Rx note from Bob Abbott

OK gang...here's where we're at...

I'm still waiting for some responses to my previous inquiry...I assumed some of you were probably on vacation and/or trying to round up some hard facts (paperwork) that we can presentto the lawyer. Or...perhaps you have already found as much info as is available in your personalsituation.

Thanks to those that have responded and to those couple of people that promised me some paperwork but still haven't sent it...please send itas soon as possible.

I'm holding off on contacting the lawyer again until I have the wholepackage (or as much as we can come up with). That way I'm thinking wecan save some money as opposed to me bugging him with every littledetail as it comes up. If he charges us for (and he probably should) hissorting through the info it probably will be more economical in onepackage.

At this stage he is on hold and not costing us any monies. Nor have Iinstructed him to move forward and turn this into a real lawsuit. Hisadvice is that we need more ammo to realistically have much of a chanceto move the BJ from their stance. And, according to his feeling ofthe situation, they (the BJ) are digging in their heels and probably notgoing to cave in unless we can find a weak spot in their position. More scary is the prospect that, even if we had a super strong legal case,the BJ could keep appealing decisions against them. And, as thishappens, the filing fees for each new level of court and legal fees wouldskyrocket. In other words, they could drag this out until we either gobroke or die from old age. Not very encouraging!! And that's even ifwe would keep winning decisions in court. But they also might just saythe hassle isn't worth the effort... but I'm sure they're looking downthe road and as more retirees reach 65 they (the BJ) would be affectedand the BJ's cost would increase.

Some of the idea of where we're at and where we might go in the futuremight be more of setting up a group or individual that is in a betterposition to carry on in the future. Some of you that are under 65really haven't been affected by the BJ's Medicare part D that we arefighting at the moment. The shabby way the BJ is treating their presentemployees' prescription cards and those that are under 65 is pretty much aseparate issue. And if the union lawyers won't touch it while it isstill a contract issue you can probably bet the BJ is doing it legally ifnot morally. If you haven't been affected you can't bring legalaction. But we all know it will happen and as the people reach that "magic"age of 65 you will be forced into the Medicare mess.

My info into the contracts from the other trade unions at the time ofretirement/separation is still woefully limited. If some of you couldfill me in on any bit of info as to the contracts in effect at the timeof your retirement it would really help fill in the information weneed. Obviously, and unfortunately legally, the BJ's stance is they aregoing by the contracts in effect at the time of retirement/separation. We need to know this information if possible.

If you have anything...please send it if you haven't already and we'll present what we have to the lawyer and see if we can come up with something that can move us forward and get off this holding pattern.

thanks

bob abbott