Category: Alumni Association

RRB: The importance of a current connection for Railroad Retirement benefits
Under the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA), a “current connection with the railroad industry” is one of the eligibility requirements for both the occupational disability and supplemental annuities payable by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB). It is also a factor in determining [...]
RRB update from the labor member: 2021 Covid and budget notice
Brothers and Sisters, It has been one challenging year for us all and many of you have been hit extremely hard by COVID-19 – if not by the virus itself, by the impact it has had on the railroad industry. As you may have heard, Congress recently enacted legislation to pr [...]
ERMA lifetime maximum benefit to increase in 2021
The lifetime maximum benefit for the Railroad Employees National Early Retirement Major Medical Benefit (ERMA or GA-46000) Plan will increase from $171,100 to $175,700 beginning Jan. 1, 2021. At the end of 2001, labor and management had agreed on various procedures to adminis [...]
Releases from RRB: Q&A about the effect of private rail pensions; Medicare Part B premiums for 2021
Private rail pensions may reduce supplemental annuities Railroad Retirement beneficiaries are reminded that receipt of a private railroad pension may reduce the amount of a supplemental annuity payable by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB). The following questions and answer [...]
Former GC Hiatt passes away
David Eldon Hiatt, a retired general chairperson of GO 377 (Canadian National/Grand Trunk Western), passed away November 11, 2020. He was 73 years old. “I looked up to Brother Hiatt, he was what I strived to be like once I became a union officer,” said current GO [...]
SMART-TD mourns the passing of Edward J. Carney
Edward J. Carney, 87, of Ft. Wadsworth, Staten Island, N.Y., died suddenly Saturday, Nov. 7. Carney began his railroading career on the Staten Island Railroad, a subsidiary of the B&O Railroad, in June 1955. Over the course of his 40 years of railroad employment, he worke [...]

