UAW Local 14 President Upset Over Benefit Hacking

TOLEDO, Ohio – A local union leader has blamed how long it took his retirees to find out their personal information had been compromised.

President A UAW Local 14Tony Totti told WTOL 11 that thousands of retirees who work in the auto industry are enrolled in the benefits program that was hacked back in January.

But he said these pensioners not only just found out, but the letter they received from the benefits organization – the Ford Foundation VEBA Trust – on April 13 appeared to be a scam and many of his pensioners ignored it. VEBA stands for Voluntary Employee Benefit Association.

Toti said UAW Local 14 tells its retired members not to trust letters without a trust seal, which he said the benefits operator should include in the mail. But in the letter of the WEBA trust, this was not the case.

“You turn on the TV and there are already so many people hunting them,” Totti said. — And we tell them to stay away from it and stay away from it, and if you have any questions, call our benefits reps. Well, they didn’t even tell our benefits reps about it, and that’s a problem.”

Yes, he wrote his own letter to the head of the Republican UAW asking him to remove the management of the VEBA trust.

“If you come after and allow this to happen to our pensioners, we will fight back every day,” Totti said. “I don’t care what the consequences are, they deserve better. We wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for them, and we won’t let anyone mess with our pensioners.”

Totti said there have been problems with the Ford Foundation VEBA Trust in the past.

But luckily, so far, Totti said, there have been no reports of fraud in this latest case.