By Mano Frey, Business Manager and Secretary
Treasurer
Brothers & Sisters:
The last several months have been
extremely productive in several different areas:
The Trustees have reached a tentative
agreement with the plaintiffs in the pipeline hours lawsuit. We
hope that the settlement will be finalized by both parties and
the federal court by year-end. The details will be made available
when the court accepts the final proposal, the details of which
are being worked now. Basically, the settlement is comprised of
three (3) main parts:
1) The Trust will adopt a five-year
rule of parity retroactive to July 1, 1977. This provision should
bridge the gap for those participants who continued their work
as laborers but may have had a break in service immediately following
the pipeline construction.
2) There will be a retirement benefit
available to any participant who has at least ten (10) years of
combined Alaska and reciprocal service without a break in service.
3) If you worked at least two hundred
fifty (250) hours between July 1, 1974 to July 30, 1977 and you
work at least two hundred fifty (250) hours in covered employment
in Alaska or in a reciprocal plan before June 30, 2001, you will
be eligible for a pro rata retirement benefit for covered hours
worked in Alaska provided that you have a total of at least ten
(10) years of credited service in the Alaska Pension Fund or the
reciprocal fund.
The main part of the tentative agreement
is that there will be NO lump sum settlement to plaintiffs
and there will still be a ten (10) year vesting requirement in
order to recover pipeline credits.
Since this proposed agreement has
not NOT been finalized, there will not be any information
available about individual situations after the first of the year.