We had our joint session with IBEW, MG&E and OPEIU Local 39 today. When the Company presented their health proposal on March 18th, they gave us two options: one was “some pay more” the other was “we all pay more.” The Company stated that their proposal was attempting to steer employees to the less expensive HMO plans.
Often times when there is a “some pay more” situation we find that we are shifting the additional cost to those who really need the care. After meeting with both bargaining teams it was decided that “all pay more” was the reasonable way for both Unions to go. When we presented our counter proposal today it included co-pays, deductibles, out of network services and prescription drug co-pays remaining the same. We proposed increasing the employees' contribution of premium from 10% to 11% as of January 2010. After providing our counter proposal to the Company they were quite surprised that we would agree to increase the employees' contribution to premium. They took a 2 ½ hour caucus to develop a counter proposal which included increasing employees premium contributions from 10% to 12% as of January 2010 and to 15% as of January 2012. They dropped several of their proposals to increase co-pays, deductibles, out of network services and prescription drug co-pays.
The Company provided us with a counter proposal on the Defined Contribution Pension plan for those hired since 1-1-2007 which includes an employer contribution of 6% and a match of 2% (employer match of 33.3% of pay to 6% of employee contributions) for a total employer contribution of 8%. It includes a 6% employee contribution with an auto enrollment of 4% with 1% step increase annually to a maximum of 6%. Both Unions feel this proposal is a significantly inferior benefit compared to our Defined Benefit Plans and other utility companies.
OPEIU and IBEW will be meeting Wednesday morning April 15th to develop counter proposals for the both the Pension and Health. We will be meeting jointly with the Company in the afternoon to present our counter proposals.