With management nationwide slashing benefits and imposing steeper co-payments on employees, DC 37 faces a challenging bargaining climate.

“Our goal will be to ensure that we have enough resources to preserve our benefits,” said Rosaria R. Esperon, administrator of the DC 37 Health and Safety Plan.

As the union prepared to bargain on a new economic agreement, Ms. Esperon briefed union activists about the plan’s financial situation Nov. 25 at a meeting of the Bargaining Caucus.

While many members believe their benefits come from union dues, Ms. Esperon explained that the city provides the funding directly to the Health and Security Plan for union benefits and to the insurers for employees’ health and hospitalization coverage. The union won both of these benefit programs through long strikes in the 1960s.

Formally, the Municipal Labor Committee, an umbrella group of city unions, negotiates with the city over benefits. But as a practical matter, wages and benefits ultimately come from the same pot of money, and benefit issues are an important part of the bargaining for economic agreements.

According to Ms. Esperon, DC 37 will need a substantial increase per covered member over the next two years to maintain its current level of benefits, which include prescription drug, dental, eyeglass and other health benefits, as well as legal services and education benefits.

At the meeting, Ms. Esperon presented an historical overview of benefits bargaining. Ms. Esperon explained that under a 1983-85 agreement between municipal unions and the city, health-care funding is based upon what the city pays for individuals covered by the HIP HMO Plan. Right now, the HIP rate for an individual is $221.30 and $542.14 per family per month.

Because of the divergence of the costs of the several health-care plans offered by the city, municipal unions and the city set up a Stabilization Fund under a 1985-87 agreement, Ms. Esperon said.

The agreement requires the city to contribute $35 million each year to the Stabilization Fund, which is generally used to provide additional funding to the Blue Cross Blue Shield GHI/CBP plan if the base rate is higher than the HIP rate, Ms. Esperon said.

In 2001, the MLC negotiated a historic benefits package that:

• expanded mental health and substance abuse coverage and increased fees for GHI providers;
• put extra funds into the costly Prescription Drug Benefit;
• provided rate increases and lump sum payments to the union fund;
• gave the city financial relief from some contributions to the Stabilization Fund, and
• shifted coverage of psychotropic drugs from union drug plans to the city.

The city hasn’t yet submitted bargaining demands to the union. But the Bloomberg administration has floated the idea of requiring all city employees to contribute to health-care premiums.

During discussion at the caucus, members urged the union to protect their benefits in the negotiations.

— GNH