Retiree Benefit Information
Subject: RMC Chapter 210 Members
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
This is benefit information, I received from our Former District 4 RMC President. I am sharing with our members. Please pass along to any retirees not actively participatng in our chapter. We hope they will join us some day.
In Unity,
Anese
RMC Chapter 210 President
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To AT&T, Fidelity, CWA International & All Districts representing AT&T
from Marcy Gregory CWA RMC 4319 Temp Suspended
On August 26, I received a copy from Fidelity at&t (AT&T Benefits Financial Wellbeing <Fidelity.Investments@mail.
The bottom line is that almost everybody will need to electronically input their beneficiary information by this date, or the new default beneficiary hierarchy will apply when there is nothing on file. A. Spouse/LRP b. Estate
For 2 days, and many hours of erroneously getting transferred to AT&T Benefits (rep said they were getting hundreds of misdirected calls because of the poor prompts), on hold, talking to an idiot machine that couldn’t or wouldn’t understand me, pushing wrong prompts, etc., I finally got thru today to see if I needed to do anything. Per my Rep, I had recently made some changes and was updated in the new system, so I don’t need to do anything more. Most won’t be!
Just a FYI. My name is Marcy Gregory from CWA RMC 4319, I’m 82, retired from AT&T in 2004, have been a in some sort of a Union position for over 50 years, and 1/1/26 semi-retired from being the President of our Toledo RMC for 21 years (about 350 members) & D4 RMC (Council)l VP & President for 20 tho I still help members with benefits when possible. Many of their calls are reporting deaths, paying the funeral homes, and collecting their what’s left of the life insurances. Mostly, Fidelity has been such a help in getting this done smoothly and efficiently which is so important when besides being overwhelmed with their loss, etc. and being older, most are totally lost when it comes to benefits. (Although my first monthly newsletter each year is to provide them with Fidelity’s number and remind them to check on and update their beneficiaries if necessary) Most of my members are on SS & Medicare, are 70 to 90+, have tons of aches, pains, and memory lapses, but still are pretty sharp. Around 50% are not on the internet or Facebook, still have landlines, and get really impatient or annoyed with AI receptionists, being transferred, etc.
With these new guidelines, we’ll all have to check to see if our benefits are on file, and if unable to get your information input on our end (as Fidelity will not do that), Fidelity will mail papers out to them to be filled in, mailed back and then they will input the information. Tons of work, mail, trust, etc. In my opinion this whole issue is so discriminatory to our Age & Ability! That work should be done by Fidelity right now, and all of us (members, International, District Offices, Chapters and Locals should be filing age discrimination and class action suits against Fidelity for not doing their jobs and picking on Seniors!
Obviously, I’m not sure what, and how to get things done, but surely somebody out there can get the ball rolling and get Fidelity to rescind this ruling and make the necessary changes like the good, responsible company they used to be! Thank you for your time and any help.
Marcy
