I feel the need to make the following statement regarding the intent of this website. Not to long ago we were employed by Sprint. Some of us for many years! During our careers we had many different job titles. No matter what title we had at the time, when we were out in public we were seen as the company. Now that we are retired we are still seen by our friends and neighbors as the face of Sprint/Embarq. Our disappointment in the way our benefits package has been diminished in no way reflects our feelings towards those who were our co-workers and the way they do their daily jobs. After all, we helped build and maintain the local network and in some cases trained those who took over our responsibilities after we retired.

As a local operating company Embarq deserves the same respect given to it when it was known to us as Sprint because of the men and women who continue to dedicate their lives to the company. This change in philosophy by upper management to no longer uphold their predecessor’s commitment to the older generation can be seen throughout the industry! They stand behind a ruling made by a government agency (EEOC) which simply says the change can be made. Not that it’s ethical or morally right but it is legal in their opinion to do so. In a time when prayer is not allowed in schools and some folks find fault with a Governor of a State calling on people to pray for rain, one would expect this position to be upheld.

There are those around us who think we are looking for a handout. To them I say we worked many hours, days, weeks and years for the promise of the benefits we received at the time of our retirement! Every bit of those benefits had a monetary value attached to them by the company. Now part of that monetary value has been removed with nothing given in return! Our only recourse is to protest as loudly as possible!

We still have many voices that can be heard, but we must raise them in unison! Many of us are still stock holders and registered voters!  Consider joining with ProtectSeniors.Org in supporting a bill in the US Congress (HR1322 ). Choose your candidate in the next election based on what they indicate they will do!     

If you are a telco retiree presently receiving your retiree benefits from Embarq you have two choices:  You can quietly accept your drastic reduction in retiree benefits and suffer the consequences, or you can voice feelings and explain how it is going to hurt you.  If you choose to write or call, here are a few talking points you may wish to consider in crafting your message. Remember OUR protest is not with the local operating company, but with the executive level management involved with the decisions to remove these benefits!

TALKING POINTS

Please keep the tone of your letter polite and respectful.  This will be hard, but do the best you can.

●  Express what you feel:  (i.e., anger, sadness, deceived, fear, frustration or whatever)

●  Retiree pensions are fixed.  Retirees get no merit raises, bonuses, or promotions. They receive no cost-of-living adjustments. The buying power of your pension dollar has eroded since your retirement.

(If you care to state the increase in the price of goods and services since you retired, go to Google and search on “Consumer Price Index.”  It will give you several sites which have calculators where you can put in the date you retired and the current date and it will calculate the % increase in the CPI over that period of time.  You’ll see that your pension dollars now have significantly less purchasing power than when you retired—if you hadn’t noticed that already.)

●  If you or your dependant have suffered from chronic medical problems explain how important your retiree medical healthcare benefit is/has been for you, now living on a fixed income with eroding purchasing power.

●  As stakeholders in the company retirees have NO COLLECTIVE VOICE.  (Labor has its unions, stockholders have the board of directors)  Taking benefits from this aging, voiceless group is as easy as mugging an old lady at night in a darkened alley.  The Embarq management people who engineered this grab should be ashamed.

●  If the company is suffering financially what sacrifices have the officers and directors made from their perquisite packages?

●  Some other considerations/questions you may wish to address:  1) If you know for certain, or believe you were told, or it was implied to you that your retiree benefits package was a lifetime benefit, state it..  2)  If you were advised, or it was implied that your retirement benefits could be rescinded at any time at the will of the company, admit it.  3)  If you would feel more comfortable calling Embarq HQ, rather than writing to express your concern, please do so.  4)  If you call, prepare yourself beforehand a script to use so you won’t ramble or forget to address important issues.

●  If you care to mention the life insurance roll back please do so.

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