TOLEDO, Ohio — A local union leader is calling foul over how long it took for his retirees to find out their personal information had been compromised, and how they were notified.
The president of UAW Local 14, Tony Totty, told WTOL 11 that thousands of retired auto workers are enrolled in a benefits plan that was hacked in February.
But he said those retirees not only just found out about it, but the letter they got from healthcare company NationsBenefits on April 13 looked like a scam and a lot of his retirees ignored it.
Totty said UAW Local 14 tells its retired members not to trust letters without a VEBA -- Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association -- seal, something he said the benefits operator is supposed to include in the mail they send out. But NationsBenefits' letter didn't have it.
"You turn on the TV and there's so many people already preying on them,” Totty said. “And we tell them to stay away from that and stay away from this, and if you have any questions, call our benefits reps. Well, [the VEBA trust] didn't even tell our benefits reps about this, and that's a problem."
NationsBenefits made a mistake, but mistakes happen, Totty said. It's the negligence by the parent company of NationsBenefits that oversees the retirees' health benefits that's at fault: the VEBA Trust.
Totty compared it to a parent blaming their child's mistakes on their child and not doing the work to ensure it doesn't happen again. NationsBenefits made an error, but the VEBA trust is skirting accountability by pinning the blame on a company it oversees and telling them to clean up a mess that happened due to the VEBA trust's leadership, Totty said.
So, he wrote his own letter to the head of the national UAW asking that the leadership of the VEBA trust be removed.
"When you come after and allow this to happen to our retirees, we'll stand up every single day," Totty said. "I don't care what the repercussions are, they deserve better than this. We wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for them, and we're not going to let anyone mess with our retirees."
Totty said there have been issues with the VEBA Trust in the past.
But luckily, so far, Totty said there have been no reports of fraud in this most recent case.