MILLINOCKET, Maine — The state Supreme Court has upheld a Town Council vote in 2009 to cut lifelong life and group hospitalization insurance coverage to 29 retired and present town workers.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the town’s civil-court opposition to a class-action lawsuit filed by the plaintiffs in a decision released Thursday. Only Justice Joseph M. Jabar dissented.
Town Council Chairman John Davis, who was not on the council in 2009, called the verdict “bittersweet.”
“I am glad we won it but it is bittersweet in a way because the retirees have lost something,” Davis said Thursday. “These guys are all on fixed incomes and they don’t need another expense, but difficult times call for difficult measures.”
“The good thing about this award is that it gives the town the flexibility to change with the times,” he added. “It was important for us to win, but I am not going to be dancing in the street over it.”
Citing rising costs, the council voted 7-0 on May 14, 2009, to eventually end the free health care benefits paid to the retirees. Since 1999, the town’s portion of retiree health benefits had increased from 89 percent to 112 percent, or from as little as $282.40 a month in 1999 to $599.44 a month in 2009, under a typical plan, then-Town Manager Eugene Conlogue said at the time.
A projection done in 1999 predicted the cost of retiree health benefits rising from $399,000 that year to $837,000 annually by 2009 — an almost dead-on prediction, he said. Under the town’s plan, the retirees pay a portion of their health benefits depending on the plan and number of people covered. The town pays the rest, but looks to phase out paying retiree health benefits, Conlogue has said.
In their Supreme Court appeal, the plaintiffs argued that the council vote was a breach of contract and that the state Superior Court erred in granting judgment to the town.
“Many of the employees allege that the town manager promised them this benefit when they were hired. At least one employee alleges that members of the Town Council acknowledged this benefit as well,” the Supreme Court decision reads. “They also allege that it was common knowledge that the town paid lower wages than the local mill, but compensated for the wage difference by offering a better benefits package, which included group hospitalization insurance for life.”
However, the court ruled that “the employees have not produced any evidence that the alleged promises were made by official action of the Town Council, as opposed to statements of council members or the town manager.”
The Supreme Court rejected the argument the plaintiffs made that the town perpetuated a contract by continuing to pay benefits to them despite several changes in contract and pension language.
“On the facts of this case, however, the statements and continued payments are insufficient, as a matter of law, to constitute a promise [of perpetual payments] by the town,” the ruling states.
The court agreed with town arguments that the pension change was a typical decision made by officials responding well within their rights to changes in conditions.
“However, the court ruled that “the employees have not produced any evidence that the alleged promises were made by official action of the Town Council, as opposed to statements of council members or the town manager.”
lesson to all!
Get a Union !
Negotiate a Contract!
And bankrupt cash-strapped municipalities!
So I suppose it’s OK to lie like pirates to the workers in order to put your financial house in order rather than honestly negotiate and write it in stone!
Lieing you way out of your responsibility is something that you endorse ?
Town managers cant usually negotiate contracts or have any authority to promise anything. If its not voted on in town council or selectmen’s meeting then the promise or agreement doesnt exist.
If false representations were made, it is fraud.
Niether does a Union have the authority to ratify a contract as it has to be voted on by the workers!
A contract can be negotiated by a representative on either side and voted on by those who they represent.
Is this really difficult to understand?
They can promise all they want. My point is they they havent the authority to do so and the people they are working with know this. Anyone involved in a union knows this.
The council is the one that kept their word over the last 35-40 years, they are the ones that went back on it. The ones that voted on it, it is their word they went back on, not the town managers.
if the council did this then it would be matter of public record AND in the contract. It isnt. There is no “word” from the council.
It is the 1991 policy, and it was clearly articulated.
It’s only ‘OK’, IF you believe the Liars…..and from the sounds of it, YOU are one of the Liars
Public unions are unsustainable, that’s a basic FACT that even FDR understood…
Politicians do it all the time, dude. How ’bout this whopper: “Maine will never allow out-of-state waste over its borders.” — John Baldacci
Promises, promises, guys. Never trust a politician. That includes unelected local officials.
