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Preserving Medicare: We have a role to play

June 9, 2011 Would you accept a job paying $1 million to count out $2 billion in $1 bills? Think again, because working a 40-hour week and counting out $1 per second, you would require 266 years to count out the $2 billion total. Now that you have an idea how much $2 billion is, consider [...]

Tags fraud, Medicare, Medicare Summary Notices, Palmetto, railroad medicare

RRB to withhold Medicare Parts C&D premiums

May 31, 2011 The Railroad Retirement Board will begin June 1 to withhold from benefits checks premiums for Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage plans) and Medicare Part D (prescription drug plans). Withholding is voluntary, and beneficiaries should contact their plans to request withholdin [...]

Tags deductions, Medicare, Railroad Retirement Board, RRB, withholdings

Melanoma: Early detection a life saver

May 26, 2011 It’s almost summer. The sun is higher in the sky. We spend more time outdoors. Thus, we invite skin cancer — the most common form of cancer in America. And dark skin does not mean you are immune. More skin cancer cases are diagnosed each year than breast, prostate [...]

Tags cancer, detection, lesions, melanoma, skin cancer

At 97, former UTU president still leads fight

May 24, 2011 Former UTU International President Al Chesser (1972-1979) is now 97 years old, and the fire in his belly in support of organized labor has never dimmed. The following was written by Chesser in response to creation by President Mike Futhey of the Collective Bargaining Defense [...]

Tags anti-union, chesser, collective bargaining, collective bargaining defense fund, extremists, rights, union busting

Amtrak pass information

May 11, 2011 Amtrak provides eligible active and retired UTU/SMART TD members with passes which can be used to get free or reduced-rate travel aboard the passenger railroad. UTU/SMART TD membership alone does not make the employee or retiree eligible for these travel privileges, and many [...]

Tags Amtrak pass

Don’t let them fool you about Railroad Retirement

April 6, 2011 An opinion article recently published by the Financial Times and Fox News, written by conservative financial columnist Liz Peek, takes a nasty and incorrect swipe at Railroad Retirement, saying Railroad Retirement should be eliminated and folded into Social Security. The argu [...]

Tags anti-union, attacks, benefits, payroll taxes, railroad retirement, RRB, union busting

Contribute to preserve collective bargaining

March 15, 2011 By International President Mike Futhey In state after state, anti-union right-wing extremists are targeting labor unions for destruction. It started with public-employee unions, but that’s not the end game. The end game is destruction of all labor unions in America. Ext [...]

RRB adjusts withholding for 140,000 annuitants

February 10, 2011 The Railroad Retirement Board reports it has adjusted benefits — effective with February benefits checks — for more than 140,000 beneficiaries to reflect new federal income tax withholding rates. The new rates comply with provisions of the congressionally passed T [...]

Tags benefits, Railroad Retirement Board, rates, RRB, tax rates

Keep your heart healthy

February 2, 2011 February is American Heart Month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says heart disease is the leading cause of death among both men and women in the United States, claiming more lives than cancer. Heart disease can strike at any time. Symptoms of a heart-related [...]

Former KCS GC Bob Martin dies at 80

December 28, 2010 SHAWNEE, Kan. — Robert G. Martin, a former UTU general chairperson (GO 457) on Kansas City Southern Railway, died here Dec. 24 at age 80. A native of Beaumont, Texas, he was a member of UTU predecessor Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and, later, UTU Local 20 in Beaumo [...]