Public Worker Health Care

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one of a wave of freshman Republicans occupying state capitols across the country, required little provocation to drop his Massachusetts counterpart’s name during a Tuesday appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. In fact, he seemed to relish it. “Deval Patrick has done, in some ways, more radical things than I’ve done in Ohio,” Kasich said, as he described his efforts to stabilize his state’s budget, in part by curbing collective bargaining rights for public employees.

Quincy officials announced this week that city workers have agreed to a six-year extension of their health care plan, with employees now contributing 15 percent, up from 10 percent, of the cost of their premiums. City workers first entered into the Group Insurance Commission with the city three years ago, a process that as saved the city $35 million thus far, city officials said.

Under pressure from national union leaders, Governor Deval Patrick reached an agreement with the House and Senate yesterday to soften a bill to limit collective bargaining rights for teachers, firefighters, and other local government workers.

Gov. Deval Patrick on Sunday offered light praise for a proposal on his desk to limit collective bargaining over municipal health care benefits, but said he had not decided whether to approve it. “It has come a long way toward what I want. I think there are a couple parts of it I want to look at a little bit more closely before I make a final decision,” Patrick said during an appearance on “Face the Nation” with Bob Schieffer.

Members of a labor coalition said today that they are disappointed with the municipal health insurance plan crafted by the budget conference committee and will be seeking changes to protect retirees and people who are very sick while preserving a meaningful voice for employees in the negotiating process.

Boston University economics professor, David Weil, opines that recent Senate bill is Massachusetts better than eviscerating collective bargaining.

Throughout the debate on how to handle the impact of rising health insurance costs on all our budgets - governments, businesses and working families - unions have eagerly sought to be part of the solution to keep police on the streets, fire fighters at the ready, teachers in our classrooms, and parks, sanitation and others keeping our communities clean and functioning well in these tough times. We have said all along that achieving savings and collective bargaining rights are not mutually exclusive. While certainly not perfect, this Senate proposal is fair and goes a long way to proving that point. Collective bargaining over the quality of health insurance and mitigating increased out-of-pocket costs for the very sick and retirees on fixed incomes will allow municipalities to save $100 million. That $100 million in savings and the substantial cost shifting inherent in all agreements are sacrifices we are willing to make in tough times, whereas collective bargaining rights are not. In the final analysis we hope the Conference Committee, Governor, and the legislature will build on this fair proposal and choose to deliver savings through collective bargaining.

State union leaders met with Senate President Therese Murray this afternoon as they prepare for a crucial debate over a measure that strips some bargaining rights for firefighters, teachers, and other local government workers. Tim Sullivan, a spokesman for the state AFL-CIO, said no specific deals were reached, but the meeting was part of a larger strategy to preserve some form of bargaining over health insurance and to protect sick and elderly workers and retirees.

Massachusetts labor leaders have given up their full-throated battle to protect certain collective bargaining rights amid an increasing likelihood that the Legislature will empower local governments to raise the health insurance costs of teachers, firefighters, and other municipal employees.