Millinocket reaps what it sows.
Raise taxes on the rich, like Clinton did, and create a balanced budget and no deficit.
Then sign NAFTA in to law and hurt everybody with a job !
Yes, because of NAFTA, the big corporations immediately shut down their American factories and moved them to Mexico and elsewhere. NAFTA was a complete failure of the so-called free market, and shows why all the politicians taking about a “free market” are just selling us out.
However, Clinton did tax the rich and the result was a balanced budget, no deficit, and a reduced national debt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_public_debt
http://www.factcheck.org/2008/02/the-budget-and-deficit-under-clinton/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/sep/23/bill-clinton/bill-clinton-says-his-administration-paid-down-deb/
the national debt increased 1.5 trillion under Clinton
Clinton payed down the national debt as well, and he did it by taxing the rich:
“The public debt burden during the presidency of Bill Clinton between 1993 and 2001, fell due in part to … increased tax revenue resulting from the Dot-com bubble.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_public_debt
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/sep/23/bill-clinton/bill-clinton-says-his-administration-paid-down-deb/
Clinton lowered taxes on wealthy folks. He repealed Glass–Steagall allowing banks and insurance companies to rake the rest of us over the coals. He passed N.A.F.T.A. with a Democratic majority and thus began the biggest exodus of manufacturing jobs in U.S. history.
Please don’t tell me about Clinton (and his ilk like Joe Biden) being the worker’ friend. It is total B.S.
I wish my version of math worked as well as the one so well embraced by liberal minds.
Sadly though, in my world 2+2 = 4.
that’s right then conservative take away 3 and give it to the rich….
They dont give anything to the rich…. they just take 3 LESS away from the rich to begin with. You do understand it is their money to start with right ?
Um…, trouble is your “version of math” is fact which exists in all worlds, not just yours. Logic vs. emotion. Apparently from several of the comments, math is relative as in one “feels” that 2+2= anything one wants it to be.
Enough evidence, not produced no evidence, but it shows the town councilors can say what they want and get away with it. Maybe they need to take the judges retirements away. Promises were not alleged, you also have to read the whole transcript. It was upheld by majority opinion, not a unanimous opinion
How many local unions have lifelong benefits negotiated into a contract ???? A lot of them THINK or ASSUME they have these benefits however they never negotiated them.
….and it doesn’t matter the U.S. Steel workers had one of the strongest unions in the Nation, but U.S. Steel allegedly went bankrupt (and reopened as U.S.X. with all their assets intact. The workers lost everything. Health benefoits retirement that they had paid for, and their union jobs.
The court said that was all jake with them.
That’s a good start. Workers need political power to counter the power and influence of big money. Unions came into being for the very reasons that we are seeing and their is a direct correlation between the destruction of unions and the loss of workers political power.
Unions have the ability to hire lawyers and analyze legislation so that they can advise workers of their choices. These days you have to be a Harvard lawyer just to figure out the Maine fishing regulations. Workers need unions.
Unions get a bad rap. The skill sets that brought unions into being are not the skills needed to protect workers rights. A lot of the corruption has been cleaned up and more needs to be done, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to clean up the unions than to depend on faith to protect workers rights.
This was not the unitions, this was the Town Council
Maybe the municipal workers should adopt the Russian workers attitude. They pretend to pay you and you pretend to work.
Even then after 35-40 years towns do not always keep paperwork. Also that long ago, a man’s word was kept. Those in 2009 decided to go back on that word.
This is crazy… Some of these people worked their entire lifelong career’s for this town with assurances that they would be taken care of in their retirements. These people planned their lives around these assurances! Realistically, some of these people may now lose everything they have…
I wonder how the Selectpeople sleep at night? I’ll go so far as to say, that if they can sleep at all, then they are truly sociopathic.
Modern employer’s wonder why their employee’s don’t show the loyalty, pride and devotion to their duties they once did. The answer is; we all know, that many of our employers are perfectly willing to use us up and throw us away when our usefulness has expired, with nary a backwards glance…
You reap what you sow… This was one of my first life lessons.
