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"The mission of the SRS Retiree Association is to maintain the pensions and benefits given at the time of retirement, and to support current and future missions of the Savannah River Site."
- Approved by the Board of Directors, March 3, 1998.
SRS Retirees - Your Medical Benefits Are At Risk!
Join Now to Help Us Protect You!
With more than 1400 members, the SRS Retiree Association is the largest retiree association in the State of South Carolina. NUMBERS DO COUNT!
CLICK HERE TO JOIN NOW, if you have not already done so.
Contact the Membership Committee Chair by telephone, (803) 279‑9570, E‑Mail, or click on the "Membership" link in the navigation strip on the left‑hand side of this page for an application form.
ANNUAL MEETING IS OVER.
NOW IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO ACT!
The Annual Meeting of April 10, 2012, will be summarized in the Annual Meeting Highlights pages in due time. But it is urgent to get some important information to you as soon as possible. Hence this section.
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Kelly Sanders of SRS presented the status of the implementation of the drastic reduction in retirees' medical benefits.
Click here to download the pdf file of Kelly's presentation.
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Two documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
- Benefits Valuation Study submittal letter from SRNS to DOE-SROO. This letter contains a quote from the actuary that says: "values at SRNS ... will naturally appear well above average compared to the new hire benefits at the other companies.
However, they may not be above average compared to grandfathered benefits that we believe exist at a lot of companies."
Click here to download the full letter.
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The second document directs the Contractor to reduce retiree health care benefits while not changing current employee and new hire health care benefits, for competitive reasons (paraphrased from letter).
Click here to download the full letter.
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At the Annual Meeting, a member read aloud a letter that he had sent to Senator Graham. The letter is an excellent resource when you go visit your congressional representatives.
Click here to download the letter.
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Congressman Joe Wilson was the only legislator attending the Annual Meeting, but representatives of the other legislators were there. We received letters of support from Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson and Georgia Congressman Paul Broun, Jr.
Click
here for Senator Isakson's letter
Click
here for Congressman Broun's letter.
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On April 16, 2012, Senator Graham and Congressman Joe Wilson wrote a joint letter to DOE's Senior Manager for Environmental Management, David Huizenga, reiterating their request for answers to questions about the planned changes to the medical benefits for SRS retirees.
Click
here for a copy of the Graham-Wilson letter.
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The day after the Annual Meeting, a member of the SRSRA created an online petition to the Office of the Inspector General calling for DOE to stop taking away health benefits from Savannah River Site retirees. The SRSRA Board of Directors strongly encourages all members to sign the petition.
Click here to sign the petition.
Senator Graham letter
On December 21, 2011, Senator Graham issued a letter to Dave Huizenga, Acting Asst. Secretary for EM/DOE, requesting a meeting of DOE, SRNS, and SRSRA to address questions about the proposed changes to our medical benefits. You can download that letter by clicking on
Senator Graham's letter.
Aiken Standard article
On January 27, 2012, the Aiken Standard published an article about Senator Graham's letter, and you can dowload that article by clicking on:
"Senator Graham Intervenes".
SRS RETIREES
Your Current Medical Benefits Are At Risk!
The Department of Energy, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, and Savannah River Remediation are rapidly moving forward with changes to your medical benefits that will be costly to you. These changes include:
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Retirees (age 65+) being dropped from the SRS health care plan and an undetermined stipend provided to purchase commercial Medicare and Medigap plans, if available.
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Retirees (< age 65) being moved to a separate group from active SRS employees which could double your current medical premium.
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Not providing a stipend cost of living annual adjustment.
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Not providing increases in the stipend to cover increases in the cost of Medicare supplemental coverage based on age.
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Not providing a stipend sufficient to purchase major medical plan coverage for items not covered by Medicare and prescription drugs for all age groups.
The added costs of these changes to SRS retirees will significantly impact your quality of life and especially harm older retirees.
Your SRS Pension Fund is also underfunded (currently at only 67%), which mandates a penalty fee of $4,000,000 paid from the Fund annually.
You can make a difference if you take immediate action:
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Join the SRSRA (www.srsretirees.org). We are over 1,200 members strong and the numbers are growing fast as SRS retirees understand the need to unite against this significant reduction in your benefits.
- Express strong opposition to your Senators and Congressmen,The Department of Energy, SRNS, and SRR.
Stand up and protect the benefits you have earned! Doing nothing is not an option.
SRSRA Vice-Chairman Andy Cwalina discusses our loss of benefits in Weapons Complex Monitor.
The proposed reduction to SRS retiree medical benefits is discussed in the January 13, 2012, issue of the Weapons Complex Monitor. You can download pages 1, 21‑24 by clicking on
the WCM article.
The discussion, with quotes from Andy Cwalina, is on pages 21-22.
YOUR ACTION URGENTLY NEEDED TO PRESERVE PROMISED BENEFITS!
As the government spends $trillions$ to put our country into debt forever, they are cutting costs by reducing benefits for SRS retirees.
CLICK HERE to go directly to the Medical Benefits page where you can download the letter and postulated questions and answers pertaining to the proposed changes in our medical benefits plan.
You will also find there sample drafts of information to help you when you contact your legislators.
The official SRSRA position in opposing the retiree medical
benefit changes under consideration is found in
this SRSRA letter
to SRNS and SRR dated June 17, 2011. The letter was also sent to DOE.
Retirees with questions on the status of evaluation of the retiree health plan changes being considered should call Kelly Sanders, SRNS, directly at (803) 725-2135.
Use the links on the left-hand side of this window to navigate to the items of interest to you. (Note: Let your cursor hover on a link for a moment and a small dialog window will give a little more information about the topics covered in that linked page.)
Browse through the entire website to become familiar with all it offers. If you think of information you need regularly and it is not here, please click here to send an email to the SRSRA webmaster and explain your needs.
The SRS Retiree Association, Inc. was formed January, 1998, to address issues of particular concern to retirees of the Savannah River Site. All WSRC and BSRI retirees are welcome to attend our Board of Directors meetings. The location and time of these meetings is posted on the
Calendar of Events
page.
If you wish to be involved as a member of the Board, please contact one of the following membership committee members: Kent Sullivan, Sam Goforth (Send an email to: membership@srsretirees.org). You can also indicate on the membership form (click
here
or on the "Membership" link on the left hand side of this page) your desire to serve on the Board.
Send e-mail to:
Board of Directors
US Mail: SRS Retiree Association
P.O. Box 5686
Aiken, S.C. 29804
©1998-2012
SRS Retiree Association, Inc.
Aiken SC
Revised: May 16, 2012
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JC Consultants.
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