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TVARS Board Votes on Something in May 9 Teleconference

Brian Child called for a vote on the first page of Bill Johnson’s latest letter.  It is not clear to me what the total changes are that the TVARS board has approved.  It did not seem to matter exactly what we were voting on.  Allen Stokes, Brian Child, Tammy Wilson and John Hoskins voted to approve whatever it was.  So much for an independent, collaborative and methodical TVARS board.  I’ve been involved in negotiations before and this had nothing to do with negotiating.  Like you, I will wait and see what spin TVA puts on it and try to figure out exactly what it means.

From: Leonard Muzyn
Date: Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 6:39 PM
To: "tvarsmuzyn@gmail.com"
Subject: TVARS Meeting Monday May 9

A TVARS Board special meeting teleconference is scheduled for Monday May 9th at 2:00 p.m. EDT.  Tammy Wilson, Brian Child, and John Hoskins have called for this special meeting to discuss the response from the TVARS Board to TVA’s counterproposal.  A special meeting allows for a vote to be taken.  There would be no reason to call for a special meeting unless they intend to call for a vote, and unless they expect at least one other TVARS board member to vote with them.  Therefore, it appears very likely that the TVARS board will vote to approve TVA’s “counterproposal,” or something similar, in spite of:

  • not having seen actual rule changes to vote on.
  • doing so will reduce benefits that the TVARS board has determined must be paid (are “vested”).
  • doing so will make it very unlikely that TVARS will be properly funded over the next twenty years, which makes it very likely that the TVARS board will have to reduce vested benefits again in the future.
  • strong opposition from employee unions.
  • strong opposition from the TVARC, the only grassroots retiree organization and the only retiree organization independent of TVA.  http://www.nrln.org/CHAPTERS/TVA/TVAchapter.html
  • the pending lawsuit over the 2009 reduction in vested benefits, with oral arguments scheduled to take place on June 14 in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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