Widow of longtime Sears worker frustrated by loss of medical benefits

For more than 20 years, Rachelle Chatelain has relied on her late husband's medical coverage from his Sears benefits plan to take care of whatever she needed to keep healthy.

So Chatelain was a little surprised during a visit to the dentist three weeks ago to learnher benefits had been cut off and that she needed to pay up.

Following the Sears fallout, she told CBC Radio'sOttawa Morningshe expected to be notified if she was to lose her medical coverage.

"People work for those benefits and pensions why take it away? That's very mean. [Sears] should be ashamed," she said.

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The 75-year-old Ottawa womanhas thrown her support behind a petition to force company toprioritizepensioners when a company's assets are liquidated.

Her husband,Ren, started working at Sears in 1955 whileit was still being built at theCarlingwoodShopping Centre. He retired at age 56 andpassed away in 2005.

"All I get now is $98 a month [from the]Sears pension. And they're trying to take that away from me, which is a real joke. We've always said benefits is gold," she said.

'That is so insulting'

Sears will end up paying upwards of $6.5 million in bonus payments to head office staff just as thousands of employees are set to lose their jobs and see their pensions reduced.

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"That is so insulting. You've worked so hard and you've taken care that you have enough for as long as you live and you depend on that company and you gave your all to them. And just all of a suddenthey just drop you like a hot potato. [My husband] would be disappointed," Chatelain said.

"Sears was the best. He loved working for Sears."

Chatelainsaid she hopes the retailer's executives learn from this ordeal and put its workers' interests first.