
Joe Sciulli, President, Lucent/Nokia Retirees Chapter
Lucent/Nokia Retirees Chapter Has a Long History with NRLN
by Joe Sciulli, President, Lucent/Nokia Retirees Chapter
The Lucent Retirees Organization (LRO) was formed in January 2003 for retirees from Lucent Technologies which was a spinoff of Western Electric/AT&T Network Systems and Bell Labs. Soon after the formation of LRO it joined the National Retirees Legislative Network (NRLN). Bill Kadereit was an LRO Board member and was designated to serve as the LRO’s representative on the NRLN Board. Little did Bill realize at the time his appointment would lead to becoming the NRLN President in January 2008 when Jim Norby, founding NRLN President retired.
Lucent announced that it would eliminate the death benefit effective February 1, 2003. The death benefit (one year’s salary for a qualified survivor) had been instituted in 1913. There were 31,000 current and retired management employees affected by this decision. The LRO led a protest against the decision, including criticizing Lucent executives in press releases as having “lost their moral compass.” Courts ruled in lawsuits filed by Lucent retirees, independent of the LRO, that Lucent could legally eliminate the death benefit.
The LRO continued to advocate issues with the Lucent Board by filing proxy statements presented to Lucent Shareowners. Lucent agreed to one proxy issue prior to an annual shareowners meeting, and two other proxy statements received a majority of voting shareowner ballots, but it was not mandatory for Lucent to implement them because the proxies did not receive votes from a majority of all shareowners.
With Lucent struggling with profitability, it merged with Alcatel, a French company, on November 30, 2006. Ten years later, on November 3, 2016, Alcatel-Lucent was acquired by Finland’s Nokia.
In 2020 the LRO was dissolved and the NRLN formed the Lucent/Nokia Retirees Chapter. After 20 years, our Chapter boasts over 14,000 members on our mailing list and over 5,000 of them have helped support the Chapter with contributions.
During the transitions from company to company, LRO leaders and now Chapter leaders have maintained a working relationship with the companies’ human resources department which has remained in New Jersey. Fortunately, under Nokia, retirees continue to have a well-funded pension plan, access to healthcare insurance and life insurance.
Given the experience our retirees have had with the changes in ownership of their former employer we support the NRLN’s legislative proposal to protect retirees in cooperate Mergers, Acquisitions and Spinoffs. The NRLN has informed Congressional leaders that as more and more previously USA companies are owned by foreign firms there is a need for legislation to strengthen protections for America’s retirees.
The NRLN is concerned about the lack of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s ability to deter pension plan terminations or recover assets from foreign-owned or foreign-based pension plan sponsors and fiduciaries. The PBGC has had great difficulty persuading foreign courts to attach or enforce a lien against the assets of a plan sponsor outside the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.
Of course, the members of the Lucent/Nokia Retirees Chapter also support the NRLN legislative issues that all NRLN Association and Chapters endorse, protection of retirement income, Social Security, Medicare and the need to reduce the cost of prescription drugs.
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