GE Ex-Labor Chief Switches to Defend Retirees’ Benefits
By Tim Catts - Sep 12, 2013 12:01 AM ET
Ten years ago, Dennis Rocheleau sat across the bargaining table from General Electric Co. (GE)’s unions, pushing health-care cuts so deep they led to the first nationwide strike at the company in three decades.
Now the former chief labor negotiator is railing against management, seeking to restore access to retiree health coverage that thousands of current and former employees will lose in 2015. He publicly confronted Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt at the annual meeting in April, saying GE “defaulted on its obligations” and “turned its back on its traditions.”
“I always maintained that at GE, promises made were promises kept,” said Rocheleau, 71, who retired in 2004 and has taken advantage of his clout to lobby other top executives and the board. “What’s so difficult to deal with is that now it turns out that’s not always the case.”
Rocheleau is a rare voice for retirees as employers curtail coverage, a step that threatens to raise costs and curb choices for Americans who have left the workforce and have little power to fight back. International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and Time Warner Inc. (TWX) recently joined the benefits pullback with plans to move retirees to insurance exchanges.
“There has never been any real protection for retiree health benefits,” said Richard Kaplan, a University of Illinois law professor who has analyzed legal efforts to undo such cuts. “Companies have been able to say willy-nilly things have changed, this is what it’s going to be and you can take it or leave it.”
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