Meeting set to discuss railroad retirement issues

Press release

The National Association of Retired and Veteran Railway Employees Inc. and Maintenance of Way Employees will present a program in Havre at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 9, at the new Best Western Inns and Suites to inform railroad workers and retirees about pension benefits under the Railroad Retirement Act.

There is no charge.

Pension benefits under the Act differ from benefits paid under Social Security a fact not generally known by the nonrailroad public. About 9,041 retirees live in Montana.

In presenting the program Bruce Glover, northwest regional vice president from Minneapolis, and Dave Carroll, general chairman of the Maintenance Way Employees from Spokane, Washington, and August “Whitey” Westphal, past president, of the North Ridgeville, Ohio, chapter, will make presentations.

Also appearing will be retired and veteran employees association Area 6 Director Bruce Hager of Fargo, North Dakota, and local chairman Jim Duval of Havre.

They will outline the solvency of the pension program for railroad retirees and the rights of railroad retirees under the Act. Recent developments in Congress affecting railroad retires will be outlined.

Previously the pension for the surviving spouse was reduced drastically when the married retiree passed away. The National Association of Retired and Veteran Railway Employees has worked closely with management and labor to provide funding for an amendment to the Act to allow the survivor to receive no less than what the retiree was receiving in the month prior to his/her death — as is the case under Social Security.

The association was founded more than 76 years ago to protect the rights of railroad retirees as granted by the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937.