Sam Dantone

President Barack Obama will be visiting Peoria Illinois today, Feb. 12th, 2009. He plans to visit, construction equipment giant, Caterpillar’s factory in East Peoria. I have written Mr. Obama to request that while he is visiting would he please ask the CEO of Caterpillar to reinstate the health insurance that was contractually promised to their retirees. My father, Sam Dantone Sr. retired after 30 years of labor as a pipe-fitter at the plant that Obama will be visiting today. My father is a UAW member and has stood strong like his father and grandfather in the long, hard fought labor struggles here in the US. He has given his own health to Caterpillar to try to earn a living wage and to supply his son with a better life. The least Caterpillar could do would be to honor their own contracted promises of health care for their retirees. Instead Caterpillar has slowly eroded that promise by requiring the retirees to purchase the health coverage. They started by asking for a low monthly fee and have over the years continued to raise the fees to unaffordable prices. The irony is that Cat claims they need help to pay the premiums, however, Cat owns the insurance company and they are now turning a profit from the fees they are collecting. At the same time Cat’s insurance company stalls on all fronts when it comes time to paying on claims. This constitutes a crime. In fact this issue is currently in the courts. Cat has lost a couple of judgments in this case but continue to stall the process and have counter sued the UAW claiming the union is also responsible because they bargained the details of the contract. Of course that is ridiculous because it is Cat that is the employer that profits from the labor of it’s employees. The union was there to represent the workers to help keep them from being steamrolled by the large corporation. When I was young I visited the plant were my father worked. I will never forget being introduced to a man called Topper. As he was moving large gears from one machine to another nonstop he looked down at me and yelled over the din of the factory and said, “Get yourself an education boy, don’t end up in here”! I witnessed years of labor struggle between Cat and the UAW. There were many years we ate baloney on a daily basis while the workers were either on strike or locked out. All the while Cat records major profits. Please, urge your representatives to support workers rights.

Thank you for reading this and taking action…

... for next time it might be your job and retirement.

Sam Dantone