AFSCME 3800 members:

Notes from the last three sessions of contract negotiations (July 19, August 15, and August 18) are now posted on the AFSCME 3800 webpage (www.afscme3800.org). Also included are management's proposals for health insurance, which they gave on August 15. Their proposal includes significantly shifting costs to employees by raising the percentage paid by employees and raising copays. This proposal will increase the cost for employees by $10-12 million. The proposed cost-shift is not due to an increase in the cost of managing the health care plan. Instead, it is a plan to take $10-12 million from employees and put it in to the University's General Fund. When this idea was first raised at the University of Minnesota Benefits Advisory Committee, AFSCME soundly criticized the plan and stated in the BAC meeting that we categorically oppose shifting the budget burden on to the backs of employees. The Benefits Advisory Committee ended up recommending that the University not proceed with their cost shift proposal as well.

We were also informed that the University intends to shift to a single carrier for health insurance - Medica. HealthPartners will no longer be a provider. Those employees who want to continue seeing doctors in HealthPartners clinics will need to choose a higher priced plan, rather than Medica base plan, resulting in even higher costs. Management says this shift to one provider will save the University $14 million over six years. Rather than utilizing funds saved through switching to one provider, however, the U wants to keep the $14 million in savings AND take the $10-12 million more from raising the percentages paid by employees.

We were initially supposed to be presented with a Health Care proposal from the Administration on August 4th. Soon after the State Budget compromise was passed, we were told the meeting was being re-scheduled. Some of us speculated that perhaps the Administration, with the extra $27 million dollars it had received in the Higher Education bill over what it had budgeted, would reduce the increases in Health Care costs they proposed to pass on to employees.

That turned out to not be the case the case. Instead, the Administration has cynically decided to proceed with a Health Care proposal that eliminates HealthPartners as a provider, and shifts $10-12 million above and beyond the actual costs onto the shoulders of already burdened employees, all while proposing pay freezes. To see the Premium proposals, see the documents on our webpage.

We need to take action and let the Administration know that this is not just unacceptable, it's simply wrong!

Please e-mail President Eric Kaler, and cc Vice President of Human Resources Kathy Brown to express how wrong this is. Click below:

• pres@umn.edu
• brown059@umn.edu

OR if you have google mail or another web based email program, copy and paste the email addresses above and then copy and paste the following text into your web-based email.

Dear President Kaler:

As a clerical employee represented by AFSCME at the University of Minnesota, I welcome you as our new President. We look forward to seeing a change in direction at the U of M.

As you know, AFSCME is currently in negotiations with the University for a new contract. On Monday, August 15, administration representatives presented us with a health care plan that most of our members cannot afford

The Benefits Advisory Committee recently made a recommendation to not support the proposed cost shifting to the employees' health care plan. This "no" recommendation falls in line with long standing contract language agreed upon by AFSCME and the University.

While middle management have been protected from job loss, and are getting bonuses and merit raises, front line staff have suffered through a furlough and step freezes. We are once again being offered no raise, no step increases, and are being asked to pay more for our health and dental insurance, not because costs have risen, but simply so that $10 million can be shifted from us into the U's central funds.

For many of us and our families, increased costs in health care could mean the difference between having health insurance or choosing to cancel coverage we can no longer afford. In a recent AFSCME poll of clerical staff, half of the respondents said that they were already behind in paying rent or their mortgage. Another round of wage freezes and insurance increases will send many people into even greater crisis.

I am very disappointed in the way the former Administration proposed to burden the U's lowest-paid employees with an increase that amounts to over 33% rise in health care costs.

As the new president of this land grant university, you have the opportunity to change the direction this University has been going. Please do not balance the budget on the backs of the U's lowest paid staff.

Sincerely,