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Union happenings
New leadership at benefits plan

"Our goal is always to do the best job possible of preserving and protecting our benefits." — Willie Chang, Administrator, DC 37 Health and Security Plan

New leadership at benefits plan Veteran staffers Willie Chang and Audrey Browne have been named to the top two positions in the DC 37 Health & Security Plan, which provides members and retirees with an array of union-won benefits ranging from prescription drugs to pension counseling.

The H&S Board of Trustees recently appointed Chang as the administrator and Browne as associate administrator.

Chang, a graduate of New York State University at Stony Brook with a degree in applied mathematics and statistics, joined the plan in 1994 after working as an underwriter in the health-care sector.

At DC 37, he started out as the director for the plan's health and pension unit, a responsibility that included overseeing the unionrun health-care plan, Med Team. He later became senior director of health planning.

As administrator, he will continue serving as the chair of the health subcommittee of the Municipal Labor Committee, which represents city unions for health-care and other benefits

In the MLC position, he in effect serves as a watchdog over the city's more than $6 billion annual spending on the health care of its 500,000 employees and retirees.

He uncovered the city's failure to fund more than $100 million under an agreement between the MLC and the city. The MLC won an arbitration against the city to recover those funds.

Last year, he was involved in discussions about $3.4 billion in health-care savings that opened the way for the union to conclude wage negotiations, which had stalled during the administraion of Mayor Bill de Blasio's predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg.

"We have a great challenge ahead as we continue to face the rising costs of prescription drugs," Chang said. "Our goal is always to do the best job possible of preserving and protecting our benefits."

"Our goal is always to do the best job possible of preserving and protecting our benefits."

Browne, a graduate of the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, joined the DC 37 Legal Dept. in 1983. Her work included handling a $100 million successful case against the New York Police Dept. for allowing Police Officers to do the work of DC 37 clerical workers. She also was involved in a gender- and racebased wage discrimination case that resulted in $7.5 million in
back pay for civilian employees at the NYPD.

In late 2003, she joined the DC 37 Health & Security Plan as the director of regulatory compliance and contract procurement. She later became counsel of the DC 37 Benefits Fund Trust, the DC 37 Health and Security Plan Trust and the DC 37 Education Fund Trust - and she will continue to serve in that role.

Browne's responsibilities have included working on major classaction lawsuits against the pharmaceutical industry, negotiating contracts with prescription benefit providers and other benefit vendors, as well as writing and reviewing legislation aimed at protecting health-care benefits.

— Gregory N. Heires