Chapter President’s Message
Joe Sciulli
Chapter President
DECEMBER 2025
Healthcare enrollment is over! Hurray! Now my phone will stop ringing. For many retirees, the healthcare plan they were happy with was discontinued, leaving them with unhappy choices. It could be you next year. That is why the NRLN is working hard to protect us in this area. More on this subject in the center of the NRLN home page.
This survey will tell us which 2025 Medicare Advantage, Medigap or Prescription Drug plan coverages were and were not terminated by Zip Code for 2026 and whether federal notifications and Guarantee Issue Rights (GIRs) are being honored by company plans and insurance companies.
We will compare 2026 facts from all members with those where terminations forced some to find another but more expensive plan because they were denied a GIR. The survey will take less than 10 minutes.
Please take the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NRLNHEALTH1 .
MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR, HAPPY HANUKKAH TO ALL OF MY FELLOW RETIREES!
SPRING 2026
For those of us in Northern climates, the signs of Spring are welcome indeed. The trees are flowering, the grass is turning green and we are out and about. Renewal is in the air!
The NRLN, LUCENT chapter and its predecessor, the LRO, have been around for 23 years. Why are we still here? Because we were founded to represent the interests and concerns of retirees. Some of the issues may change with time, but the need to address concerns with Congress remains.
Some of the current list involves the coming shortfall in social security funding, the complexity and cost of healthcare, protecting pensions in Pension Risk Transfers, social security clawbacks, etc. A detailed description of our current legislative agenda can be seen here.
The other reason why we’re still here is that we continue to be supported generously by thousands of retirees. Your generous support over the years has kept us going and enabled some actual victories on the issues we all care about.
Where do we go from here? There are three things that you as members can do to insure our continued success.
- CONTINUE YOUR ACTIVE SUPPORT
Respond to Action Alerts. Your letters to Congress do matter. Congress does listen to what constituents are saying. Your letters supporting NRLN lobbying efforts make a difference. Congress knows that those letters and emails are from retirees trying to protect retirees.
In April we will send our annual solicitation request to Lucent retirees. Your annual contributions of $35, $50, $100 keep us in the game. Click here to contribute.
- STRENGTHEN OUR MEMBERSHIP
With an average age of 77, our membership is not getting any younger. Encourage your friends, neighbors, associates to join the NRLN. If you know of retiree groups that might join us as chapters or associations, let us know and we will contact them.
- VOLUNTEER A LITTLE OF YOUR TIME OR LEADERSHIP
Lots of people make this organization run and most only spend a few hours a month doing it. There are leadership positions in our chapter that need filling, including mine. Or, if you have experience in benefits, web design or development, or if you know how to use Microsoft ACCESS, we can sure use your help. Write to me here.
Your contribution of $35, $50, $75 or more per year will assist us in pursuing legislation in Congress. NRLN is a non-profit organization. Because NRLN lobbies, contributions to NRLN are not tax deductible. AREF: The AREF is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. Donations ARE tax deductible.
WELCOME!
A few hundred members discovered that they were no longer on our mailing list and re-subscribed by going to EMAIL SIGNUP .
Happy to have you back.
SPECIAL NOTICES TO MEMBERS
Lots of Benefits information on our Chapter Benefits Team pages.
Lots of Benefits information on our Chapter Benefits Team pages.Nokia Benefits Website
Retirees can use the YBR website for benefit-related activities such as:
- Enrolling in Nokia’s health and welfare plans (e.g., medical and dental);
- Making and/or changing Nokia Savings/401(k) Plan elections;
- Updating dependent or beneficiary information
- Projecting pension benefits and/or electing to commence pension benefits.
Nokia Benefits Resource Center (NBRC)1-888-232-4111
International Long Distance 1-212-444-0994
https://digital.alight.com/nokia
Do we have your current email address?
We regularly inform members about important news. If you have mistakenly ‘unsubscribed’ to one of our emails, you will no longer hear from us unless you re-subscribe.
