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For IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  SEPTEMBER 25, 2000 

TO:  ALL REPRESENTATIVES ON CAPITOL HILL

FROM:  CASHPENSIONS.ORG WEBMASTER & MULTI-COMPANY U.S. EMPLOYEES & RETIREES 

OPEN LETTER TO CAPITOL HILL 

(Requesting Senate to Vote "NO" to Sen. Roth's pension proposals & "YES" to Sen. Harkin's Amendment):

When the Senate Finance Committee unanimously passed the markup of HR 1102, they probably did not realize they essentially gave a green light to one of the largest financial scandals in history.   Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) has publicly come out against it and will be offering an Amendment to address the primary concerns which would at least put a hold on or delete the stealth wording currently in Senator Roth's proposal which is bad news for employees with cash balance pension plans; plans where employees have already earned "early retirement subsidies"; and could legitimize cash balance conversion violations in ongoing lawsuits.  The issues involved are very complex.  Congressman Bernard Sanders (I-VT) has spoken out against the Age Discrimination and this legislation (Reference: http://www.house.gov/bernie/statements/2000-09-15-.html).  We have high hopes that Senators will carefully scrutinize the real intent of the Sen. Roth proposals and vote NO for the Sen. Roth submission and YES for Sen. Harkin Amendment.  

Please take the time to examine the issues raised by this OPEN LETTER TO CAPITOL HILL, and support Senator Harkins' cash balance pension amendment on this issue.  Should such amendment fail, or the detrimental wording not be removed, then please vote against the entire bill. Please do not allow Congress to be stampeded into passing legislation that will kill any chances for redress in the court system by employees who have already been robbed of significant percentages of their earned pensions under current law, courtesy of the ERISA Industry Committee and other corporate financed lobbyist efforts.

An extract of Senator Harkin's proposed amendment/press release follows:

"The Committee's bill also allows employers to violate a number of existing worker protections. For example, it appears to eliminate important age discrimination protections. In doing so, it seems to invalidate a number of age discrimination lawsuits. It appears to undercut the current EEOC study of this issue." and appears  it may  implicitly adversely affect existing litigations such as the "11th Circuit ruling in Lyons v. Georgia-Pacific Corporation that requires corporations to provide protections for lump sum determinations for employees."

"It is my intention to offer an amendment on the Senate floor that offers meaningful protection for workers rather than changing the law to eliminate their existing rights."

Senator Roth (R-DE) and his cohorts, have already hoodwinked many representatives (House & Senate of both  political parties) into voting for their markup proposal.

There is devastating wording that could kill the early retirement provisions already earned by employees, reduce past earned and future retirement earnings of the majority of the US work force, legalize cash balance plan conversions (where corporations are already in violation of existing law, as reported by a number of experts in the pension & pension law field) that are already under scrutiny and investigation by the EEOC, DOL, IRS, etc. Our elected representatives have NO BUSINESS trying to step into this at all, especially having a hand in legitimizing present and prior employer violations.  We ask our representatives to vote YES for Senator Harkin's amendment; if it doesn't pass, we then ask that all references to 'cash balance' and 'early retirement' provisions' be removed (leaving focus on the IRA and 401(k) limits ONLY); OR VOTE "NO" to the entire Sen. Roth pension proposal.

Ever since Congress passed IRC Section 411(d)(6) as part of the Retirement Equity Act of 1984, the industry-supported lobbyists have been trying to get rid of it. Their first inroad was the Treasury regulation (in 1988 or so) that allowed them to eliminate the early retirement subsidy if the benefit was paid as an optional  'reduced' immediate annuity prior to age 65.  Now, it appears,  they are trying to use conversions to cash balance plans to eliminate the early retirement subsidies also.  This is simply wrong to eliminate and/or drastically reduce the already earned pre-65 benefits, especially since most aging Americans are being forced to leave early (not by choice) and have already earned "early retirement subsidies". 

In summary, the following are the primary concerns with Senator's. Roth's pension proposal and the items raising these concerns MUST be removed..  Senator Harkin's Amendment will address these concerns, so we hope all will vote "YES" to Senator Harkin's 'Cash Balance" Amendment and "NO" to Senator Roth's proposal.

1) Do not legitimize cash balance plans or undermine ongoing lawsuits against
them.
2) Do not remove any protections on earned early retirement subsidies.
3) Any ban of wear-away must protect earned early retirement subsides.

-- Age Discrimination:  The bill must clearly state that 'hybrid' plans such as cash balance plans ARE NOT exempt from Age Discrimination (current verbiage implicitly indicates otherwise), most especially on conversions already enacted under current ADEA and ERISA regulations.  Do not legitimize cash balance plans or undermine ongoing law suits on this matter.  REMOVE ALL REFERENCE TO "CASH BALANCE" HYBRID PLANS or VOTE "NO" to Roth's proposal.

-- Wear-Away & Early Retirement Subsidies:  ANY ban of  wear-away must protect the "early retirement subsidies" that many employees have already earned.  Current verbiage indicates only age 65 wear-away may be banned which is basically worthless and provides no protection at all to the average American worker who has already earned "early retirement subsidies".  REMOVE ALL REFERENCES TO "EARLY RETIREMENT SUBSIDIES" or VOTE "NO" to Roth's proposal.

