2013
Recently a regular reader of this blog accused me of being anti-union based on what I have written about public unions. That is not true, I have great respect for union leaders who are responsible and take the time and effort to understand their members issues and the issues related to the employer of their members. I negotiated labor agreements for over thirty-years with over a half-dozen different unions including during acquisitions. Today I consult for a union. What I object to is irresponsible unions that seek only “more” without consideration of the consequences while using their political leverage to advance their agendas to the long-term detriment of their members and the taxpayers who pay the bills.
We have all heard the stories of the union issues in New Jersey, Chicago, Detroit and more; issues that put these entities on the brink of bankruptcy. New York is next up and has been avoiding the issue for years. Today, the candidates for Mayor talk about grand plans for a single payer health system, taxing the rich to pay for more childcare, building new housing and generally “working for the middle class.” They don’t speak much about the real issues or where all the money will come from.
Look at some of the issues related to unions. Is it too much to pay 10% of their health insurance premium? What employees of any organization have free health benefits, especially in retirement with payment of Medicare supplemental coverage included? How would a responsible union leader allow a contract to expire and remain unsettled for six years? A more responsible approach to these issues may have allowed for wage increases years ago.
What voters should be asking is how the candidates will resolve these problems and how they will be paid for. They may (will) learn the middle-class is not immune to the adverse consequences and this can’t be paid for by raising taxes on the rich.
Excerpt from WSJ 9-3-13 Mr. Bloomberg’s union offer didn’t include retroactive raises and would have provided future pay increases of just over 1% a year. He also wanted workers to pay 10% of the cost of their health plans for individual coverage and 20% for family coverage…
Currently, 95% of city employees pay nothing for basic health plans—a rarity even among public employees…
Still, New York faces wide gaps in other budgetary areas. The city’s actuaries estimate that the city’s promise of free health insurance for certain retirees and their dependents—including the payment of supplemental Medicare premiums—will cost more than $85 billion to cover current employees and those already retired…
Mr. Nespoli said workers want to help the city find health-care savings, but they don’t want to contribute to premiums. He said, for example, the unions would be willing to help the city negotiate savings from vendors of services like health insurance. But unions recently sued to stop a Bloomberg administration attempt to shop for a new provider for the city’s $6 billion health plan…
++++++++++++++++
NYT 9-3-13 But doom can happen, especially when unrealistic promises meet dismal facts like these: a $2 billion gap in the city’s $70 billion budget; huge and steadily growing pension obligations and health care costs for city workers; middling economic growth; the unexpected and continuous costs of disasters like Hurricane Sandy. One burden is the contracts covering 300,000 workers in nearly every municipal union. Mayor Michael Bloomberg let them all expire years ago, and they have not been renegotiated. The unions haven’t had raises in recent years, and they are expecting the next mayor to hand over nearly $8 billion in retroactive pay. That is more than the city’s annual operating budgets for police, fire and corrections combined.
Related articles
- Public Unions Fight New York’s Effort to Curb Health Costs – NYTimes.com (quinnscommentary.com)
- Detroit Looks to Health Law to Ease Costs – NYTimes.com (quinnscommentary.com)
- “We Are All Going to Pension Hell” (quinnscommentary.com)
- More evidence on why we can’t solve health care cost issues and more (quinnscommentary.com)
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 