Your chance to state your
case CALMLY
Mycheala Holley of Senator
Sherrod Brown’s Cleveland office met with Rick O’Connor, CEO of Black Press, who
has agreed to work with Senator Brown to identify the total number and names of
the retirees who have lost their healthcare benefits.
So, it’s up to EVERY Beacon
Journal retiree to contact Senator Brown’s Cleveland office and inform them of
your lost healthcare benefits. Keep it civil, keep it rational and keep it
accurate. Ranting won’t help. The facts are horrifying enough to stand on their
own.
Instead of complaining to
each other, let’s organize our thoughts and join together and flood Senator
Brown’s office with letters (more effective, I think) and phone calls (but only
if you can avoid shouting).
Maybe seeing what I wrote
to Senator Brown’s office will help you craft your calm but factually
frightening letter:
Mycheala Holley
Regional Representative
Office of U.S. Senator
Sherrod Brown
801 W. Superior Ave., Suite
1400
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
Ph: 216-385-4464
Fx: 216-522-2239
Ms. Holley:
I retired in 1996
with a retirement letter that guaranteed I would keep my same medical,
supplemental and prescription coverage that was in effect on my retirement day.
I gave up $37,000 in reduced Social Security checks and Beacon Journal pension
to retire early in 1996 and avoid the cutbacks that I expected to hit future BJ
retirees but Canadian big business legal dodgeball has harmed my financial situation
severely in 2021.
The Beacon Journal
dropped the 20% supplemental medical co-pay for doctors and hospitals in 2004,
leaving only the 80% paid by Medicare and adding the 20% to my out-of-pocket
costs.
Black Press dropped
the $2 co-pay for 30-day prescriptions and $6 for 90-day prescriptions in 2007
for Beacon Journal Guild (newsroom) employees.
Black Press Group
LTD bailing out of medical insurance and costs and our pensions, even though
its income is nearly $300 million a year, increased my prescription costs ALONE
from $160 a year to $2,476.19 for 2020. Puget Sound, Black Press’ subsidiary,
dumped Beacon Journal pensions on the Federal Guaranteed Pension, so we will
continue to get 100% of our pension because we don’t come close to the $5,000 monthly
maximum to have the pension reduced below 100%.
During the years
from Federal Judge David Dowd’s 2012 ruling invalidating reneging on printers
and newsroom retirees’ retirement-day letters and their guarantees till the
Canadian’s bankruptcy filing I saved $60,000 over what it would have cost me
personally for my prescriptions, doctors, hospitals and premiums.
Now I am saddled
with $1,057.20 a year in once-Beacon Journal-paid premiums for my AARP United
Health Care prescription coverage that has far more out-of-pocket expenses than
the $2 co-pay I had on retirement day, $2,332.20 a year in premiums for the
AARP United Health Care Supplemental plan that the Beacon Journal paid the
entire premiums for and the Medicare Part B premium of $1,735.20 a year. That’s
$5,124.60 a year for the 3 medical premiums. Plus I gave up $37,000 in Social
Security and Beacon Journal pension to retire early and avoid the cutbacks that
were about to hit current employees in 1996 but 3 decades later returned to
slash my financial situation severely.
And my prescription
co-pay that I am responsible for went from $160 in the previous year to
$2,476.19 for 2020 alone!
On a Beacon Journal
pension that is $1,922.60 a month ($44.71 for each of the 43 years of my
journalism career) or about one-fourth my BJ pension each year for my premiums
alone. The premiums and now-imposed out-of-pocket medical costs mean that about
HALF by Beacon Journal pension each year is gone before I can buy food,
clothes, gas or go to a restaurant.
While David Black
gets off scot-free with his $300 million revenue a year with the help of fancy lawyers
and high-priced accountants.
Income inequality
and dodging taxes and pensions and medical costs just widen the gap between
people on yachts and people too poor to afford a leaky rowboat.
Anything you can do
to improve this situation, not just for me but for the 45 printers and 5 Guild
retirees who won the lawsuit only to lose the war to Canadian big business
responsibility-dodging and others even worse off because they didn’t benefit
from Judge Dowd’s lawsuit ruling.
Thank you for your
time and anything you can do to help the Beacon Journal retirees, including
many who are even worse off than I am. We gave our working lives to prop up our
country’s economy and feel like we’re being kicked in the head by corporations
ranking in millions of dollars a year.
John Olesky, Jr.
217 N Thomas Road
Tallmadge, OH
44278-1776
(330) 388-4466
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