Retirees for Justice is one of the strong partnerships the Association of BellTel Retirees has maintained over recent years. Our special counsel and Retirees for Justice Executive Director, Edward Stone, spoke at our Annual Membership meeting to address progress being made for the benefit of all retirees.
When Retirees for Justice first started, Mr. Stone said, the mission was to protect retirees earned benefits. Well, according to Mr. Stone, that mission statement wasn’t enough and has since evolved and grown. Now, the mission is not just to protect, it’s to protect and restore retiree earned benefits.
That push to restore is an important addition because, since the enactment of ERISA in 1974, the strength of the law has been eroded to the point, where it no longer serves its intended purpose.
To address this, Mr. Stone spoke about the work Retirees for Justice is doing, including drafting federal legislation to return some force to ERISA.
Retirees for Justice hopes to get such a bill rolling through Congress. Stone expressed that moves are being made on the federal level that also seek to protect retirees hard-earned benefits.
Stone, who also serves as on of BellTel’s legal advisors, noted that while no other retiree organization in the U.S. has the might and track record of the Association, Retirees for Justice is proactively reaching out to other retiree organizations across the country to build up an even stronger network to lobby Congress.
Mr. Stone detailed a 2021 meeting with Prudential, specifically to discuss their business practices and how this will impact the 41,000 Verizon retirees who were de-risked into their umbrella. They stated at the time, that there’s been no change in the functioning of their group annuity business which is still active in the pension risk transfer business.
2023, he explained, is going to be a big year, for needed state legislative initiatives. These states include New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Delaware.
Retirees for Justice seeks to activate its membership in those states to contact their elected representatives and support any bills that protect and restore retirees’ earned benefits.
You can watch Eddie Stone’s presentation on YouTube now.
This article was first published in the 2022 Winter Newsletter.
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