There have already been a few threads expressing outrage at
the lopsided rehabilitation plan. There has been talk of voting out
the union leadership, i.e closing the barn door. Now instead,
can we actually do something effective?
There is a perception that because the officer/trustees are among
the membership who have already received the buyout, the rehab plan
was skewed to favor those members who (like them) have received
the buyout. Can we confirm this somehow? Would this not
comprise a definite conflict of interest?
Can the trustees be persuaded to rewrite the rehabilitation plan
to be more equitable for all members? Who would have the means
of persuasion? Some government watchdog that can penalize
trustees who betray trust? Or perhaps a lawsuit?
From first hand knowledge, the only persons on the board of thieves that did not have their buyouts was Kiefer and Nickerson all the rest are fat and happy going into 2011,the only other member on the Board of trustees without a buyout was kicked off the board when he expressed his outrage over the screwing of the membership!
Personally i see the writing on the wall and I’m bailing out ASAP before the next shoe drops and they change the rules again for retirement. there are a lot of guys with 20 years in that are going to bail in order to recover a fraction of their pension. Only now, in the wake of all 20 year members filing they are concerned that they cant crew the ships , they should of thought about that before they gutted the union pension plan to the benfit of the employer companies.
The IRS is already looking into the Union since they are allowing retired members to continue working “in the same job” while collecting their pension, this is against the law and specifically outlined in the US code 46 (119) regarding defined benefit pension plans, stay tuned for more legal expenses.
YIKES! I feel for all the hard working mariners out there paying into this failed system… I cant claim to know anything about the situation personally, but from perusing the threads about it here in gCaptain it sounds like a lot of guys have been put in a really rough spot. Good luck to all you AMO guys out there!
First things first, vote out all buyout officials. This must be done first, at the same time vote out guys that are supposed to be “taking care of us and our families” I still don’t understand why the membership votes in people that have never worked outside a harbour.
Vote in guys with an education and do not have a buyout, at least you have guys that are your peers.
Talk about conflict of interest, the guys who deceided the new pension plan benefit the most by far!!
Take out a calculator and run the numbers everbody!!
It’s a system of haves and have nots.
Don’t be fooled, I can tell you that the larger the membership the worse the benefits.
Dental , medical, MPB and pension all used to be better. Check it out yourselfs!
A huge membership only benefits the guys that draw their pay and benefits from the dues. It’s not the sea going membership!
You said that “the only other member on the Board of trustees without a buyout was kicked off the board when he expressed his outrage over the screwing of the membership”.
Who was that member? I have Googled and looked around the AMO website, and I can’t find anywhere
a list of the 10 or 12 pension trustees.
First off I would like to apologize to my fellow members of AMO that I abandoned 5 years ago. Whenever I stepped foot on that site, I felt I was being watched (during the McKay reign) I wouldn’t speak about anything while on the grounds, I know that seems stupid, but for those who have seen or heard the president of AMO at the time, you may agree. Even though I forfeited 350K plus in lost wages over that time frame, I am happy with my decision, the number one reason I left was AMO.
Go to www.voteamc.com, they have LM-2 reports for AMO, MEBA and SIU posted.
AMO President- $320,000 plus expenses a year and the pension plan wrecked.
MEBA President- $214,000 INCLUDING expenses a year and they still have a great pension.
AMO administrative assistants - $100,000 +
MEBA administrative assistants - $50,000 range