MEC Benefits Committee
Last week the United MEC Benefits Committee met with management representatives from the Insurance (Health & Wellness), Worker’s Compensation and Retirement groups.
During our meeting with the Health & Wellness group on August 21st we learned that annual benefits enrollment for the 2026 plan year will take place as follows:
Employees: October 6 – October 24
Retirees: October 27 – November 14
We noted that this is a reversal in the annual enrollment window order from what has been done in recent Annual Open Enrollment periods. It was explained that this was being done in order to align Retiree Open Enrollment with the Medicare Annual Open Enrollment period, which opens October 15th.
The company advised us that they plan to offer several new insurance plans in addition to the required contractual plans. Details of these plans will roll out in the coming weeks.
Later that day, we met with the Worker’s Compensation group. The Benefits Committee offered several recommendations for changes to make the Worker’s Compensation (WC) Packet more user-friendly. We discussed WC reimbursement processes for our LHR Members and Sedgewick’s obligations to contact injured Flight Attendants in a timely manner.
On August 22nd, we met with the Retirement Group, where we had a number of broad conversations regarding investment strategies, oversight, and administration of our CARP, IAMNPF, and 401(k) plans, which allowed us to obtain a better understanding of the make-up of the investment committees for each. Funding of the defined plans is at an appropriate level and is on target.
We also escalated several individual and former Members’ issues regarding their pension benefits to be addressed and resolved.