Bob Naftaly is the founding chair of the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust.
GLENN TRIEST
OUR COMMUNITY
A
Masterful
Achievement! How Bob Naftaly, in the face of automaker bankruptcies, helped save health benefits for 872,000 UAW retirees.
DORON LEVIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
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SEPTEMBER 30 • 2021
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he future of Detroit and the U.S.-based automakers during the summer of 2007 had never looked so dreadful. General Motors, negotiating with the United Auto Workers union toward a new labor contract, had lost more than $12 billion during the previous two years. Bankruptcies for one or more of the Big Three automakers were growing more likely. Desperate to stave off collapse, the Big Three proposed shrinking large liabilities for future medical and other post-retirement benefits to which hourly workers were promised. If bankruptcy happened, little or no money would be available for health care. The UAW and the industry, however, found a solution: Entitlements would be secured
by a separate, independent trust. The automakers agreed to fund the Voluntary Employee Benefit Association (VEBA), which was empowered to pay retirees’ medical benefits. In return, the three automakers were able to remove the massive liabilities from their balance sheets. But who had the skill, experience and the credibility to organize and oversee the VEBA trust? With automakers and the union so often at odds, who could the union and automakers appoint to ensure the VEBA remained true to its mission, competent and, importantly, sufficiently funded to cover more than $50 billion of future medical bills for hundreds of thousands of retired autoworkers? The UAW and auto industry agreed that Bob Naftaly
was the right person to organize the VEBA’s creation and lead its board. A longtime financial executive who had served the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit as well as Democratic governors Jim Blanchard and Jennifer Granholm, Naftaly had retired a few years earlier as Executive Vice President of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Finance was his skill, public service his passion — and problem-solving an invaluable attribute. Naftaly, 83, continues to serve as chair for what now is known as the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust, which pays out roughly $3.5 billion annually in health care benefits to nearly 600,000 former auto workers and their dependents. In addition to other prominent financial roles, the UAW knew
