Reply #47: Great Wonderful & Heart Felt Post!! I Know Our Family Would Probably

[ChiciB1]

never been able to save, or get a decent job WITHOUT our Union! My husband worked for GTE BEFORE it became Verizon, which was fantastic for us! The Union is CWA! At that time they matched stock savings 50/50 and then we enrolled in a 401K! Yes, I know it's different now, but we took advantage of the offering by saving the maximum amount as a tax differed account!

Great Health care, and even though there were times that they didn't get all they wanted regarding salary raises, almost ALWAYS they got a pay raise! We were able to save enough back then so my husband was able to retire early (when he got his numbers) because his mother acquired Alzheimer's and she came to live with us for 10 years. Without the Union I seriously doubt we would have saved as much!

Now, some of our friends who work for Verizon who worked there when it was GTE have told us that so many things have changed! Because actual Unions have dropped to something around 12 to 15% nationwide, some pluses have been dropped. The older Union people from GTE are just waiting to get their numbers, because of employee cuts and it's now longer "first hired, first fired!" I hear from them that it's the "older" employees they want to be rid of, even as a Union company! The older employees make more money, sooooooooooooooooo you get the drift!

But it's STILL A UNION, which is beneficial to even the Verizon employees today. We have been able to keep good health insurance because of when my husband retired, and now that he became eligible for Medicare. They called it Retiree Medicare Health Care! Still I wonder HOW long we will enjoy THIS plus. We have a Humana PPO, and we do have to make some choices, but with no deductible, and only a $5.00 co-pay and $20.00 co-pay for specialist, I'm NOT going to complain!! And we both just had a complete physical, included ultra sounds and complete cardiology work-ups that didn't cost us anything! While have what I consider a GREAT health care plan, it doesn't mean I don't know how lucky I am!

Given the coverage we have, I KNOW that some doctors just "over-charge" for their services and at times I've thought of reporting this, but do I cut my nose off to spite my face??? I've wondered about this, but then I would have to find other doctors, and now it seems fewer and fewer doctors want to take different types of insurance. AND, we aren't affluent so we watch what we spend all the time!

But, I think it's because we are a UNION connected family that we actually can still enjoy this kind of insurance.

But time will tell how it will change, and given the current HCR Bill we may find ourselves with less coverage rather than more!! HCR, in my opinion does very little for the average person, but it has a "few" things that will help! However my son just told me that his insurance (non-union & not through his employer) just went up $100.00 month!! Raising rates is a humongous stick in the eye for too many people with health insurance!

Keeping rates down WAS NOT something that was addressed and I think it's a real kick in the pants!!

So Enough! We NEED MORE UNIONS!!