My name is Earl Mongeon. I was born in Vermont and have lived here most my life.
I reside in Westford, VT and have worked at the IBM plant in Essex for the last 32 years.
I’m also the Vice President of the Alliance@IBM CWA local 1701.  
We are a nationwide organization of employees and retirees that have been fighting to keep dignity and respect in the work place, along with keeping our jobs, pensions, salaries, and level of benefits affordable for employees and retirees at IBM.
We have done this through actions like shareholder proposals, as well as the standard organizing practices like picketing, and distributing informational materials along with educational literature about workers rights to form a union. We have done this at IBM sites around the U.S.  I could go into great length about what I have experienced and seen going on at IBM between employees and executive management for the last 17 years of my career, but I won’t.

I'm here today to focus on what IBM's lobbyist, Mr. John O’Kane, and IBM’s response to the single-payer proposal now being worked on here in Vermont.  
Mr. O’Kane is one of their lobbyists, his title is the IBM Government Programs Manager and he recently testified against Vermont moving forward with a universal healthcare system that treated healthcare as a public good for everyone.

Mr. O’Kane says that IBM should be allowed to continue to offer its own self-insurance plan.
Well that might be fine and affordable to Mr. O’Kane and his salary, but for the vast majority of IBM employees this self-insurance plan has become very unaffordable.  Let me tell you what it’s like every year in October and November when all employees have to select the next year’s benefits coverage.
It feels like your asking yourself how much of a pay cut would l like to give myself next year, because the cost of these benefits keep going up every year.
Add to that, the benefits that you have to select from are very confusing.
There are so many to choose from that many people cannot figure out what they are getting for coverage.

Here some examples of what we have to select from and the cost:

*Note some IBM Employees incomes are such, that they have to put their children on
Vt. State Sponsored Doctor Dinosaurs.

This is just a sample of what we have to select from within a short amount of time.

Here is some information that I found out from talking to regular employees and long term supplemental (LTS) employees on how much their costs have gone up from last year:

I know a sixty-year-old year old woman that is now working at IBM as LTS
to just have health insurance.

This year I also have to get my health insurance through IBM again after being on my wife’s health and dental insurance for the past eight years. This really opened my eyes.  Due to a change in my wife’s job, she now has to contribute into her new health insurance coverage. So after looking at both plans, and finding that the IBM plan was much more costly, we had to put my daughter on my wife’s plan and I went onto an IBM plan to help save on household income.

I knew in my heart that IBM would oppose this single-payer plan from the beginning because that is what they did back in 2005 when Vermont made its first attempt at a single payer system.  Back then the Plant Manager held these all-hands meetings and told the employees that this would be a billion dollars in new taxes, it would lead to rationing, and businesses would leave the state and more.  So when it came time for the question and answer period, the first question I asked him was what was the total cost of healthcare in the State of Vermont in 2004?  His answer to that question was that he did not know. So I told him it was 3.2 billion dollars and that it was expected to go up to 4 billion dollars by the year 2006. At that point we had a very pointed debate on the billion dollars in new taxes, and I told him and the audience that this was not going be a billion dollars in new taxes because all of us were already paying that in taxes and the premiums already being paid into the health care system. I told him that IBMers already have a rationing system with the 3 different plans we have to choose from according to what we can afford, as well as how some IBM employees that have to put their children on Dr. Dinosaur, which demonstrates that IBM is not being a very good corporate citizen. I also stated that I had been at some of the state hearings on this healthcare bill and most of the testimony’s from business were in favor of this system and not what he had said about leaving the state.

In closing, I would like to say that I would like to have the option of a single-payer plan over what IBM
offers today and in the years to come. I have seen thousands of IBM employees lose their jobs here in Vermont and around the nation and when they lose that job they lose their health coverage. This should not be happening to working people today in Vermont or in our country. I believe healthcare is a human right and we need to have a simple system where every Vermonter has high quality care, no matter where they work.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions by phone or e-mail :
Home 802 878 5681
Cell 802 233 0340
e-mail (jemongeon@comcast.net)

Earl Mongeon