I am a card carrying conservative, but this is wrong! There are other ways the town could have dealt with this. They could have placed a limit on new employees and discontinued covering their health benifits once they reach retirement age. At least these people would know what they are getting into and plan their retirements accordingly.
All I can think about is my friend’s father, who retired after a 40 year career as a Police Officer, who is now in his 80’s and a recipient of a retirement benifit package, including health care. What would he do if he were denied his retirment benifits? He’d probably die fairly quickly, more quickly than he otherwise would. What lesson do you think my friend would convey to his children and grandchildren in regard to how their Granfather was thrown away?
Remember, as with all things, you reap what you sow!
I wonder how they sleep at night too, when they promised. I guess Councilors can not keep their word, it is very clear.
They can’t give an official “word” outside of their vote at an official meeting. They have no power as a single individual.
As a whole body when they are elected, they do. Unfortuntely those who voted then, went back on their word. When elected it was as if it was their word. One of the problems was after 35 or 40 years evidence that was there is not.
Did I miss something in the story ???? They didnt vote. That is the problem. If they voted there would be records. There arent. No one is saying there were records and they cant find them.
You would have to read the whole opinion including the minority opinion. It is in the 1991 personal policy, that the estoppal is stated. Which basically says anyone before that date is grandfathered. you can go to Maine.gov and the Judiciary and read the whole opinion. Again, paperwork going back in some cases over 40 years is not their. You generally do not do this to people over 90, retired and disabled.
If the country had a better plan for insuring all of us, we wouldn’t have to depend on employers.
Or if people had better plans for insuring themselves we wouldn’t have to pay for anyone’s insurance other than our own… Instead tons of people outspend their means, couldn’t possibly not have a new car or that big TV, yet suddenly can’t afford to pay rent, power, heat, insurance, etc. Those of us who live within our means must actually live with ours and a little of others means as well. Pushed down and dragged down: a story of the middle class.
Wouldn’t it be nice to live within your means and still not have to pay $12,000 for health insurance? The cost of medical care in this country is obscene and it would appear insurance companies are raking in big profits. Somehow that is ok? I prefer a system like Australia where everyone is covered but if you want choice you pay any difference and carry health insurance but at much less cost than here. A good combination of public and private health care.
The health industry is a monopoly and should be dealt with as such ! The government should set limits on just what health related products and services can sell for. As long as there are ” unions ” like the rich and powerful American Medical Association and American Dental Association and lobbiests for them and pharmacutical companies our costs will continue to skyrocket. It won’t happen in Washington as long as we continue to re elect the ins and not insist on term limits. Political favoritism , pork filled legislation , and the incessant desire to empty our pockets and line their own is what we now have and can continue to expect.
“The health industry is a monopoly and should be dealt with as such ! The government should set limits on just what health related products and services can sell for.”
Im not a more government type of person but you are correct on this. The real costs are in the health care not the health insurance. I know that doctors work hard and do a great job, but how many make $500,000+ a year ? MANY ! And they are doing this on the backs of hard working people via non-profits.
Unfortunately and predictablly our “health Care industry” is not ours. Most pharmacuticals are produced abroad. Many of our doctors and P.A.s in Maine were educated overseas. Many of our health care specialists (including technitions) are foreign nationals.
When I was born, sixty years ago, my father paid the Doctor (one doctor) $75 for the delivery. I still have the bill. Last year friends down the road had a child, and their bill was for over $18,000, and the hospital said this was a “simple delivery”. The price of gas when I was born was 20 cents a gallon. Today it is $3.599 at the local fill-em-up. If the price of gas had increased at the same rate as the price of health care the price of regular unleaded self serve today would be $48 a gallon. That means $480.00 to fill a ten gallon tank.
…and we say the oil companies are greedy.
Insurance companies have some of the lowest profit margins in the business world. The reason they are so expensive is because of health care costs not health insurance costs. The next time you see a doctors bill remember there is an individual making 6-7 figures that is getting paid.
