Chadds Ford woman fights for retiree benefits

Chadds Ford’s Pat Wells is fighting for retiree benefits. And she’s doing so by taking part in a series of videos for the Association of BellTell Retirees Inc.

“I am very upset about the way the retirees are being treated…It’s supposed to be the golden years, and they are kind of making it the ghoulish years,” Wells said in the video.

Wells began a 42-year career with New York Telephone, a company that eventually became Verizon. She worked in various customer service positions and was a senior specialist in retail markets small business when she retired in 2003.

At that time, she thought she and her fellow retirees would all get everything they had been promised. That, however, hasn’t been the case. The company has taken actions that she calls “a breach of loyalty.”

Wells herself has not been damaged, but thousands of others have. In a telephone interview, she said 41,000 of the company’s management retirees were transferred out of a Verizon retirement plan where there were guaranteed benefit protections — called ERISA protections enforced by the federal Department of Labor — to other companies with other plans where no such protections existed. Another 2,700 Verizon retirees lost their health benefits after their plans were transferred, she said.

It’s not just Verizon. Other companies do the same things, such as taking away health benefits from retirees, said Wells.

“These are things that people were promised during their working years,” she said.

According to Wells, it’s all a matter of finances: “These companies want to divest themselves from their financial obligations.”

Her solution is for stronger laws that protect retiree benefits, especially since many settled for less pay upfront to get those benefits.

“Many people took lower salaries with the promise of getting these other things down the line when they retire,” she said.

Wells added that the Association of BellTell Retirees has formed a sister organization called Protectseniors.org that is open to all retirees from any company. Those groups are activists for retiree rights, she said.

Wells’ full video can be found at here.

Other retirees express their concerns in videos that can be found here.

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