OAK RIDGE, TENN. — The Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees has been in contact with lawmakers and the Department of Energy to seek an annual cost-of-living adjustment for the pensions of retirees who worked for Department of Energy contractors. The group, known as CORRE, focuses on retirement benefits for individuals receiving pensions from companies contracted by the Department of Energy.

More than 15,000 retirees from Y-12, K-25 and Oak Ridge National Laboratory who were not federal employees have not received a cost-of-living adjustment in their pension since 2001. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the costs of housing, food and medical care are 120% higher than when these retirees received their last cost-of-living increase. CORRE said that due to inflation, many retirees have had difficulty covering basic expenses.

"A dollar, because of inflation, a dollar in 1998 is only worth 49 cents in today's world," Dave Whitehead, president and board member for CORRE, said. "And so, our pension, if you will, payment has been cut roughly in half as far as buying power and so forth."

Whitehead said the Department of Energy raises pensions for federal retirees annually. He contrasted that practice with the treatment of contractor retirees. "It doesn't make much sense that the overseers of the work, who didn't really do the work, have been getting inflation adjustments all along through these years where the folks that did the work have gotten zero," he said.

"If you can afford to do this for the pensions of federal employees, you can afford to do it for the contracted employees that did the work," he said. "We're not asking that they make up all of (those) lost pension payments over the years, we're just asking that they start giving us an annual adjustment just the same as the federal employees' pension."

CORRE has asked its members to call their lawmakers to seek a resolution on annual pension cost-of-living adjustments. A spokesperson for Representative Tim Burchett said, "Our office regularly engages with CORRE and its leadership team. Rep. Burchett remains committed to ongoing communication with constituents from the organization to understand their priorities and address issues brought forward."