If you believe that health insurance companies have some of the lowest profit margins in the business, I have this bridge I want to sell, very cheaply by the way. You do know that doctors in many other countries also make 6-7 figures salaries too yet medical costs are far below what we pay here.
Doctors spend 25- 30 years of their life in school. They spend a fortune in college and graduate school. Their malpractice insurance and other related costs are outrageous. Sure some docs make a huge killing, if they are plastic surgeons. Docs deserve 6 figures. Heads of corporations make 7 and 8 figures. That is disgusting. Think a single ball player deserves to make 8 figures in 5 years? Docs are not the reason healthcare is so dang high.
And to the person who asked why it would be cheaper if everyone had it? Because everyone would be paying, healthy, sick, young, old. The premiums will surely go down.
The government health care plans, Medicare and such are a big problem. When the bill is 5000.00 and the government says we are only going to pay you 300.00. Where do you think the hospitals and doctors are going to make up the difference. Something has to give. It is a complicated mess.
Now is the time for universal healthcare. Nuff said.
Healthcare benefits used to be cheap. An easy way to lure employees. Now that it costs a fortune, they cut ya loose.
Great post, thank you.
If he draw ssi benefits his medical needs are covered. My mothers are.
We do have the Mike Michuad walking trail though. The decision was not unanimous, and if you listen to the court transcript their more to this than meets the law. Law is what they may have gone by, bu there is something about keeping your word, unlike those Councilors that backed out of it.
One should assume Millinocket employees will not be as eager to please their bosses after this. I can’t imagine what a ruling like this does to the trust of their municipal workers. The circling of the drain seems to have just quickened like the bowl is about to be dry.
I can not imagine trusting those that went back on the towns word either.
I haven’t read the court’s opinion but Jabar’s disent should be interesting. There is such a thing as estopel simply because it’s been this way for so long. I don’t know the whole story but it seems to me if a promise is made it should be kept. Change it for new hires yes but certainly not for those already hired/retired.
http://www.courts.state.me.us/opinions_orders/opinions/2012_documents/12me122bu.pdf
Thank you. It made for interesting reading. I particularly liked the dissent as I thought I would and personally agree with it. I think the majority simple looked at the California Rule and looked no further but it’s law now and the Town of Millinocket just screwed over it’s employees. The Town Council should feel proud of themselves and town/city employees everywhere had better make sure the get it all in written contract form.
Jabar’s disent ws quite interesting. One thing really not in the article is that after 35-40 years things are diffrent. Those Councilors voted to go back on the Towns Word. One thing they said was there was not enough evidence after that lengthof time there isn’t.
If you read the law extensively, you will find that the U.S.A. has no “absolute law.” All U.S. law is written so that a decission can cut either way and still be legal.
When Abraham Lincoln was reading the law in the mid 1800’s, all U.S. law could be contained in two volumes. Today the law takes up thousands of volumes, and is rewritten almost yearly. This fact makes “ignorance of the law” excusable as no one really knows what the law entails.
Meanwhile the whole problem stems from the fact that insurance companies have free reigns to raise premiums until they starve you out. And nobody in power in Augusta seems willing to stop them. In my town, LD1333 (which was enacted during the last legislative session) resulted in such steep premiums for small business owners that they can’t keep up with the expense. At least one business had to stop providing health insurance to its employees and others may soon follow. Thanks GOP. You sure know how to make it tough on the working class.
Wait until the Obamacare legislation goes in to effect, when it is against the law to be without health insurance the cost will go crazy ! Thanks Dems, you sure know how to make it hard on the working class, the retirees, businesses, our children just starting out, the sick, the poor, and everyone else in this country except those rich friends who helped finance your campaigns and to who you owe many favors.
Yeah and remember that Obama care was Romney care in Massachusetts before Barak was even a Senator.
Romney claims he still favors allowing States to impose this burden on taxpayers, he just doesn’t like it at the Federal level. Tell me how paying for State mandated insurance is going to be cheaper than paying for Federally mandated insurance?
