Category: Healthcare
ERMA lifetime maximum benefit to increase in 2023
The lifetime maximum benefit for the Railroad Employees National Early Retirement Major Medical Benefit (ERMA or GA-46000) Plan will increase from $182,700 to $188,000 beginning Jan. 1, 2023. At the end of 2001, labor and management had agreed on various procedures to adminis [...]
Balloting closes TONIGHT for tentative national rail agreement
Balloting to have your voice heard on the tentative National Rail Agreement (TA) closes 11:59 p.m. Eastern TONIGHT, Nov. 20, 2022. We thank all of the members who have participated thus far by casting your vote. For those who have not yet voted, we wanted to provide a one-sto [...]
Important update for all SMART-TD and BLET members included in national negotiations
2023 payment rates confirmed for H&W plans INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (Nov. 8, 2022) — Late last week, members of the Cooperating Railway Labor Organizations (CRLO) and the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC) convened to review and renew the payment rates for the natio [...]
VSTD premium reset and benefit changes announced
Several changes regarding the SMART Voluntary Short-Term Disability (VSTD) Plan for bus and rail members will take effect Jan. 1, 2023. The temporary reduction of premiums for Plan participants announced Oct. 21, 2020, will expire Dec. 31, 2022. VSTD premiums will be reset to [...]Ultimately, decision about tentative agreement is in members’ hands
For the first time in more than 30 years, this Union has taken the Railway Labor Act (RLA) to its limits. We negotiated. We mediated. We cooled off. We went all the way to a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) and then back into a cooling-off period again. The coordinated barg [...]
LU 10 Holds Working Minds Suicide Prevention Workshops
SMART SM Local 10 held a series of suicide prevention workshops for members through the Construction Working Minds Program. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) men in construction die by suicide at a rate four times higher than the general adult [...]
New SMOHIT Safety Guide Available
SMOHIT has released the latest version of its safety handbook. Focused on workplace safety, the handbook covers a variety of workplace hazards, scaffold and ladder safety, shop safety, ventilation and fire safety, among a multitude of other possible dangers faced by sheet met [...]
RRB: Medicare Part B premiums for 2022
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that the standard monthly Part B premium will be $170.10 in 2022, an increase of $21.60 from $148.50 in 2021. Some Medicare beneficiaries may pay less than this amount because, by law, Part B premiums for cu [...]