Sheet Metal Worker Wins First Bert and Annabel Seidman Prize

by Mike Hall, Jun 13, 2006

Robert Gartner, a Sheet Metal Worker from Heath, Ohio, and a student at the National Labor College (NLC), is the winner of the first Bert and Annabel Seidman Prize for Advancing Social Policy for his research paper on retiree health care costs.

The award, from the Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund (Alliance Educational Fund), was established to encourage NLC students to pursue advanced studies and research on issues related to aging and to analyze social policies that affect older people.

The award honors Bert and Annabel Seidman, whose lifelong passion for social justice and workers’ rights inspired their careers.

Bert, who died in 2004, directed the AFL-CIO Social Security Department for 33 years. After retiring, he was an expert consultant to the Alliance for Retired Americans and the National Council of Senior Citizens, specializing in Social Security, pensions, housing and health care.

Annabel, a teacher and social worker, founded the National Nursing Home Information Service and served as its director for 25 years. She was a strong advocate for senior citizens and people with mental disabilities.

Says George Kourpias, president of the Alliance Educational Fund:

Bert and Annabel Seidman were deeply committed to helping workers and retirees with the important issues affecting their lives. Bert and Annabel would love this prize paper, because it focuses on the key decision older workers must make about retiring early, paying for health care and enjoying the quality of life they worked so hard to create.

Gartner’s research paper focused on health care by tying the cost of health insurance for sheet metal workers to their timetable for retiring. The paper studied 19 sheet metal retirees from Sheet Metal Workers International Association Local 24 in the Columbus, Ohio, area. Nearly one-quarter of those surveyed said they would have worked longer had they known how much health insurance was going to cost. The paper also noted some retirees who are going without any health insurance at all.

The Sheet Metal Workers have designed a new severance benefit to address the high cost of health insurance for retirees.

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