What is the name of your state? California
I was part of the bargaining unit for the union as a Chief Shop Steward. We bargained that the company would fully fund our Health and Welfare and that the employees would not have a medical co-pay and that our Health and Welfare would remain the same, no change thru 2010. This was in August of 2004. In Novembe 2004, 3 months after contract negotiations, the Health and Welfare Trustees, a unit made up of equal membership from the union and the company, imposed increased co-pays that dramatically increased co-pays on our medical, dental, vision, and prescription drugs, by as much as 300%. Needles to say our membership, about 10,000 strong is outraged. We negotiated trading off any significant wage increases to offset the rising cost of funding our Health and Welfare for the company. Our union membership ratified this contract, without proper wage increases, because we were told there would be no changes to our Health and Welfare and that we would not have a Co-pay taken out of our pay checks. I feel that the Health and Welfare trustees undermined our negotiated contract by implementing these co-pays, that are paid by the employees when they use the services. The union trustees have traveled to various plant trying to explain themselves to the general membership because of the uproar. They have told us that the trust is in the red and that they needed to implement the co-pays to make up for the red ink. They also told us that they have seen the upward trend in medical costs, and that they grossly under estimated projected costs of the Health and Welfare costs for this year. They said they knew that the possibility for the increase has been known for months but they were hoping they would decrease. They did not share this information during contract negotiations, and had the general membership know, we may not have ratified the contract. It seems to us that the company should pay for the increase in Health and Welfare, that was our intent during contract negotiations, and that is why we gave up any significant wage increase. So the question is...Do we, the general members of this union, have any recourse to the actions that the Health and Welfare trustees took???? Also let me note that the union trustee at that "Explanation" meeting did admit that they should have kept us informed about the state of the medical costs increases..instead they gave us the information by blindsiding us with co-pay increases by a mailer they mailed and we received on Christmas eve....
Thanks
I was part of the bargaining unit for the union as a Chief Shop Steward. We bargained that the company would fully fund our Health and Welfare and that the employees would not have a medical co-pay and that our Health and Welfare would remain the same, no change thru 2010. This was in August of 2004. In Novembe 2004, 3 months after contract negotiations, the Health and Welfare Trustees, a unit made up of equal membership from the union and the company, imposed increased co-pays that dramatically increased co-pays on our medical, dental, vision, and prescription drugs, by as much as 300%. Needles to say our membership, about 10,000 strong is outraged. We negotiated trading off any significant wage increases to offset the rising cost of funding our Health and Welfare for the company. Our union membership ratified this contract, without proper wage increases, because we were told there would be no changes to our Health and Welfare and that we would not have a Co-pay taken out of our pay checks. I feel that the Health and Welfare trustees undermined our negotiated contract by implementing these co-pays, that are paid by the employees when they use the services. The union trustees have traveled to various plant trying to explain themselves to the general membership because of the uproar. They have told us that the trust is in the red and that they needed to implement the co-pays to make up for the red ink. They also told us that they have seen the upward trend in medical costs, and that they grossly under estimated projected costs of the Health and Welfare costs for this year. They said they knew that the possibility for the increase has been known for months but they were hoping they would decrease. They did not share this information during contract negotiations, and had the general membership know, we may not have ratified the contract. It seems to us that the company should pay for the increase in Health and Welfare, that was our intent during contract negotiations, and that is why we gave up any significant wage increase. So the question is...Do we, the general members of this union, have any recourse to the actions that the Health and Welfare trustees took???? Also let me note that the union trustee at that "Explanation" meeting did admit that they should have kept us informed about the state of the medical costs increases..instead they gave us the information by blindsiding us with co-pay increases by a mailer they mailed and we received on Christmas eve....
Thanks