Greetings,
On Wednesday, August 20th at 6:30PM, the FOP will be hosting the Indiana FOP Central District PAC night. You will have the opportunity to meet and talk with the very people that could affect your PENSION, HEALTH INSURANCE and other benefits. Candidates for local and regional offices, as well as those vying for national office will be in attendance. It is vitally important that we pack the house with voters that night. The one thing that politicians understand is VOTES. Please plan on attending this meeting and listening to your candidates. Show them that you care about what happens to you both on the job and during retirement. There is an active, ongoing campaign to significantly change your retirement benefits (PENSION) and by simply showing up, we can display that the FOP is able to collectively fight those campaigns when they appear. The meeting will last 60-90 minutes. If you can make some or all of the meeting it will be to your benefit. Please plan on attending!
On a different, but similar note. We have been notified by the City Controller that the Mayor has approved a significant change to health insurance for 2015 and beyond. The FOP first learned of the potential change in a July meeting. The Insurance Committee, of which the FOP is a member, met with the city several times to discuss the ramification of such a change, but we were notified last week of the city's intention of eliminating Advantage HMO and going to a three-tiered High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) from Anthem (sole vendor). The FOP currently has engaged RuckLaw to research any contractual legal challenges that may exist because of the change. While this may come as an unpleasant surprise to many of you, I can assure you that the FOP has voiced opposition to this plan, along with IFD 416 and AFSCME. In addition, your FOP Labor Management Committee and the FOP Executive Board have been briefed and the matter was presented to the body of the lodge at last week's Regular Business Meeting (08/07/14). We anticipate an answer to the legal research question soon and once we are informed, we (the FOP) can decide a course of action. I think it should go without saying that should a legal challenge exist, the FOP stands ready to fight for it's membership as we have done many times in the past.
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