I have a concern regarding the tentative agreement in the Northeast.
I realize we paid a heavy price in 1989 and, as a result of that sacrifice, were able to keep essentially cost-free medical benefits for the next two-and-a-half decades.
However, uncertain economic times in 2016 resulted in us, fairly or not, shouldering more of the burden, not only the men and women that had 20, 25, 30, 35... years on the job under their belt already, but also the retirees now had to unexpectedly pony up and adjust to this new and unexpected financial burden on a fixed income based on earlier reasonable expectations and assumptions, if I understand correctly.
I am now hearing murmurings about about retiree healthcare skyrocketing, from, say, $60 a month to 10X that amount, $600 a month, for example. I hope these rumors are wrong and that I am needlessly worrying about something that will never come to be.
Are there any guarantees built into this new tentative agreement that shield both our current retirees, as well as those that will eventually be joining their ranks, from the future uncertainty of exorbitant increases that will make affordability a larger hurdle, if not an impossibility, for the elderly who served their union and their company well?