ANDERSON, Ind. — Workers who retired from Delco Remy America, a company spun off from General Motors and Anderson’s Delco Remy plants, will lose their health insurance at the end of the year.
Among them: the man who once was president of the city’s largest union.
“I got a letter about a month and a half ago stating we need to make plans to get our own insurance and try to do the best we could,” said Dick Vannatta, who formerly was president of United Auto Workers Local 662, which represented workers for Delco Remy and Delco Remy America.
“It was health benefits, life insurance, everything,” Vannatta said. “Everything we thought we had bargained and put aside for our retirement, it was gone.”
Jerry Mills, senior vice president of Remy International, said about 89 retirees are affected by the decision to quit providing health coverage.
“Due to the GM bankruptcy, Remy had no other alternative but to make these plan changes to protect the long-term viability of the company,” according to a statement issued by Remy.
Two retirees — Neill Rinker of Anderson and Douglas Oakley of Rickman, Tenn. — have sued Remy in federal court in Nashville. The suit claims Remy’s discontinuation of health care benefits violates a collective bargaining agreement, violates the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and is a breach of corporate duties under that law. Rinker could not be contacted for comment.
Remy said in its statement that it was within its rights to terminate the benefits, and “will vigorously defend” its actions in court.
Remy said the company created a voluntary retiree reimbursement plan “to assist them in transitioning to new coverage including Medicare.”
Such plans reimburse medical expenses up to $25,000 for families. “About 90 percent of the retirees have enrolled in this new plan effective Jan. 1, 2010,” according to Remy.
The reimbursement provided by Remy includes expenses for insurance premiums, according to Mills, but Vannatta said that’s true only for people who aren’t otherwise employed.
Vannatta, who works as a jailer at the Madison County Jail, doesn’t qualify because of the job, he said, which he added doesn’t provide insurance for him.
He worries that the reimbursement might reject legitimate claims.
“I just don’t trust them now, I guess,” he said.
Mills said Remy went beyond its legal obligations to employees. He said the creation of the reimbursement plan is something very few companies do, and that other businesses facing similar situations have stopped providing retiree benefits, leaving nothing in their place. “In our case, we’re providing this transition benefit,” he said.
Vannatta said he’s talked with attorneys involved in the federal suit.
“I just came through some problems with cancer three years ago, and I had benefits at that time,” he said. “But say that crops up again sometime. I’m only 30 days from losing (insurance).
“I’ve always tried to take care of myself, stay healthy, but sometimes it’s not enough. You worry about that kind of thing.”
Contact Dave Stafford: 648-4250, dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com
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