NRLN PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

December 2019

The National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN) mailed a letter to you on August 26 to inform you that a new NRLN Lucent / Nokia Retirees Chapter would be formed this year because the Lucent Retirees Organization (LRO) is moving toward dissolution in 2020. You may have read the November 6 email from LRO President Joe Dombrowski in which he reported on the LRO Board’s October meeting. The primary focus of the Board meeting was to go over the plan for dissolution of the LRO in March 2020. If you have not received the message, I encourage you to read it on the LRO website home page at www.lucentretirees.com. I was please to read in the message that Joe committed to schedule a meeting with me to formalize a support agreement with the NRLN Lucent / Nokia Retirees Chapter.

The Chapter’s leadership team is coming together as you will read in the nearby letter from Joe Sciulli, who is President of your Chapter. Joe is a former LRO Board member and is on the NRLN Board.

Your support is needed as an individual member of the Chapter and the NRLN to address the following issues. (Be sure to read the last paragraph on how you can help.)

Life Insurance Benefit: The LRO has been dealing with Nokia for years to secure additional funding for the underfunded Group Life Insurance Trust (GLI). Recently Nokia announced it plans to transfer up to $89 million of the excess pension assets to pay for Group Life coverage for eligible Lucent / Nokia retirees. The NRLN, LRO and Nokia continues to lobby members of Congress to pass legislation that would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 420 to reduce the Section 420 surplus transfer limits from 120% and 125% to a lower level of 110%, subject to the requirement that annual plan surplus transfers be used for and may not exceed the combined annual life insurance and health insurance benefits or 1.75% of plan assets whichever is lower. Passage of the amendment would make it possible for Nokia (and other companies) with pension plans funded at 110% or more to use surplus funds to sustain benefits.

Pension Recoupment: The NRLN is also advocating its pension recoupment proposal. Recoupment is when a pension plan sponsor finds an error in the pension payment calculation and forces a retiree (some Lucent retirees have experienced this) to pay back thousands of dollars and suffer a cut in his/her pension benefit. The NRLN wants to limit on the number of years that retirees can be exposed to paying back overpayments and the percent that can be taken from their monthly pension checks to repay the pension plan.

Corporate Mergers: You have gone through the corporate mergers with Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia. The NRLN has developed a whitepaper and is lobbying Congress for legislation to protect retirees in corporate mergers, acquisitions and spin-off.

Social Security: Beginning in 2020, Social Security will pay more in benefits than it takes in from taxes and interest. Social Security will deplete its $2.9 trillion reserve fund in 2035. While the program will not go bankrupt due to payroll taxes, benefits would be cut by about one-fourth. To prevent a cut in benefits and fund the program for the next 75 years, the NRLN is supporting passage of Social Security 2100 Act in Congress.

Medicare & Medicare Advantage: Original Medicare’s Hospital Insurance program (Medicare Part A) is pointed toward insolvency by 2026. At that time, Medicare Part A will only have enough funds to pay about 87% of costs. Congress is allowing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize insurance companies for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to serve as a move toward privatization. The NRLN opposes the use of MA plans to privatize Medicare. The NRLN is also advocating that original Medicare participants have access to the special benefits being offered in MA plans. If Medicare is privatized, current MA plan participants should be grandfathered to protect their benefits and subsidies.

Prescription Drug Prices: The NRLN is lobbying to allow Medicare to do competitive bidding for lower prescription drug prices; end pay-for-delay and other brand name drugmakers’ tactics that keep generic drugs off the market, and allow importation of safe and less expensive drugs from Canada.

How You Can Help: You can help get your Lucent/Nokia Retirees Chapter started with a strong financial foundation by making your individual contribution of $25 or more. Any amount contributed will be appreciated. Make your check or money order payable to NRLN, Inc. Or, make your contribution with your credit card at https://www.nrln.org/ccdirect.htm Also, you can help by responding to NRLN Action Alerts and asking Lucent/Nokia retirees that you know to sign up at www.nrln.org to receive Chapter and NRLN emails.

Lucent / Nokia retirees who contribute to the NRLN will receive a Chapter membership card.

Bill Kadereit, NRLN President, Lucent Retiree and LRO Founding Member