[NukeNet] Oak Ridge news: Retirees produce DVDs to document their plight

[Roger Herried]

Retirees produce DVDs to document their plight 
<http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/opinion_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_364_5582850,00.html> 


*By FRANK MUNGER, munger at knews.com*
*June 13, 2007*

picture <http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/columnist/0,1406,KNS_364_1828,00.html>

The Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees, representing about 12,000 
contractor retirees or surviving spouses, has been pushing for a pension 
adjustment for years.

Now the group has laid out the case for all to see with a DVD package 
titled, "Failure of the DOE Pension System for Oak Ridge Contractor 
Retirees."

Charlie Kuykendall, a former president of CORRE, said the two-disc set 
was produced primarily for elected officials and their staff members in 
hopes of drawing support in Washington and elsewhere.

The message is pretty clear: "Fund surplus grows and grows, but retirees 
fall further behind."

By CORRE's estimates, Oak Ridge retirees on average have lost about 50 
percent of their purchasing power over the years as a result of 
inflation and other factors.

Unlike retirement funds at other Department of Energy sites, DOE does 
not contribute to the Oak Ridge fund (which has a reported surplus of 
$600 million or more). CORRE said DOE has not put any money into the 
pension fund since 1984.

While there have been a number of adjustments over the years, most of 
those occurred when Union Carbide was the federal contractor in Oak 
Ridge, the group said. Union Carbide left town in 1984.

The DVD package details the history of the pension system and provides a 
ton of factual information. It also includes interviews with retirees, 
including Kuykendall, Joanne Gailar, Frank Williams, Bill Wilcox, Joyce 
Conner, Harvey Kite and Virginia Coleman.

Keith and Judy Kibbe and Pete Lotts headed the production.

There's criticism of DOE and the current group of contractors.

"It just seems like we are forgotten people," Kuykendall said. But that 
doesn't mean retirees regret their tenure in Oak Ridge or harbor bad 
feelings about the plants where they worked, he said.

"We're supporters, not detractors," he said. "We're still loyal to them."

For more information about CORRE or the DVDs, visit the group's Web site 
at: www.corre.info. The two-disc package may be purchased by sending a 
$5 check to: Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees, P.O. Box 4266, 
Oak Ridge, TN 37831.

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