Whirlpool Corp. plans to offset the cost of retiree health insurance by collecting on life insurance policies it takes out on its former workers, a report Monday said.
In letters sent to its retirees throughout North America, Whirlpool tells them they will be automatically enrolled in the plan unless they send a letter asking to be excluded, the Evansville Courier & Press reported.
The union local representing hourly workers at Whirlpool’s Evansville refrigerator plant has remained neutral on the plan, but one former officer has condemned it.
“Now that I am of retirement age, I feel that I gave Whirlpool enough while I was employed and don’t think that they should take what is left after my death,” retiree Larry Babcock said in a letter in which he refused to be enrolled for life insurance.
Babcock, former vice president of Local 808 of the International Union of Electrical Workers, criticized the program for coming at a time when Whirlpool was raising health-insurance costs for retirees.
Debbie Castrale, a spokeswoman for Whirlpool, said retirees who refuse to be enrolled in the plan will not be penalized.
The company, which is based in Benton Harbor, Mich., has about 10,000 retirees in North America, including about 3,000 in the Evansville area, Castrale said.
When retirees that Whirlpool has enrolled in the plan die, the benefit will go into the fund from which retiree health benefits are paid. The retiree would collect no money under the program, nor would the retiree pay anything.
Castrale said some other companies have similar programs. Whirlpool still needs the necessary approval from the U.S. Department of Labor, she said.
Dave Jones, president of IBEW Local 808, said he was not happy with the proposal. The company is making enough money to pay retirees better benefits, he said.
“I don’t think it’s right. I think it’s kind of morbid,” Jones said.
Jones has received about 100 calls from retirees on the matter. The union was not giving advice on whether to allow the company to enroll them, he said.
From The Miami Herald
