The 2015 tax rate for Tier I during 2015 will be 6.2% for Employee and Employer. The annual maximum will be on earnings of $118,500.00 making the maximum employee and employer tax of $7,347.00.  For Tier II the Employee tax rate is 4.9% and the employer tax rate is 13.1%. The annual maximum will be on earnings of $88,200.00, therefore the maximum employee tax will be $4,321.80 and the maximum employer tax will be $11,554.20. (There have been three (3) decreases in the tax rate since 2001.)

During a meeting with UP General Chairmen on March 25, 2015, the RRB advised that the trust fund contains an amount of approximately $27 billion. There are no projected cash short falls for the next seventy-five (75) years. In fact, the number of workers paying into Railroad Retirement is up this year to 249,000.

Attached for you to print, is a comparison of Railroad Retirement benefits vs. Social Security benefits and a sheet about “myths” of RRB benefits.       RRB comparison and Myths

During a recent meeting of the General Committee Executive Board, a proposal was presented to make a donation to the United Farm Workers (UFW). The proposal was passed unanimously to donate $1,000.00.

The General Committee Office has received thanks from the UFW which states, in part: “We’re so glad to have you on our side. Thank you for standing with workers!”.

We recommend members obtain and watch the movie “Cesar Chavez” for history on the founding and organizing of the UFW.

The General Committee has received requests for copies of the Hybrid Board agreement that was ratified for the North Little Rock/Pine Bluff Hub. it is attached in the following file:

Agreement_H Y Board(s) in Zone 5_NLR Hub

13_2&#Q_Claims allowed – – –  The General Committee has finally received the verification of payments from the Carrier on many of the claims that have been handled and allowed for the 2^nd and 3^rd quarter of 2013.  A scanned copy of that list is listed at the beginning of this Article.  There are claims handled between the General Chairman and the Director of Labor Relations that are not included as the Carrier has not provided the VOP as of this date.  They will be posted when received.

The next scheduled conference is during the first week of December on Kansas City Hub/Non-Merged Territory claims.

1307-08_Smart Union Journal – – The July/August publication of the SMART Union Journal featured a photo of General President Nigro at the General Committee office of G)-569. Featured in the photo are General President Nigro, Local Chairmen Joey Cornelius, Frank Evans, Mike Bowman, Jake Moore, Robert Harrison, Associate General Chairman Terry Dixon and General Chairman Al Nowlin.

This meeting took place after a meeting with the membership in Kansas City. Click on the link above for the article located at the bottom of the page.

Attached is a list of pay rates for pay effective July 1, 2013 = = 130701_Pay rates

A new web site has been initiated at smart-union.org. The web site has news and posts commonly asked questions about the merged union. Members can submit questions to ask by clicking on the top of the opening page.