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TVA Violates Labor Agreements with Manipulation of TVARS

The TVARS Board has the legal authority to initiate changes in the employee 401(k) match and pension benefits. Per decades old labor agreements, the TVARS Board is structured to give equal representation to labor and management. Of the seven member board of directors, three are employee-elected, three are management-appointed, and the seventh is selected by those six. Per these labor agreements, labor and management do not directly bargain for retirement benefits as long as this structure holds. If the structure is violated, labor has the right to directly negotiate for retirement benefits.

TVA is implementing a plan which violates the structure of the TVARS Board with the support of the TVA Retiree Association (TVARA), current seventh TVARS Board Director Allen Stokes, and the three management-appointed TVARS Board directors. The TVARA is an influential retiree organization supported by management which has no legal authority over the 401(k) match or pension benefits. This plan tilts the TVARS Board heavily in management's favor. Gay Henson, President of the Engineering Association, raised the issue of a possible violation of labor agreements in a July 17, 2018 letter strongly objecting to implementation of the plan's first phase. See Gay Henson's letter here.

I understand why TVA does not want to negotiate retirement benefits either with strong employee-elected TVARS directors, or directly with labor representatives. However, the labor agreements were made to ensure that TVA negotiates retirement benefits with one or the other.

Phase 1:  This phase is now complete. I will be removed from the TVARS Board on November 1. I am also disqualified from ever running for the TVARS Board again, even as a retiree if the second phase of the plan is implemented. This has been assured by the 4-3 passage by the TVARS Board of a clever term limit amendment with the facade of a TVARS governance improvement. TVA management knows that I am trusted by many employees and retirees, so I had to be completely taken out of the picture. Read the TVARS Board discussion and vote on the term limit amendment here (beginning at the bottom of page 8).

Phase 2:  This phase is likely to be implemented by October 31, the last day of Allen Stokes' ordinary term on the TVARS Board. This phase consists of passage of a rule amendment to include retirees among those who may vote and run for the positions of employee-elected TVARS Board directors. It cleverly appeals to retirees while giving the TVARA even greater influence over the TVARS Board than it already has. With retirees outnumbering employees by more than 2 to 1, and a track record of TVARA leaders siding with TVA management against labor, this amendment is clearly not in the best interest of labor. The TVARA supported TVA management in reducing retiree benefits in 2009 and 2016. Both times, benefits were reduced by 4-3 votes. Both times, I and the other two employee-elected TVARS Board directors voted against the reductions. Both times, the retiree seventh director voted for the reductions with the support of the TVARA. Ironically, the TVARA  President uses these benefit reductions as an argument for passage of this amendment. See his May 9, 2018 letter outlining the two phases in reverse order here, and his July 10, 2018 letter presenting his arguments here.

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