A successful and informative UH Retiree Benefits Forum was held on 2/16/23 at Pine View Baptist Church in Augusta. We thank Pine View for providing their facility for hosting the event. The forum was well attended with around 200 in attendance represented mostly by 30+ year retirees and some with 20-29 years of service as retirees. Head Capitol was also present to answer questions and provide moral support. Continued media interest by the Augusta Press presence was also welcomed. The agenda consisted of Task Force remarks and health benefit negotiation efforts undertaken with UH/Piedmont. Task Force efforts along with you the retiree have improved our potential chances of continued health benefits but fall short of a guaranteed permanent benefit. The primary focus of the meeting was to allow our legal council to address our approach and options for legal recourse and answer questions. Lawsuit documents were presented to those in attendance and executed on behalf of those desiring to join the legal process that was presented. A subset of the Benefits Task Force is soon assembling to review and verify all attendee documents executed for accuracy and counting of those who joined the legal effort. Efforts will be made to reach out to attendees if document corrections are needed along with follow-up of those who desired to join in the legal effort but were not able to be present. In addition, the opportunity was given for those in attendance to join as a member of the long standing UHRAA group. We feel that the additional notification and opportunity to join the UHRAA group will grow the number participating in the fellowship and mission of the group.
The UH Benefits Task Force thanks those who took time to attend the meeting, to become informed, to voice their support and join the fight for our long-promised health benefits.
