Attached is a letter from an ACRE member to Metro-North's President, Peter Cannito concerning the many problems in dealing with the Metro-North Benefits department concerning her upcoming retirement. Barbara started her retirement process in October of 2007 and had wanted to retire at the end of December 2007. As of her letter dated March 10 th , her situation still had not been resolved. No one within ACRE or the benefits department wanted to take any responsibility in ensuring that her situation be resolved. It took a letter to the President of Metro-North to get her the correct retirement figures and service credits needed to ensure that Barbara would have received what she was entitled to.

The sad and interesting part of this whole situation is the fact that the MTA Pension Plan and retirement process is not something new on Metro-North. It has been on our property and part of our collective bargaining agreement for over four years. In that time no one has learned how the retirement system works and how to correctly calculate employee retirement figures.

If Barbara had received any type of retirement statement within the past four years from Metro-North, do you think that her situation would have taken so long? If Barbara had a copy of her MTA pension plan to read and educate herself on, do you think the process would have taken so long? Most ACRE members that have retired just pulled the plug and walked away and sat by the mailbox waiting for their first retirement check from Metro-North to arrive. They did not know exactly what to expect. Metro-North is supposed to provide a complete statement showing exactly how they calculated and arrived at their retirement figures and a work sheet showing the many options concerning an employee's death benefit. Has Metro-North complied with this requirement? Has ACRE done anything to ensure that these pensions are calculated correctly and the retirees' are receiving the required statements?

Read Barbara's letter and beware of your impending retirement and the run around that you will receive from Metro-North. ACRE's greatest asset is an uninformed, uneducated, kept in the dark workforce. Go ACRE!!!!!