MASSENA -- The United Steelworkers labor union has filed a lawsuit to protest Alcoa terminating life insurance benefits for retirees, calling it “immoral” and “unlawful.” The USW’s Local …
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MASSENA -- The United Steelworkers labor union has filed a lawsuit to protest Alcoa terminating life insurance benefits for retirees, calling it “immoral” and “unlawful.”
The USW’s Local 420A represents laborers at Massena’s Alcoa and Arconic plants.
Alcoa informed the retirees by letter on Dec. 4 that it would eliminate life insurance coverage effective Dec. 31.
The company included with the letter a check “equal to a fraction of the face value of their life insurance coverage and a federal 1099 tax form, since the payment would be taxable,” United Steelworkers said in a news release.
The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of Indiana as a class action, and three Alcoa retirees have joined the complaint as proposed class representatives. The Wenatchee Aluminum Trades Council, a coalition of unions representing workers at an Alcoa facility in Washington state, is also a plaintiff, USW said.
USW officials say they are also studying other announcements that the company made regarding the health care benefits for certain retirees effective in 2021.
“We negotiated these retiree life insurance benefits with the company, and they are a critical part of our collective bargaining agreements with Alcoa,” USW International President Tom Conway said in a prepared statement. “The company agreed to provide these benefits. Abruptly cutting off this coverage is not only immoral, it’s unlawful.”
“Families rely on the contractual death benefit to assist with funeral and other expenses,” Mike Millsap, Director of USW District 7 and chair of the USW’s Alcoa bargaining committee said in a prepared statement. “It is deeply disturbing that Alcoa would show so little respect for its retirees, many of whom devoted decades of work helping the company grow and thrive.”