her.
Ten years later, the group of now 25-year-old guys discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they
would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the beer was cheap, the bar had free snacks, the house band
was good, there was no cover charge and there were a lot of cute girls.
Ten years later, at 35 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was decided
they would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the booze was good, it was near their gym and, if they went
late enough, there wouldn’t be too many whiny little kids.
Ten years later, at 45, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would
meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the martinis were big and the waitresses wore tight pants.
Ten years later, now 55, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would
meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the prices were reasonable, they have a nice wine list and fish is good
for your cholesterol.
Ten years later, at 65 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed
they would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the lighting was good and they have an early bird special.
Ten years later, at 75 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would
meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the food was not too spicy and the restaurant was handicapped accessible.
Ten years later, at 85 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was
agreed they would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because they had never been there before...