HMO OK'd in city for 4 unions

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October 7, 2008

Firefighters to have issue be part of contract negotiations

By JOE LoTEMPLIO The Press Republican Tue Oct 07, 2008, 05:40 AM EDT

PLATTSBURGH -- The City of Plattsburgh will go ahead and implement a change in its employee HMO plan for four of its five unions, leaving the Fire Department employees to pay more in premiums.

The plan -- recommended by a task force made up of Common Council members, Chamberlain Richard Marks and representatives from all five city unions -- calls for the city to self-fund its health maintenance organization plan.

No benefits would change.

The move could have saved as much as $700,000 for the city and about 9 percent in premium co-payments for employees who pay a portion of their health insurance.

Employees hired after 1993 pay part of their premiums.

The City Police, Municipal Lighting Department, American Federation of County Municipal and State Employees and the Public Library unions have all agreed to the change.

The Fire Department union did not.

Firefighters told the council they would agree to the change only if they received a 3-percent raise retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year and a one-year extension of their contract, which expired Dec. 31, 2007.

Councilors unanimously rejected the firefighters' proposal Thursday night, calling it selfish and not in tune with the city's taxpayers and other city employees.

By implementing the self-funding plan for the four other unions, the savings for the city will be about $93,000 less than the expected $700,000.

The co-payments will still drop by about 9 percent.

Fire Department union members will remain in the old plan, but their premium co-payments are expected to increase by about 26 percent by Dec. 1. Their benefits will remain the same.

"It appears that the executive board of the union is hurting their own members and affecting the health-care coverage of their own members simply because they did not want to cooperate with Chief (Paul) Williams and the mayor," Mayor Donald Kasprzak said Friday.

"If I were a member who was affected by this, I would certainly consider new union leadership."

Councilor James Calnon (I-Ward 4), who was a member of the task force, said that, by staying with the old plan, 17 of the 34 firefighters who pay a premium co-payment will see their share of health insurance go up an average of $50.32 per month, about $600 per year.

Had they participated in the self-funding plan, their co-payments would have dropped by about $11.61 per month.

Also, two widows of former firefighters will wind up paying a total of $3,113.70 more a year, rather than paying $1,077.82 less, Calnon said.

The widows are allowed to access the health plan but pay 100 percent of the premium.

"I am delighted that we have been able to implement the HMO funding change for the four bargaining units that have agreed to it," Calnon said.

"The firefighters, in the most expensive category of HMO, will see their deduction for health-insurance rise by almost $60 a month, starting Dec. 1.

"I am mystified as to why the firefighters do not want savings for themselves or the taxpayers."

A negotiating session between the city and the firefighters union is scheduled for today.

Union Vice President Edmund Sanderson said the health-insurance issue is just one of many the union wants to resolve.

He said the task force was assembled to find the savings, but the union never agreed to have the recommendations implemented without overall negotiations.

"Once savings are found, the fastest way to get them is to bypass negotiations and implement them," Sanderson said.

"That happens when negotiations are not going on, but we are in negotiations."

Sanderson said union members are also wary of previous side agreements that have not worked out.

He also said the mayor and council violated the ground rules of negotiations by voting on their proposal last week.

"They violated the ground rules of negotiations to take a political vote and make the Fire Department look bad," Sanderson said.

"If they didn't like our proposal, they could have rejected it in negotiations and given a counter-proposal for the good of the taxpayers."

He also said the fact that the city will go ahead and implement the self-funding HMO for the other four unions is proof that the firefighters' union was never holding the city hostage to savings.

As for firefighters having to pay higher premiums on the old health plan, Sanderson said he hopes an overall contract can be worked out for everyone's betterment.

"While health insurance is one very important item of negotiations, it is only one piece of the package," he said.

"Our ultimate goal is to come up with a comprehensive package that addresses all issues of concern."

Sanderson said the union is prepared to offer several cost-saving items for negotiations at today's session.

"That is not just lip service. We are willing to negotiate many items."

jlotemplio@pressrepublican.com