-- "Timely" Disclosure to Employees:  The bill must provide employees with a comparison of annuities and relative actuarial value under the old and new plans so that employees can readily do a relative compare of the actuarial value of old and new plan -- most especially urgent for employees who are provided choices between plans, but needed for all employees.
-- Verbiage Made Public for Review/Discussion:  The fact that the precise markup verbiage for all Senators and the affected public was not made available timely enough for proper and thorough review (and no additional markup was allowed) before full Senate vote, is a grave concern to many.  Many feel this delay may have been an attempt to try to push through legislation without the required review, discussion and markup.

-- The touting of raising IRA and 401k limits (that would benefit a very small select group of higher paid workers) is deemed to be a cover-up to what they are really trying to accomplish.  It seems this is all just a pretext the industry is using to push through all the other detrimental wording in this legislation proposal that could reduce & eliminate pensions to millions of Americans -- merely  to superficially prop corporation's bottom lines with vapor profits, deceiving investors while robbing employees.

-- In addition, the elimination of the automatic reporting of the "Summary Annual Report" (SAR), as now slated in the 'Roth Retirement 2000' bill is not acceptable. The law currently requires that the SAR be distributed automatically to all plan participants (each year in the case of plans with 100 or more members; every three years for others).  Senator Roth's bill would eliminate this currently required automatic distribution.

Those that support the verbiage included in Senator Roth's proposal (as-is) are likely to become known as the supporters of one of the "LARGEST FINANCIAL SCANDALS IN U.S. HISTORY".

Please help put a STOP to this scandal - VOTE NO to ROTH; YES to HARKIN!  This proposed legislation is reportedly going for full Senate vote within the next week or so.  PLEASE HELP preserve the earned and due retirement benefits of the U.S. workers (your voting constituents) and save our U.S. economy BY VOTING "NO" to the likes of Senator Roth's proposal and BY VOTING "YES" to Senator Harkin's Amendment.

The Employee's Petition Against Age Discrimination and Senator Roth's pension proposals was online and viewable through midnight, Sunday, September 24, 2000 at below URL.  A copy of the Petition, number of signatures, and States represented that signed the Petition are attached to this letter. 

http://www.e-thepeople.com/affiliates/suntimes/index.cfm?PC=PETFV1&PETID=429958

(may not be linkable or viewable "online" after midnight, September 24, 2000, as it closed and full list of signatures and Petition mailed out the letter from e-thepeople.com to Senator Roth on the Petition close date of September 25, 2000 - so we have attached copy to this Open Letter To Capitol Hill).

Thanking you in advance for your attention and support on this serious matter.  

Sincerely,

Lynda P. French 
IEBAC Board Member, Cashpensions Webmaster/Spokesperson, and Alliance@IBM/ CWA Member
Cashpensions "Multi-Company" Employee Website:  www.cashpensions.org 
Alliance@IBM/CWA Website: CWA: Alliance@IBM/CWA
E-mail: webmaster@cashpensions.org
Austin, Texas (IBM Retiree)

 

Co-signers to OPEN Letter to Capitol Hill follow:

Tom Ainsworth
E-mail: teainsw@hotmail.com
Current SBC Employee
Danville, CA

Linda M. Allen
E-mail: lmallen@ibm.net
Retired
Austin, TX 

Calvin Arnason 
E-mail:  carnason@aol.com
IBM Employee (26+ years service) - Currently in IBM Global Services
Portland, OR

Harry Ballard
E-mail: hballar@juno.com
Ultimate Marketing Inc. Employee (previously worked for IBM)
New Orleans, LA

John T. Brown, Jr
E-mail: gusnjohn@epix.net
IBM Retiree
Ottsville, PA 18942

Lee Conrad
National Organizer
Alliance@IBM/ CWA
Website: CWA: Alliance@IBM/CWA
E-mail: EndicottAlliance@stny.rr.com
Endicott, NY

Bill Costine
E-mail:   teller77@hotmail.com
IBM Employee
Beacon, NY

Charles B. Dupree, VP NAPRI
National Association of Prudential Retirees
Website:   NAPRI: National Association of Prudential Retirees and Vested Terminators, Inc (r)
E-mail: Prurets@aol.com

Paul R. Edwards, Chairman
Coalition for Retirement Security
Website:  www.pensions-r-us.org
E-Mail: pre-crs@map.com
Phone/Fax (413) 796-1710
Springfield, MA 01118-2410

 

Mary Fletcher
ACE Corp Website: att.nac.net  (AT&T Concerned Employees Council on Retirement Protection (ACE CORP))
E-mail: videomf@wans.net
AT&T Employee
Tampa, Fl

David Gabry
E-mail:  dlgabry@ulster.net
IBM employee & Alliance@IBM/ CWA Member
Olivebridge, NY

Chuck Grandstrand
Onan Retiree
E-mail: sweetswede@webtv.net
Wyoming MN  55092

Artie Jones
E-mail aljones_1227@yahoo.com
The Boeing Co.
Systems Adminstrator 33+ years
Huntington Beach, CA

