Kodak, Retiree Committee Meet With Hundreds of Former Workers
By: Caroline Tucker
Updated: December 18, 2012
By the end of the year, Kodak will no longer help retirees with their healthcare and other benefits.
In a desperate dash to find out what they need to know, hundreds of retirees attended town hall meetings with the company at the Theatre on the Ridge on Tuesday.
There's just two weeks left to go before Kodak retirees lose their healthcare benefits and today was the first time the company and official comittee of retirees allowed them to ask some important questions
Keith LaFleur and Bob Kizer recently retired from Kodak's film division.
Neither are at the age to get medicare so they will have to fork over hundreds of dollars to pay for COBRA healthcare benefits.
They got some answers, but not all..
"whether or not you can use your health savings account to pay for pre-medicare COBRA premium, is conflicted," said Keith LaFleur, a retiree.
"It's part of the process and its good that they are having these meetings so we can have discussions and get information that we may not have received or didn't understand that we were receiving," said Bob Kizer.
Meanwhile, Virginia and Thomas Fox, both senior citizens, just got married 1 year and half ago.
"They have done a wonderful job sending almost too much information in the mail, whether it pertains to you or not," said Thomas Fox.
Thomas worked at Kodak for 27 years in the film emulsion department.
"I prepared, I am grateful for Kodak, absolutely," said Fox through tears, "It's unfortunate what happened but I am really grateful for Kodak."
Retirees tell us the $650 million settlement, awarded to the former workers for ending benefits, will likely go to spouses losing survivor benefits and temporarily pay partial COBRA costs through 2013.
Those details need to be finalized, they said.
While many retirees were happy with the information, some said it's hard not to be disappointed.
"It is stressful because when you work at Kodak you believe everything is okay for life," said Carlis Rowe, who worked at Kodak for 10 years.
No other meetings are planned so far, the retirees said.
They did say they were given contact numbers and were told more communication would continue.
