Ex-employee keeps GM's retirees connected Web site members talk about life, cars and health benefits:
www.overthehillcarpeople.comFebruary 28, 2005
BY JEFFREY McCRACKEN
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Jack Dickinson retired from General Motors Corp. after 33 years and felt he'd made a lot of good, close friends along the way.
So he was understandably upset to learn about a former coworker's wife having breast cancer and the deaths of some other coworkers -- and even more upset to learn the news several months later.
He realized retirees could quickly lose touch with colleagues they once felt close to.
Dickinson pressed GM to come up with a way for its retirees and their spouses -- all 422,000 of them -- to keep in touch and let each other know when they've moved, had another grandchild or experienced some other event they wanted to publicize.
The automaker, citing confidentiality concerns, passed on the idea. GM also didn't like Dickinson's suggestion that there needed to be a national place for GM retirees to pool together concerns or niggling complaints they had about their health care benefits, GM products or other issues.
So, the retired ACDelco sales manager took it upon himself to create a Web site where GM retirees could do just that -- a kind of online community center and sounding board for people who'd spent most of their lives working for GM.
The site, with the catchy name overthehillcarpeople.com, debuted in December 2003. To date, it has attracted more than 19,000 hits.
"I started it because all of us GM retirees had no means of keeping in touch with each other, or with the active workers. And I also got the sense that some active workers wanted to know what life is like for retirees," said the 61-year-old Dickinson, who worked in the South for GM, moving from Tennessee to Louisiana to Florida to Alabama.
He retired from GM in 2001, having spent all his time with ACDelco or the automaker's service-parts operations.
"GM is my life. I love the company. It's in my blood. But they don't always keep in touch with us retirees as well as they think they do. I just felt we retirees needed this," said Dickinson, who estimates he spends up to six hours a day running the site, from posting new information to answering questions from readers.
Once he got inspired to set up the site, Dickinson hired a professor from a college near his home in Hoover, Ala., to teach him how to create and maintain a Web site.
He estimates he's spent about $9,000 for his computer, a server and other equipment in the office he has dedicated to running the site.
To date, more than 300 GM retirees have paid the $25 lifetime membership fee to have full access to the site.
GM officials say they are not aware of another Web site created by its retirees for retirees. There are various GM retiree groups around the country.
"We're not familiar with any others like this site," said Robert Herta, GM spokesman. He said of Dickinson, "We've spoken with him and we are happy he says he's a loyal GM retiree. We don't really get involved in supporting these groups. It's all grassroots efforts."
So far, the site's members seem to enjoy what Dickinson has put in place.
"I love the site, just love it. It gives us retirees a place to contact fellow retirees. It also gives us a place to discuss new GM retiree programs," said Paul Pucci, a 72-year-old Canton resident who retired from GM in May 2000 after 42 years with the automaker in the Detroit area.
Pucci said he visits the site at least twice a week to send pictures to other retirees or to just talk about GM with others.
He said topics range from health care benefits to GM's newest vehicles to GM's decision to spend $2 billion to avoid a contract that could have forced the company to buy struggling Italian automaker Fiat.
"All of us among GM retirees want the company to do well, but when we need to be critical we will be. You look at something like that Fiat fiasco. That was amazing. So, of course we've got opinions," said Pucci, who retired as field sales marketing executive from the company he'd been with since 1958.
Most of the members are salaried retirees, said Dickinson, though he'd like to get some GM hourly retirees also involved.
That might be interesting, given that some of the retiree posts on the Web site's message board complain that GM's UAW hourly workers aren't paying their fair share for GM's retiree health care costs.
Though the retirees are mostly GM boosters who do what they can to keep helping the company -- Pucci, for example, has recently bought a 2005 Pontiac G6 and a 2004 Buick Rendezvous -- the site is not all about singing GM's praises.
Dickinson said GM was going to profile his site in the the company's retiree magazine, Encore, until they saw the site did have some complaints about the automaker.
"They didn't like some of our negative comments. That's too bad," said Dickinson.
One recent retiree concern was GM's decision to switch its retiree vision plan.
Dickinson and some other retirees were unhappy because their regular eye doctors wouldn't take the new vision plan, Cole Vision. Some retirees were forced to go to Sears or other stores for their eye care, and said they thought the quality of service wasn't up to snuff.
"We are not here to bad-mouth GM," said Dickinson. "GM does a lot for us retirees, but they don't do everything right."
Contact JEFFREY McCRACKEN at 313-222-8763 or mccracken@freepress.com.
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