Company’s Former Labor Negotiator
Sues GE Over Retiree Health Cuts
GE is being sued in federal court by two retirees who previously held high-ranking positions in labor relations and benefits administration, over the company’s slashing of salary employee retirement health benefits. The plaintiffs are Dennis Rocheleau, GE’s former chief labor negotiator, and Evelyn Kauffman, former senior corporate benefits executive.
The lawsuit, filed in October, results from GE’s decision, effective January 1, 2013, to eliminate post-65 medical benefits for those salaried exempt employees and retirees who were not yet 65. Delegates from UE’s GE locals condemned the company’s action at an April 2013 meeting of the UE-GE Conference Board, warning that it was a sign that GE will try to take those benefits away from union and hourly workers too.
Then in September 2014 the company terminated the plan even for current enrollees who were salaried workers. In its place GE offered the salaried retirees a $1,000 subsidy to buy their own insurance through a private healthcare exchange.
Rocheleau and Kaufmann argue that by these cuts, GE violated often-repeated promises to salaried employees that amount to a contract. As recently as July 2012, a new edition of a company handbook said GE “expects and intends” to continue the Medicare supplement benefits indefinitely.
Rocheleau, who used to negotiate contracts with UE and the other GE unions and retired in 2004 after 36 years with GE, told Bloomberg News, “I see this as a gross departure from their traditional conduct. What GE is doing is unjustified by the facts of their healthcare costs and it is unjustified against the standards of what they should be doing.”
Kauffman retired in 2011 with 37 years of GE service. She told the Louisville Courier-Journal that as a benefits specialist, she repeatedly assured people about to retire that they’d still have GE health coverage. “I was always so happy to share that with people. Now I’ve ended up lying to all those people.”