To “re-subscribe”, or to sign up to receive our emails, or if you are not sure we have your current address, CLICK HERE
The entire NRLN 2026 legislative program is available by clicking here. In particular, these issues of interest to our members are being pursued by the NRLN:
Pension Plan De-risking:
More companies are doing “de-risking” (Pension Risk Transfer) of their pension plans by purchasing annuities from third party insurance companies. This strips retirees of federal law protections. Foremost among protections that the NRLN wants to become law is our statute proposal that an annuity contract must include full reinsurance of monthly benefit payments. Only a group annuity contract that requires independent, third-party reinsurance with a highly rated insurance company can protect pension plan participants.
Social Security
will only be able to pay 100% of total benefits until 2035. Afterward, income will only be sufficient to pay 83% of benefits. The NRLN supports closing the funding gap by making all wages subject to the payroll tax. Social Security’s Chief Actuary said eliminating the taxable maximum would close about 70% of the shortfall and ensure solvency until 2060.
Medicare
will be able to pay 100% of benefits until 2036. Afterward, reserves will be depleted, and income will only be able to pay 89% of benefits. The NRLN advocates Congress stop listening to healthcare insurance lobbyists and properly fund Medicare.
The NRLN continues to lobby members of Congress against the high cost of healthcare shifted to retirees and the unfairness of the chronic illness subsidized benefits that are being denied to 27 million original Medicare Parts A and B participants. NRLN’s proposal equalizes chronic benefits for all over age 65.
NRLN wants legislation to end pay-for-delay and other brand-name drugmakers’ tactics that keep generics off the market. We support bills to allow Americans to import prescription drugs from Canada.
Corporate Mergers:
We have gone through the corporate mergers with Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia. The NRLN has developed a whitepaper and is lobbying Congress for legislation to protect retirees in corporate mergers, acquisitions and spin-off.
How we run our money: Nokia
In the article below, Arto Sirvio, Nokia’s director of pensions, tells Carlo Svaluto Moreolo how the communication and information technology company manages a large portfolio of pension plans. Reprinted from January 2018. In a world where corporate behavior comes under closer scrutiny, the way companies treat current and past employees is critical. Ensuring they are financially secure in retirement is not something that can be overlooked by management boards. But for a company such as Nokia, which has about 100,000 staff and more than 200,000 retired employees, pensions can become a great challenge.
Click here for the full article.
CLICK THIS IMAGE TO SEE THE SURVEY
Stay healthy in 2026
This is the time of year for resolutions. For retirees, let me suggest that the most important resolution you can make for the year 2026 is STAY ON YOUR FEET!
This simple phrase has two meanings and they are both relevant.
- First, try to spend more of your time moving around rather than sitting.
- The second, avoid falls. Falls are a main cause of morbidity and disability in the elderly.
More than one-fourth of persons 65 years of age or older fall each year, and in half of such cases the falls are recurrent. The risk doubles or triples in the presence of cognitive impairment or history of previous falls.
Read all about it here.
Another article from the Mayo Clinic outlines some simple tips for avoiding falls.
Joe Sciulli
Chapter President
Joe Sciulli, Vice President – Information Technology/Databases CHAPTER PRESIDENT | Joe began his career with Western Electric in 1957 as a field engineer in the Defense Activities Division, which served as the prime contractor for the SAGE Air Defense System and had responsibility for installation and system testing of the system nationwide. He worked in computer and information technology assignments in Kansas City and Newark, NJ. In 1974 he moved to the Chicago area where he was responsible for the startup of the Niles, MI, Materials Management Center and nationwide planning for Western Electric’s installation force. In 1977, he became Director of Operations for the Central Region, and in 1979 moved to the Denver Works, where he was Director of Manufacturing. In 1982, he became Executive Vice President of the Teletype Corporation in Skokie, Il. Subsequently he served as Operations Vice President for AT&T’s computer business. He has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and attended the Sloan School at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He retired in 1989 and served as a Director and webmaster for the Lucent Retirees Organization for 18 years. He lives in Elgin, IL.
