SIU, Other Unions Keep Swinging,
But It's Often an Uphill StruggleA little more than one year ago, nearly 80,000 trade unionists—most of them members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)—either were on strike or were locked out in several states. The UFCW action lasted five months and was driven by bitter conflicts with management over proposed changes in the workers’ health insurance.
The details varied from contract to contract, but in one representative case (a Kroger store in Charleston, W. Va.), workers struck in part because of a company proposal that either would have cut their health benefits or cost them up to $100 more per week—per worker—to maintain their current coverage.
Since then, while there have been no other job actions involving similarly large numbers of workers, health care costs consistently have been a top issue in union contract negotiations all over the country. A quick check of last month’s headlines turned up the following:
- In St. Paul, Minn., dozens of United Auto Workers Local 763 members were locked out of their jobs at a parts distribution center, in part because of disputes over health benefits.
- In northern California, roughly 3,000 UFCW members tentatively reached an agreement with Save Mart Supermarkets, but not before protracted negotiations that often centered on health insurance. Union members said that if it hadn’t been for the strike a year ago, they likely still would be without a new contract.
- In the northeast, approximately 1,000 turnpike workers who are Teamsters were on the verge of their first strike (in the unit’s 50-year history) because of stalled negotiations. Health coverage has been cited as the leading issue in the dispute.
- In New Jersey, 180 members of Teamsters Local 701 are striking against a waste management company because of proposed cuts in medical coverage.
- In New York City, 800 members of two Amalgamated Transit Union locals tentatively ended a 10-day walkout largely motivated by concerns about health benefits.
- In Philadelphia, an official from Transport Workers Union Local 234—which represents 5,000 members—has cautioned that contract negotiations which started in late January between the union and the region’s transit agency will be more difficult than those of 1998, when a 40-day strike occurred. Not surprisingly, health care coverage is a key subject in the current talks.
Keep in mind, that’s just a sampling from January. Similar cases involving other unions took place throughout 2004.
Meanwhile, the SIU and the Seafarers Plans continue to fight for affordable health care for SIU members and for all Americans. The union is involved in grassroots efforts through the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations as well as the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department. The SIU also is active in this fight through state labor federations and central labor councils.
Additionally, as previously reported, officials from the Seafarers Plans have met with other maritime union plans administrators a half-dozen times during the past 18 months. Collectively, the plans administrators are writing a joint report that is expected to include recommendations to the union presidents for combating the high costs of health care while continuing to provide good benefits. An outside professional will review the report before it is finalized.
“One intent of the meetings was simply to examine what other plans are doing to contain costs,” noted Bill Dennis, administrator of the Seafarers Plans. “In our own case, we have fought to maintain good coverage for Seafarers, in part by contracting with (respectively) Prescription Solutions and First Health Network. In the long run, the Plan expects both agreements to benefit participants as well as the Plan itself.
“We are committed to taking the steps needed to ensure that the Plan can continue providing adequate coverage in situations where SIU members and their families need health care,” Dennis concluded.
Further, both the SIU and the Seafarers Plans are examining the most efficient methods for collecting and reviewing membership input on medical coverage. This may include individual questionnaires that would be mailed to members’ homes as well as printed in the Seafarers LOG and posted on the union’s web site.
MTD Resolution on Health Care
Editor's note: The executive board of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department received the following resolution at its meetings last month.
When asked about the future, Americans invariably list health care as one of their main concerns. Little wonder. The United States spends more on it than any other country in the world, yet nearly 45 million of its citizens lack coverage. Absent some kind of meaningful government action, that figure is sure to rise even further over the next several years.
Health care costs have been outpacing the rate of inflation by a factor of five. Even those Americans now covered are not secure. A growing number of employers are seeking to shift more costs onto workers in the form of higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments. Some are even seeking to eliminate that coverage altogether. According to a recent study put out by the Center for Studying Health System Change, premiums for employer-sponsored coverage increased nearly 13 percent in 2002 alone.
Rising health care costs are only part of the problem. The refusal of companies like Wal-Mart to provide adequate coverage in sectors of the economy where coverage had been the norm is exacerbating the situation. As a result, emergency room visits form the sum and substance of whatever medical treatment many of their workers receive. As a practical matter, this means that state and federal governments have been effectively subsidizing companies like Wal-Mart to the tune of several thousand of dollars per worker. Companies that provide health care also must pick up the slack in the form of higher premiums. This must change. Legislation mandating Wal-Mart and companies like it to pay their fair share would help correct this problem.