By the Way did I miss the part where the Koch brothers had changed their party and were now funding Democrats? …and Bain Capital is now creating U.S. based manufacturing firms, rather than shutting them down and selling the pieces? Romney says he will “reform” Medicare, Social Security, and repeal health care at the national level. Do you believe his “reforms” will make life better for retirees, children and manufacturing workers?
Hey buddy, I have this real cheap bridge I’m selling between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Over a million people use it every day, and get this, it currently has no toll.
Health Insurance profit margin 3.4%
Healthcare industry (minus Pharmaceutical and Health Insurance) 8.7%
Oil and Gas Industry 10.2%
Pharmaceutical companies 16.4%
Google 20.6%
Microsoft 24.9%
Beverage Industry 25.9%Apple Inc 46%
Well, glad to see two great American traditions being upheld here.
The first is that you can’t trust anyone. Agreements aren’t worth the paper they are written on. So, you worked for a benefit for 40 years, tell someone who cares.
The second is that the herd will kick its weakest member. No namby pamby social contracts in this country, no sir. If you actually take care of the old and the sick, some rich dude will have to get by with one less Bentley, or one less offshore bank account. And what is more important, after all.
Vote Romney/Ryan. They get all shivery with glee just thinking about more of the same.
Because the official name of the court is “Maine Supreme Judicial Court,” it is not correct to call it the “Supreme Court,” although it would be OK to refer to it on second reference as the “supreme court.”
I agree that to make a promise and then renege on that promise is despicable, but we can expect to see more of this. Our economic system and our Congress is focused on next week, next month and maybe next year, but the pressures and failures of that approach will only produce more of this.
The $16 trillion in private pension funds is a sitting duck for the giant vacuum cleaner of greed. State pension funds are underfunded because the investment returns were wiped out by the economic crisis and the recession. If we were focusing on demanding Congress to do it’s job and get the economy going we would not have to betray these agreements.
Make no mistake, this is all the product of “starve the beast” being peddled by the republican’s. Tax cuts, wars, lack of investment equals economic suffering and social dysfunction aimed at convincing people to further lower expectations and give away their future.
What I have a hard time accepting is that Romney, who practically invented the process of robbing pensions and leaving them to be bailed out by the government might actually win the presidency. This is a guy who made millions off working peoples pensions.
Oh please , it’s both political parties who rob us of our future. Read my above comment to ” 66readerwriter’s ” post.
Sorry, but having lived through many different administrations, both State and Federal, I am not getting the difference you discribe. Big time Democrat Averill Harriman, and conservative Connecticut Republican Prescott Bush (W’s grandfather) conspired during the Second World War to loan the Germans money which they used to build ovens to incinerate Jewish bodies. Nothing personal, just doing business. (See Union Bank sandal) Both Harriman and Bush went on to win elections, and hold high positions in their respective parties.
“The Republican tax wars” are supported by some very high level Democrats including Barak Obama and Bill Clinton. Clinton you may remember being the archetict of “welfare reform” While some of us believe in true welfare reform, Clinton’s plan took a meat cleaver to welfare largely aimed at keeping children and old folks from going hungry. Clinton also went to China after his term in office and made 30 million dollars selling the Red Chinese information on how to skirt our export/import laws, and lure our manufacturing sector over there.
Every administration from F.D.R. to now has supported scurlous dictators from Saddam Hussain to the Shah of Iran. We have overthrown duely elected governments (as in Chile, the Philipines and others) and installed our puppet dictator. The one in Chile made over 100,000 of his own people “disappear” even the Presidents like Jimmy Carter (a good guy right?) Supported Suharto in Indonisia, while he exterminated 250,000 of the citizens of East Timor.
I’m tired of voting “the lesser of two evils. We “free citizens” need more choices. Ron Paul would have been a good first step. Too bad.
The new buzz word of 2012 America? RENEGE!!! I am still waiting for a single politician to come up with a solution to our economic problems that does not involve slashing worker’s pay or reneging on promises made to people for all their hard work.
