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General
Motors Corp. retirees Mike and Kathy Bommarito walk back to their house
in Rochester after practicing on the putting green next door at the
Brookwood Golf Club, last month. They retired early and are happy with
their plan from GM: "We feel like we earned this."
HOW THEY SEE IT: Retirees grateful, fearful over coverage needs GM breaks promise when it shifts costs of care, some contend December 20, 2004
BY JEFFREY McCRACKEN
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Mike Bommarito is a member of the most popular group within General Motors -- people ages 60-64. There are a lot of them working for GM, retired from GM, or married to someone from GM -- 130,210 in fact.
That's more than any other age bracket at the world's largest automaker.
GM knows this number because it knows something else: Bommarito and the others in his bracket cost GM more in health care than any other group.
Mike's wife, Kathy, is also part of a popular group at GM -- people between the ages of 50-54. There are 94,818 of them, the fifth-biggest age bracket at GM.
The couple, both retired, are well aware they are costing GM, but they make no apologies for it. They are very appreciative that GM shoulders most of their health care costs -- not to mention provides both a healthy pension -- but figure they deserve it after a combined 68 years working for the automaker.
"We worked hard for this. We earned it," said Mike, a 62-year-old St. Clair Shores native who retired from GM in 2001 after 38 years, mostly spent in sales at its AC Delco division. "I made choices to travel, living in Atlanta and Florida for the job. I didn't spend the time with my younger daughter that I wish I had, so we feel like we earned this."
The Rochester Hills couple thank GM for the life they've been able to lead. They live on a golf course, which they use often, and own a condo in Florida. Kathy, who worked in sales and public relations for GM, also spends her time writing for a GM retiree Web site, visiting her mom and doing charity work. Mike plays a lot of golf and baby-sits his two daughters' kids.
"We know we'll cost GM a lot of money. We laugh about it sometimes. But we feel GM got their money's worth out of us," said Kathy Bommarito, who is 50 and retired from GM after 30 years.
Like any good GM couple, they only drive GM vehicles: a 2003 Pontiac Grand Am and a 2004 Cadillac SRX luxury SUV.
The Bommaritos are two of the more than 422,000 retirees and surviving spouses that get health care and a pension from GM. Keeping those obligations costs GM billions of dollars a year. Medical costs alone for retirees are $3.2 billion.
These costs are not lost on anyone at GM -- not the retirees who frequently hear and read what a burden they are, and certainly not the executives who know they must attempt to compensate for that cost. One solution: spending billions in Asia in pursuit of lower labor costs, lower parts costs and a new batch of car buyers.
GM began charging salaried retirees a portion of their health care costs in 1988. Chrysler followed suit in 1991 and Ford in 2002. Unionized auto retirees are generally protected from paying for their health care.
GM retirees or surviving spouses generally fall into one of two categories: those like the Bommaritos who absolutely appreciate what they get from GM, and the rest, who say GM's continual shifting of medical costs, such as drug co-pays, onto retirees breaks a promise the automaker made years ago to take care of its employees in retirement.
Joseph Kowalski, 72, worked at GM for 33 years, retiring in 1986 as a superintendent at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in Poletown, where he oversaw 800 hourly and 30 salaried workers. Kowalski is one of 98,547 people at GM in the 70-74 age bracket.
Kowalski, who was paid about $50,000 a year when he retired, now lives on a pension of $1,000 a month, plus Social Security. As he and his wife, Mary, have gotten older, their out-of-pocket medical bills have jumped -- especially as GM has shifted costs onto them.
They pay $35-a-month premiums and $20 for each office visit. The costs that really get them are the co-pays of $7 to $45 per refill of the seven drugs Joe Kowalski takes and the six Mary must take. They estimate they spend about $1,500 on year on medical needs.
"I understand GM's problems. They didn't see all this, all of these health care problems coming," said Kowalski, sitting at the kitchen table of his comfortable Macomb Township condominium.
He understands GM's predicament. He's loyal to the company, which now employs two of his kids. He also leases a Chevy Trailblazer.
Nonetheless, he's still angry at his former employer, once dubbed "Generous Motors."
"They just didn't look ahead and stand up to the medical community or the unions back in the day. So now they stand up to me? I was a dedicated, loyal GM person," said Kowalski, his voice rising. "I had no relationship with my kids. None. I was up at 4:30 a.m. for that job and not home until after 5 p.m. When one son went to college, he wrote a paper for school saying he missed his dad and it wasn't fair I was never around."
Kowalski left GM in early 1986, saying he felt exhausted all the time and worried he wasn't well. Because of his haste, he took a retirement package well below the usual for his salary. That Father's Day, he had a heart attack and needed a quadruple bypass.
"What GM said to do, I did," said Kowalski. "And now they have no loyalty back, no loyalty to guys like me. Every year, they jack up my bills or cut into the number of doctors I can use."
His wife, Mary, interrupts. Her dad, an immigrant from Italy, was a Ford employee who used to thank Uncle Henry Ford every night at grace.
Mary says she wants to feel that way toward GM, but doesn't.
"We are grateful to GM for a lot -- but we gave up a lot, too," she adds.
Contact JEFFREY McCRACKEN at 313-222-8763 or mccracken@freepress.com.
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