US Retiree Medical Benefits Hearing

I received a letter today from Epiq Systems stating that Nortel has put forward a motion to cut off our US retiree medical benefits as of August 31 2010. The letter contains the same information as was in the docket #320 that I mentioned in an earlier post.

The letter indicated that I have the right to object, and need to do so in writing to the court and also to Nortel's attorneys before July 6th 2010. If no objections are received then the court may not even bother with a hearing and will simply proceed with the motion and issue an order stopping our benefits.

I plan to write an objection. I may have to go to the court in Delaware in person to object. Hopefully a lot more people will object as well.

These medical benefits mean a lot to us. Without those benefits my wife will have no insurance coverage at all. We will have to pay a lot more for insurance that we thought we would always have when I retired. My long term care insurance will also disappear, as will the life insurance that was part of the package.

Nortel claims it is costing them $1M per month for the retiree medical coverage. From my review of the dockets on Epiq many law firms are charging fees that far exceed that $1M yet the court and Nortel has allowed those charges to be paid.

We retirees are creditors also. Our voice should count for something, and I truly hope that many of you out there get angry at this treatment and object and file a notice. We didn't cause Nortel's downfall yet we are paying a huge price for it. I don't think we should take this treatment lying down.