SCI Illinois Services, Inc. Continues Serving Client Families

GLENDALE HEIGHTS, Ill., July 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- SCI Illinois Services, Inc. is prepared to provide continued, high-quality service to the company's client families during the strike called by Teamsters Local 727. The company has caring, dedicated professionals, including Illinois-licensed funeral directors, in place and ready to ensure that service will be seamless and uninterrupted.

"Serving our client families in their time of need is our highest priority. That service and commitment to our families will continue without disruption," said Larry Michael, managing director for SCI Illinois Services, Inc. "We hope this situation is resolved soon. We offered a very fair contract with a generous wage increase."

Compensation
"We sincerely value the hardworking men and women in this bargaining unit, as indicated by the extremely generous pay and benefit package they already enjoy," said Michael. "A significant number of the funeral directors in this group already make more than $100,000 per year, and we've offered a first-year wage increase that is triple what the Teamsters negotiated for other Chicago-area funeral directors and double what they requested for this group in negotiations."

The contract offer by the company offers a 9 percent wage increase over the next two years, including 6 percent in the first year and an additional 3 percent in year two. The company also has proposed giving employees the choice to opt out and receive cash compensation if they decide they do not want or need the Teamsters' healthcare plan or the legal and educational assistance plan.

Pension
"The Teamsters leadership made it very clear that a critical issue is continuation of the pension plan. We have expressed our concern over the history of serious underfunding in this pension plan and the risks it brings to both the company and its employees," said Michael. "The fund also has been a source of rampant litigation initiated by the Teamsters."

In addition to maintaining vested pension benefits, under the company's offer the Teamster pension fund would be replaced with a 401K plan. The 401K features a dollar-for-dollar company match up to the first 4% of annual income.

SCI Illinois Services, Inc. is looking to replace the pension plan with a 401K for a variety of reasons:

• Serious Underfunding of Teamster Pension Plan. The recent history of significant underfunding is alarming. Recent communications from the Teamsters show a variety of underfunded amounts, with the most recent June 2013 actuarial letter showing $68 million in underfunding.
• Rapidly Escalating Costs. The pension contributions have been escalating rapidly, climbing 39 percent in the last three years and more than tripling in the last ten. "The costs are going up at such an alarming rate that it just reinforces our fears about the overall viability of the pension fund," said Michael.
• Litigation Considerations. These funds have been a source of rampant litigation initiated by the Teamsters, costing the company millions of dollars.

Because of its serious concerns relating to Teamsters' benefits funds, SCI Illinois Services, Inc. filed a lawsuit in federal court in late 2011. That lawsuit is currently pending and involves allegations under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO).

Healthcare
The company's proposal asks that employees begin to contribute to their own healthcare costs. Employee contributions will only occur if the Teamsters' Fund increases its monthly premiums after March 1, 2014. Even then, contributions are capped at $50 per month in 2014.

"Unlike most Americans, this group of employees has never had to contribute anything to the cost of their own healthcare," said Michael. "Asking employees to contribute at least something toward those costs has become commonplace in this country. The wage increases being offered far exceed the amount of any potential co-pay."

"We have made a very fair proposal to the union and hope this situation is resolved soon," said Michael.  "In any case, our highest priority is our client families. We will continue to serve them with the same professionalism, dignity and quality care they have come to expect from us."

About SCI Illinois Services, Inc.
SCI Illinois Services, Inc. manages the Dignity Memorial® network of funeral homes and cemeteries across Chicagoland. It is part of Service Corporation International, headquartered in Houston, Texas. For more information about Service Corporation International, please visit our website at www.sci-corp.com. For more information about the Dignity Memorial network, please visit www.dignitymemorial.com.

SOURCE SCI Illinois Services, Inc.

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