Investigation of Amweld fund planned

By Don Shilling

An Amweld Building Products retiree is welcoming news that the federal government will investigate his former employer for canceling retirees’ health-care insurance.

Jon Powell of Howland said he would like to see someone held accountable for the cancellation.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, said Monday that he has been informed of the investigation by the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration. The agency will look into the benefit cancellation and the Amweld pension fund.

Amweld retirees learned in March that their health benefits had been canceled retroactive to Jan. 1 even though money still was being deducted from their pensions to pay for premiums. They said they had been unable to reach anyone with the company.

After a Vindicator story and pressure from Ryan, company officials said they were restoring health-care coverage until June 30. They said an error was made in not notifying 18 workers whose health care was being canceled. Twenty others had been notified of the cancellation.

Powell said he has found other health-care coverage through his wife, but other retirees do not know how they will afford coverage.

“We’ve got a lot of people worried,” he said.

He said workers also are concerned about their pensions. He said they were due to receive a financial statement on the pension fund in February but never did.

Ryan said he applauded the federal agency for its investigation and added that he hoped to work with the agency to “create a long-term plan that will assure health benefits are honored after June 30th.”

“It is unconscionable that retirees who worked their entire lives and were promised a pension and health care in their golden years could be so callously treated,” Ryan said.

He said the agency’s regional office in Cincinnati is reviewing the matter. The agency’s letter to Ryan said there is no timetable, and it stated it has a policy not to discuss the investigation until public action is taken or the investigation is closed.

A communications consultant who worked with Amweld in March could not be reached.

In 2007, Amweld closed its plants in Niles and Garrettsville and said it was moving production to Mexico.

The cancellation of health benefits came after the assets of Amweld were bought by Amweld International, which is controlled by a New York investment firm, Patriarch Partners. Amweld International bought those assets from Ark II Manufacturing, which was facing foreclosure.

shilling@vindy.com