INDIANAPOLIS, IN—United Steel Workers (USW) has sued Alcoa over the company’s pending termination of life insurance for about 8,900 union-represented retirees nationwide, including many in Rockdale and Milam County.
Last week’s Reporter noted that the company had sent checks to local and area retirees saying their company life insurance was being terminated Dec. 31 and that retirees were advised the checks were “discretionary payments representing a portion of the benefits.”
Local 4895 officials advised retirees not to cash those checks.
USW officials said the checks represent “a fraction of the face value of their life insurance.”
Also included in the notifying letter to retirees was an IRA Tax Form 1099, since the payment would be taxable.
“We negotiated these retiree life insurance benefits with the company, and they are a critical part of our collective bargaining agreements with Alcoa,” Tom Conway, USW International President, said.
“The company agreed to provide these benefits,” he added. “Abruptly cutting off this coverage is not only immoral, it’s unlawful.”
The lawsuit was filed as a class-action in the Southern District of Indiana.
According to the USW, three Alcoa retirees have joined the litigation, as proposed class representatives, and the Wenatchee (Washington) Aluminum Trades Council, a coalition of unions representing workers at that facility, is also a plaintiff.
The union said it is also “studying other announcements that the company made for certain retirees effective in 2021.”
The Rockdale area has hundreds of Alcoa retirees, both hourly (union) and salaried. Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations made metal for more than 60 years before the smelter was shut down in 2008-9.
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