How about we cut foreign aid to Turkey, Israel, Iraq, Egypt, and Lybia (and the rest) How about we close our military bases in Germany (I think Hitler’s boys are gone by now) and Japan (I doubt they are still planning on driving us into the sea)
How about we start paying Senators and Representatives a sum which reflects the average pay in their districts? This would drop Mike Michaud from almost $200,000 + bennies to $17,500. Susan Collins and who ever wins the other Senate seat would get about 10% of what they get now, and the amazing fact is that in no district in the entire united States would the reduction of government pay be less than 75% . Has the preformance of congress been so great that they deserve pay of more than triple the average wage in the U.S.A.?
Lets sell the trappings of power. The Blain House, the Gubernatorial cars planes and hellicopters and let Lepage pay for his own gas like other workers do. let maine governors buy their own cars, insurance, and pay for their own repairs. Why should government workers be exempt from the hassles that plague the rest of us daily? All these “extras” belong to the citizens of Maine. If we can’t afford them we should sell them. Maybe if Governors Senators and Representitives had to deal with problems of everyday life like high gas prices, increasing food costs, and standing in line at the Motor Vehicle Bureau, things would change.
Good ideas!!!! We should tell them to accept the pay cut, or we will “offshore” their jobs! lol. Just like they have done to us. We could tell them to give up their free health care or we will replace them with illegal aliens, just like the private sector does.
Well, thanks for your years of hard work and trust…now here’s your screwing.
Think of the money we as a state and country would save if this was done on all levels. We pay ex-senators, representatives, presidents etc. We pay for secret service for ex-presidents, and healthcare for the spouse. Think about it. LePage wants to lower welfare this could be considered welfare-work four years and then collect money and insurance- not much different from those that work and then claim they can’t work and receive free benefits. We tax payers are paying for it.
Isn’t it absurd that LePage will get 3/8 of the salary of the next governor for having served a lousy 4 years but these people get screwed. Typical I guess. I have never understood why a governor or his surviving spouse should get any retirement benefit at all from the taxpayers. Haven’t most of them screwed us over enough as governor they have to keep doing after retirement too?
Well there:
Even local, small town politicians will double-cross that bridge when they come to it!
In regards to “official action” most people would consider the actionin 1991 an Official Action.
I never understood, and don’t understand today how contracts can be changed or terminated unilaterally.
My mother’s benefits (which were promised to her by a private employer) were discontinued 10 years after she ceased to work. She had actually paid into the “benefit pool” up to the time she retired. The retirement package was part of her pay for work, but the Court in Massachusetts allowed this “change in contract” because “The Company was suffering through a turn-down in the economy. Of course when the economy picked up, the benefits were not restored.
These town counselors should be ashamed of themselves. Picking on old retired folks.
I hope the people back the workers instead of these jerks.
This is what happens without a union… workers and retirees are at the whim of the employer…
Swindled comes to mind when I think about this… Where is the discussion about what the town did with the fund that was specifically set aside to pay for this. I’m pretty sure those employees went several years without any pay raise just to keep the insurance while still making much less than mill employees. Even mill guards made more than the police. Yes the mill is no longer an argument but all but a few are retired that are involved in this. This is another reason not to ever want to move back there. I do want to thank all the town employees who have worked there, thank you for sweeping and plowing the streets, thank you for taking care of the trash, thank you for responding to the fires, accidents and sickness/injuries, thank you for putting yourselves in harms way countless times for a thankless job. As for the powers that be take a long hard look at all aspects of how you run a ship. Obviously its a new era with more challenges, but make sure before you line the pockets of the same attorneys over and over again look out for the interests of the taxpayers first and foremost. The legacy that is being laid for Millinocket is very disappointing.
Hey don’t these people have their, Obama will take care of all my needs card? I would think Mike millwork congressman would be there standing up for them.
Bait and switch. Now you’re screwed. Good luck. See ya.
This agonizingly painful story is a timely one with an election coming up that features drastically different views on health care.
I hope some how the 29 employees affected by this find someway against all odds to survive this devastating blow without a great loss to their dignity and quality of living.
