Ludlum retirees sue over health care
-->Retired Allegheny Ludlum workers have sued the specialty steel manufacturer for allegedly breaching past labor contracts when the company and the United Steelworkers approved recent agreements that require retirees to contribute to the cost of their health insurance.
Tennessee attorney Greg Coleman on Thursday updated several hundred local Ludlum retirees on the status of the federal class-action lawsuit claiming the company improperly changed the terms of past contracts, which did not require unionized retirees since 1960 to pay health insurance premiums.
The suit asks the court to declare retiree health benefits can't be altered once a worker retires; order Allegheny Ludlum to repay all premiums retirees have paid since 2008; and award attorney fees and any other costs accrued.
Dan Greenfield, spokesman for Ludlum parent company Allegheny Technologies Inc., said he could not comment on litigation.
ATI and the United Steelworkers in 2007 negotiated a new contract that required retirees to begin paying premiums for the first time beginning in 2008. Premiums were set at $40 per month for a retiree or surviving spouse not yet eligible for Medicare and $80 per month for family coverage. Retirees eligible for Medicare paid half as much.
Last August, the union and ATI approved a new four-year contract that will increase monthly retiree health insurance premiums by as much as 500 percent. The contributions this year are set to jump to $130 per person or $260 per family for pre-Medicare retirees, and $100 to $200 for Medicare-eligible retirees.
Retirees -- who cannot vote on contract negotiations -- spent the summer protesting the changes.
They won an initial battle when employees voted down the first contract offered, but an agreement ultimately was approved after Ludlum offered $3,000 signing bonuses for workers, plus annual wage increases of 50 cents to 75 cents.
Current workers don't pay health care premiums, according to the court documents.
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The suit asks the court to declare retiree health benefits can't be altered once a worker retires; order Allegheny Ludlum to repay all premiums retirees have paid since 2008; and award attorney fees and any other costs accrued.
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