Katie Jones 
E-mail:  tally_ho_us@Yahoo.com
IBM Employee
Dallas, TX

Janet Krueger
E-mail:  jkrueger@andrewscg.com
IEBAC Website:  www.cashpensions.org/ct7871.html
IBM Employees Benefit Action Coalition (IEBAC) Board Member & Spokesperson
Rochester, MN

Andy Lang
E-mail:  andylang@erols.com
Retired Pension Actuary from Pennsylvania

Stephen Langlie 
E-mail:  slanglie@gte.net
ONAN Retiree
Chisago City, MN 55013

Edith Lueke 
E-mail:  elueke1@roch.uswest.net
IBM Employee
Rochester, MN

Bill & Maria MacDonald
E-mail: Bill.Maria@MacDonald.net
ONAN Corporation Retiree
Blaine, MN

 

Peg MacPhail
E-mail: mgmxx@ibm.net
Tivoli Employee
Austin, TX 

James J. Mangi
E-mail: jim.mangi@earthling.net
IBM employee since 1989 (currently in IBM Global Services, Southbury, CT)
Alliance@IBM/CWA Member and Organizer
Website: http://www.HereInTown.com/southburyalliance/
Danbury, CT

Jimmie Eugene Matthews
Duke Energy Employee Advocate Website:  www.dukeemployees.com
E-mail: aatlas@perigee.net
Duke Energy Corporation
Denver, NC

Bill McGreevy, Jr.
IBM Southbury Employee
e-mail: SBMcGreevy@aol.com
Wingdale,NY

Debra Rosenbaugh
Email: frc3k9@gateway.net
AT&T Employee
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233

Corinne Rosenbaugh
Email:  frc3k9@hotmail.com
North Florida University, Student (Junior)
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233

Donald W. Shuper
BROL Website:  http://www.halcyon.com/dshuper
E-mail:  dshuper@halcyon.com
Boeing Retirees on the Line (BROL)
Redmond, WA

Rose Sylvia
E-mail: flyingrose@hot1.net
Personal Website:  http://www.equineinfo.com
Prior IBM Employee (recently resigned after 23 yrs service)
Lott, TX

Daryl Spartz
E-mail: dspartz@yahoo.com
IBM/Whistle Communications
Foster City, CA

 

Frederick C. Stanley
E-mail: blitz02@optonline.net
IBM Employee (23+ years service) - Currently in IBM Software Group
Massapequa, NY

Wyn Triska
E-mail:  triska@compuserve.com
Portland General Electric (subsidiary of Enron) 
Estacada, OR

Donald P. Valk
E-mail: donvalk@ev1.net
Lucent Retiree & CWA Member
Austin, TX

Janice Winston
Verizon/Bell Atlantic Employee Coalition for Retirement Security (BAECRS) Website: www.bapensions.org
E-mail: janicewinston@yahoo.com
Verizon Employee Coalition for Retirement Security
(formerly Bell Atlantic)
Philadelphia, PA

Roger K. Winters
ACE Corp Website: att.nac.net  (AT&T Concerned Employees Council on Retirement Protection (ACE CORP))
E-mail: rogerw@cfl.rr.com
AT&T Retiree
Winter Springs, FL

Attachments: 

  1. Copy of e-thepeople Petition Against Age Discrimination and Senator Roth's markup
  2.   List of Numbers Of Petitioners, by State (from above Petition attachment)

 

ATTACHMENT #1:  "OPEN LETTER TO CAPITOL HILL" Dated September 25, 2000

 

Contained in Word Doc Version.

 

ATTACHMENT #2:  "OPEN LETTER TO CAPITOL HILL" Dated September 25, 2000

In just 15 days, we managed to collect 2,565 signatures, spread across 44 states and the District of Columbia. The exact distribution is listed below:

State

Abbreviation

# of Petition Signers

State

AK

Alaska

AL

3

Alabama

AR

1

Arkansas

AZ

42

Arizona

CA

123

California

CO

260

Colorado

CT

19

Connecticut

DC

3

Washington DC

DE

4

Delaware

Fl

166

Florida

GA

202

Georgia

IL

126

Illinois

IN

19

Indiana

KS

37

Kansas

KY

18

Kentucky

LA

2

Louisiana

MA

75

Massachusetts

MD

36

Maryland

MI

21

Michigan

MN

89

Minnesota

MO

89

Missouri

MS

3

Mississippi

MT

1

Montana

NC

89

North Carolina

ND

1

North Dakota

NE

3

Nebraska

NH

7

New Hampshire

NJ

426

New Jersey

NM

5

New Mexico

NV

5

Nevada

NY

251

New York

OH

31

Ohio

OK

2

Oklahoma

OR

14

Oregon

PA

79

Pennsylvania

RI

7

Rhode Island

SC

14

South Carolina

TN

5

Tennessee

TX

144

Texas

UT

5

Utah

VA

64

Virginia

VT

51

Vermont

WA

15

Washington

WI

6

Wisconsin

WV

1

West Virginia

TOTAL:

2,565

(See NOTE internal-attachment-icon)

NOTE: 2,565 total signatures, from 44 states and the District of Columbia