In a sector of the economy beset by uncertainty, drug costs are a particular concern. The prescription drug benefit plan enacted by the 108th Congress needs to be reformed to allow the states and the federal government to buy supplies from safe Canada and the United Kingdom in order to cut costs. Moreover, the generous tax cuts doled out to HMOs should be reworked so that more money goes directly into benefits. The main problem with the bill was not its cost, but that so much money is being diverted into non-productive uses.
As the debate over last year’s prescription drug benefits clearly showed, working families and their doctors need to be put on an equal footing with big HMOs and powerful insurance companies. That is why organized labor continues to support the adoption of a Patients’ Bill of Rights. It would protect Americans in private health plans, allow health care consumers a voice, protect health care workers from retaliations from their employees and allow doctors to provide a full diagnosis.
Similarly, many experts have been pointing out that inadequate nurse staffing is jeopardizing quality patient care. More than anything else, it is driving experienced, committed professionals from the industry. Safe staffing can save lives. The AFL-CIO and many of its affiliates are trying to make sure that our hospitals are safer.
Finally, the AFL-CIO has issued a set of principles to ensure improved access to affordable, quality care. The Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO and its affiliates believe that they offer the hope for a better future:
- All Americans deserve quality health care and meaningful access to insurance.
- State-based bulk drug purchasing plans can help lower costs and help the uninsured buy prescriptions.
- Quality measures and assurance controls can improve health care, save lives and lower costs.
- All unions should bargain smarter for health care at work.
- The federal government should develop new incentives and rules to require all employers to pay their fair share of health care coverage.
- Congress should immediately pass a Patients’ Bill of Rights.
Statistically Speaking, the System's a Mess
A headline in Business Week earlier this year captured the state of American health care in just four words: “More Money, Less Care.”
While there arguably is no way to quantify the struggles of the 45 million United States citizens who have no medical insurance, nor those of millions of others who are under-insured, statistics tell a big part of this story.
Start with those 45 million uninsured individuals—and then add 6,000 more every day. That’s the current pace at which Americans are losing their coverage, which projects to more than 2 million people per year.
Behind those staggering figures are constantly increasing insurance costs. From the spring of 2003 to the spring of 2004, employer-sponsored health care premiums for a family of four jumped by more than 11 percent, to just under $10,000. That wasn’t an anomaly—it was the fourth straight year of double-digit cost increases.
Some of the results are predictable, with insurers foisting much of the increase on working families as well as retirees. Workers’ premiums have risen at least three times faster than earnings in the past four years. During that same span, Americans whose health-care costs are more than 25 percent of their annual income has jumped to 14 million.
Often, as noted in the headline, it’s a case of paying more for less. Credible estimates are forecasting that employees will see an increase of 14 percent in their share of their premiums this year, while their benefits will be reduced.
Since the year 2000, the overall expense of job-based health insurance has increased by nearly 60 percent, while the percentage of covered workers has dropped from 65 percent to 61 percent. Among those who still have coverage, only 24 percent don’t have to pay to carry single coverage. Even worse, only eight percent work for employers who pay the full cost of family coverage (meaning there’s no out-of-pocket cost to the worker simply to maintain the insurance benefit).
Retirees literally are paying the price, too. For those younger than 65 and still receiving benefits from their former employers, their premiums jumped by 25 percent last year. Roughly one in 10 businesses has stopped offering health care coverage to retirees, with more predicted to follow. That latter figure is much worse when considering only the nation’s 1,000 largest employers—less than a third of them offer health coverage to retirees. Some financial counselors believe that retiree benefits will be gone within a few decades.
Last month, a federal advisory board recommended a cut in Medicare payments promised to hospitals and a freeze in moneys pledged to home care agencies and nursing homes next year. Medicare covers more than 41 million elderly and disabled individuals. The program’s cost jumped by more than eight percent last year (to $300 billion) and is projected to grow by nearly one third from 2005-2007.
Nationwide, health care expenses account for 15 percent of America’s gross domestic product (GDP). By some estimates, if the current rate of increase doesn’t change for the better, health care could cripple the U.S. economy by taking up 28 percent of the GDP in 25 years and nearly 50 percent by the middle of the century.
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