What these selectmen have been forced to impose on faithful long term workers who took lower pay in exchange for retirement benefits has been happening all over the country to hundreds of thousands who find the carpet pulled out from under them just as they finally reach retirement age.
On an actuarial basis , I don’t see how any small company or any small town can enter these kinds of contracts with employees without the benefit of some very large risk pooling mechanism that is professionally managed. No small business or small town can simply agree to pay out of pocket for future benefits especially if a large portion of those benefits involve purchase or private insurer products.
I see no other outcome to the unfunded benefit enhancements in the State pension system or its current fiscal status. It seems almost impossible that what was promised can or will be there.
There will be a while generation of us caught in this nightmare while we re engineer how we provide for retirement in a more secure and reliable way.
I don’t know what the answer is for those of us in retirement or approaching retirement who will be caught in this awful web but it seems very clear to me more and more of us will be caught in it and perhaps just cut loose as these 29 people have been.
Can’t help wonder who pays for the benefits of the State Supreme Ct. Justices…I mean times are tough – perhaps their Retirement Packages should be looked at and reevaluated too. Forget about written or verbal Contracts – apparently the Justices don’t believe in such things. They should not live above the Law, nor their own interpretation of Contract Law.
Wow, what has happened to the concept of keeping agreements and honoring contracts? Integrity is going the way of the dodo bird in this country. It is becoming “of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich” more and more. This is shameful on so many levels.
To me, this is just more evidence why this country needs single payer universal healthcare.
Just my opinion.
One of many changes coming for those of you who thought the government would take care of you forever.
You have killed the goose.
How about state senators, congressman, governors, house reps, senators, etc adjusting their own retirement benefits? Desperate times call for desperate measures. Lifelong on the doll after public service seems excessive. I’d love to find out how much we spend on people who spend 4-8 years in public office after the end of their little stint…..
Those of us who have worked hard for an employer all of our lives, lived within our means, not squandered – a frugal existence at best – find it hard when a contract is broken like this.
There are many more now in their later years, sweating out such impending decisions, reinforced by a bunch of judges who do not have to share similar concerns. Just like Congress – free medical care and a pension for the rest of your life.
When the public is your boss….don’t ever trust them. Not anywhere on the planet They will not pay for something for you, that they no longer enjoy themselves.
It is unfortunate that the town had to reduce and ultimately stop paying for these benifits. It will be difficult on those that have to make up these differences now. But the economic times aren’t what they used to be and you can’t continue to fund somethings if the revenue is not there. You can’t continue to tax people to continue these programs when their very own financial health has been impacted by these hard times also. In the last five years our median income has fallen about 4.9 percent that equates to approximately 4300.00 per person. here is the link to the decission: http://www.courts.state.me.us/opinions_orders/opinions/2012_documents/12me122bu.pdf
Employees at Microsoft,Facebook and Google enjoy fantastic benefits now. Who knows, someday their very hot industry may end up being no different than the paper industry. Nobody saw the demise of the printed newspaper when these benefits were promised.
I wonder why the employee attorney didn’t call on some former employees that negotiated the wages and contracts from 25 years ago.
I can’t seem to remember the last time my friends and relatives in Northern Europe came to me crying about losing their health benefits.
When it comes to healthcare, how do we measure up with other countries in the world?
We read that we spend more than two-and-a-half times more than most developed nations in the world per person, including relatively rich European countries like France, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Too many companies are making a few people very rich selling the American people what passes here for “healthcare.”
You privatize a service and because someone has to make a profit, you are going to pay more. If privatizing prisons and healthcare didn’t make some very rich people a lot more money, would they be spending millions in advertising and lobbying every year telling us that privatization is the way to go?
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/10/health-costs-how-the-us-compares-with-other-countries.html
The humble Farmer
You can bet that if the Town Manager had been covered under this agreement, it never would have been brought up in the first place. Shame on you Millinocket Councillors. You and the Town Manager are nothing but teeny weeny Romneys, Ryans, and LePages. Take from the old, helpless, and weak.