Rx memo from Bob Abbott

BJ Retirees;

I have decided to put forward some information I have received from Dave and Gina White. Instead of going into a complete explanation and details I will only give an abbreviated view of this new possible approach.

Unlike our other explorations into only the Rx coverages for those over 65 this delves into ALL medical, hospitalization and Rx coverages for retirees of the BJ.

This involves retirees of Raytheon (International Association of Machinists Local 933...AFL-CIO) and the Raytheon Missile Systems Corp. of Arizona. A U.S. District Court has ruled that Raytheon must restore health care benefits to its employees. In this particular case it was employees who took early retirement/separation from Raytheon. If there was a problem with "regular" retirees I'm not sure at this time. Quite possibly it would or could include them if they were "injured" by the company not fulfilling there obligations. The amount of compensation to pay for the expense of the plaintiffs paying for their own medical coverage was between $6 and $12 million.

I'm not sure if the company has appealed the decision. There are many parallels I see with that situation and the situation of many BJ retirees. Many of the points of the plaintiffs in this case and the points brought up by the attorney I was talking to earlier are either the same or at least similar.

More important...and I believe this to be VERY important... Dave and Gina had a retired judge read over the U.S. District Court of Arizona's decision and the contract (the BJ's) in effect at the time of Dave and Gina's retirement/separation and in his opinion that they had a good case!

Without getting into a horribly long list of details I believe that we first must find out if there are enough people that have been injured by the BJ's sidestepping their obligations to start getting a class action suit underway. So that's what this is about. Either contact me (rabbott@mindspring.com) or Dave and Gina White in Florida. djwhite05@msn.com

I still believe that the small claims court approach is interesting to say the least...but this could be big...

bob abbott