Local 591 EAP / Member Assistance

Credit IAM EAP, LAP November 2018

JANUARY  2019

2019- A year of Renewal 

(excerpts from The American Genius, Author: Taylor Leddin)

25 quotes about Renewal

1. “Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Francis of Assisi
2. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou
3. “Find something you’re passionate about, and keep tremendously interested in it.” – Julia Child
4. “learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein
5. “You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.” – Marianne Williamson
6. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
7. “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” – H Jackson Brown Jr.
8. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
9. “Believe you can and yo”re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
10. “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford
11. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
12. “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso
13. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer
14. “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practice every day.” – Jim Rohn 
15. “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
16. “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely set back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.’ – Leonardo da Vinci
17. “ I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
18.  “Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.” – Brian Tracy
19. “Some people say I have attitude-maybe I do…but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does-that makes you a winner right there.” – Venus Williams
20. “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” – Stephen Hawking
21.  “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
22. “You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once bot don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” – Michelle Obama
23. “With the new day comes new strength and new Thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
24. “Infuse your life with action. Don’t wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.” – Bradley Whitford
25. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” C.S. Lewis

  Your Local 591 Member/Employee Assistance Program Team would like to wish you all and your families a Happy and Prosperous New Year

Building Resilience
(excerpts from The Psychology Help Center, The Road to Resilience, American Psychological Association)

Make connections. Good relationships with close family members, friends or others are important. Accepting help and support from those who care about you and will listen to you strengthens resilience. Some people find that being active in civic groups, faith-based organizations, or other local groups provides social support and can help with reclaiming hope. Assisting others in their time of need also can benefit the helper. 

Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems. You can't change the fact that highly stressful events happen, but you can change how you interpret and respond to these events. Try looking beyond the present to how future circumstances may be a little better. Note any subtle ways in which you might already feel better as you deal with difficult situations. 

Accept that change is a part of living. Certain goals may no longer be attainable as a result of adverse situations. Accepting circumstances that cannot be changed can help you focus on circumstances that you can alter. 

Develop some realistic goals. Do something regularly — even if it seems like a small accomplishment — that enables you to move toward your goals. Instead of focusing on tasks that seem unachievable, ask yourself, "What's one thing I know I can accomplish today that helps me move in the direction I want to go?” 

Act on adverse situations as you can. Take decisive actions, rather than detaching completely from problems and stressors and wishing they would just go away. 

January Monthly Observances 

Thyroid Awareness Month

National Volunteer  Blood Donor Mont

Shape Up US Month

Benefits and you

‍TWU & Benefits Department Monthly Meeting

12/18/18

1. There are some formulary changes to prescriptions, some Brand name drugs will be removed and replaced with generic if the generic are ineffective call express scripts for brand name drug approval.
2. Accolade was rolled out on 12/19/18 with the promise to find your way to a new level of health care support with your Accolade health assistant.
3. Wellness update. Only 13% of the TWU are taking advantage of the free $250-$500 respectfully, we were assured that these are confidential and not used by company for any reasons, the chance for new money will begin on 1/1/19 and must be complete by 10/1/19. Naturally Slim will roll out on 1/2/19 through 1/11/19 and acceptance will be on 1/18/19 and classes will begin on 1/28/18, these classes are online and for the most part at your own pace with an end date, if you complete these classes, once accepted you will not be charged if you do not, invoices will be sent to you being charged for the classes. Prescription safety Glasses, We asked for the company to send these people to stations that they no longer visit, If you would like them to visit your station please contact me so I can inform the company. Reimbursement for Gym memberships, This is at the federal level and will be voted on by the Senate, if passed they will be searching for vendors to implement.
4. If you are on a medication that you use for a chronic ailment such as BP meds of Asthma please contact stay well for free to reduced costs for drugs.
5. Retirement update, the company in a whole saw 2400 deaths, they issued 935 survivor travel, issued 4500 retiree ID’s which allow discounts on such things as FEDEX, The TWUexercised 710 pensions.
6. FMLA ARC, The FMLA and ARC department is getting 300 inquiries a day with a 24 hour turn time and response, there have been long holds due to software which has been resolved. The major issue we are trying to resolve with FMLA is that when a member gets hurt on the JOB, IOD and it is a qualifying FMLA injury the federal law states that the injury MAYbe designated as FMLA, the company is choosing to designate the injury FMLA, this is harming our membership, if you are on a FMLA for a personal reason you will be running out of FMLA time limits.
7. 401K, Changes to the 401K in 2019,  Fidelity will be going to an AUTO rebalance to assure the correct percentages are being assigned, You will no longer need to take a loan out of your 401K to qualify for a hardship withdrawal.

On the union STD and LTD we will be seeing some changes in the STD contractual language to state if the company refuses your return due to accommodations you will qualify or continue to qualify for the benefit, we are now working for the same changes to the LTD. We also noticed that the Job descriptions Essential Job functions have been removed from the computer and the Hartford did not have these on File, I provided a copy to them for their files. 

The promised website for voluntary union benefits are on hold at the presidential level.

401K Not meeting 5.5% Match leaving free money on the table.