Occupy Century Aluminum- A group from Athens plans to drive southeast on Route 33 for 45 minutes to Ravenswood, West Va. to support a group that has been camped out in tents day and night to restore the health insurance coverage they paid for.
The Century Aluminum plant, who closed down in 2009, announced nine months later that it would terminate health benefits for retirees eligible for Medicare.
Four months later they said they would stop paying for retirees who weren’t yet eligible for Medicare. It is part of a pattern documented by Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Ellen E. Schultz in her new book “Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers.”
We will join them Monday Feb. 20. (If the roads are not easily drivable then we will go Feb. 27 instead). We will carpool from the Athens Southside Park at 1 p.m. The park is between Route 682 and the OU Inn. Turn off Richland onto Dairy Lane and go to the parking lot on the right. We will return to Athens by 5 p.m.
Things the workers would appreciate: fresh fruit, coffee, non-perishable food, and paper products such as plates and plastic forks.
More information is available at centuryaluminumretirees.com. They are also on Facebook at occupycenturyaluminum.
Jan Griesinger resides in Athens.
