Wait till you get the DVD in the mail. I think you will understand more at that time. You will still have better medical benefits than I do. You won't have co pays and your medical will still be the same as it is now except for a deductible. Our benifits were the ones that were enhanced. I said all alone that the benifits would be upgraded for us. As far as you are concerned I believe your coverage as far as the dollar amount stay the same in The enhanced c6.
Im not going to get into a debate with you on this forum friend as its a strained Internet friendship of late. All the best to you and your family.
This "deal" had nothing to do with the company, other than the company telling the Teamsters to "do whatever you have to do to settle this contract".
The IBT knows this, through the message of the members voices with a NO VOTE and the maintaining of that NO VOTE feeling going into this second round of balloting.
To keep it simple, let me propose this explanation.
First and foremost, the officers of the southwest are ALL in jeopardy with the T.A. as first presented. The IBT knows this now and it has to act to attempt to protect them. NONE of the officers in the southwest were involved in the Teamcare upgrades, yet, come next week, they will be attempting to take partial credit for it. This is strickly a political move to save their asshes..
Second, the IBT knew that those of us in the southwest and local 177 would shoot down the riders and supplementals a second and third time hands down no matter what nonsense was coming out of the IBT's mouth.
That being said, a calculation had to be made and it was. POSTPONE the eventual REDUCTION in our health care benefits for 5 years until the next round of negotiations and THEN, insurance will be off the table and the trustees of the CSHW can do what they like to the benefit levels without interference from the company, the members or the locals.
That little sentence in the MOU grants the trustees final authority to make changes "at will" without approval from the membership.
All that happened is what I said would happen 4 weeks ago. They would give us our same benefit levels for the duration of this contract and get their "foot" in the door, and next time, in 2018 we will not be able to stop them from doing anything.
Thats why I said, on the surface, everything looks identical to what we have now, give or take a few minor differences, and thats ok, but in 5 years, we are going to be helpless in stopping the CSHW from reducing coverage and increasing costs.
Given this scenario, its all the more reason to remove all the players involved in this mess from the start. From Hoffa to Hall to the local officers of the southwest. Get rid of them all and put in people who will stand up for the members and protect these benefits.
Its clear, from the jump, that the locals in the southwest were on board to take away our benefits as we know them and replace them with crap. Now, out of nowhere, they match our current plan almost to the dime and "TABLE" the bigger fight for 5 years ( hopefully)
who knows, a year from now, or 2 years from now, the CSHW may take a vote and reduce our benefit levels with the authority granted to them in the MOU and we will be UNABLE to stop them.
We can cry and complain, but it will fall on deaf ears. The IBT will simply say that "YOU VOTED FOR THE MASTER AGREEMENT and it was in there".."didnt you read it before you voted?"
This upgrade also has nothing to do with the "carve out" and as I said before, they were never going to be able to create a plan of their own and we would get dumped into the C6.
I look at this two ways. First, its great that they changed gears and matched our plan, for that, maybe we should authorize this contract, but, on the other hand, there are NO GUARANTEES that these benefit levels will remain the same for the full 5 years and maybe we should vote NO and force them to remove the MOU and REWRITE it to include "employee benefit levels shall remain the same for the duration of this contract".
Lastly, Its still unclear on whether or not current C6 members will be upgraded to these new benefit levels and thats a question among other questions I have sent to TEAMCARE to be answered.
More later on that,
Peace
TOS