The negotiating team (Tracy Arnold, Linda Goodpaster, Winnie Johnson, Kay Trochelman, Suzanne Schiml, and Rich Robinson) met today to discuss the library's latest offer. Their offer came in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). We agreed the offer was worthy of a vote by our membership, and this article is to describe the MOU.
Note: This MOU is not in place until it is signed by our team. We feel that the offer must be ratified, and although we do recommend it be approved, we will not sign it until it is ratified by a majority of votes cast, or an absolute majority of voting members, should that be reached before voting closes.
The MOU consists of three paragraphs.
The first paragraph is the one that ensures the traditional PPO plan will be available to those bargaining unit members, under the terms that have been described before, in articles like this one, and this one. In short, the first paragraph ensures that bargaining unit members will have an option in health insurance. Although it will come at a higher cost, some members may believe it's their best choice. If the MOU is voted down, this choice will not be available.
The MOU's second paragraph provides a valuable new benefit which is designed to offset some of the costs associated with high-deductible insurance plans (like HRAs). In our analysis of the HRA plan, we felt that supplemental insurance might be a good complement to any high-deductible plan. We coordinated with AFLAC to provide this benefit to DMLSA members, and took our plan to the negotiating table.
When negotiations had finished, the result was that the supplemental insurance program would be managed by the library, and not the Staff Association. The Library will contribute up to $25.00 per month toward the premiums for this benefit. For members who do are not interested in the supplemental insurance benefit, the same amount of money will be made available to reimburse members for qualified health-related expenses. Of course, if the MOU is not ratified, this benefit will not be offered to Staff Association members.
Even if you're not familiar with supplemental insurance, you've probably seen commercials for the largest company offering this service, AFLAC.
It is not a certainty that our benefit will be provided by AFLAC; that remains to be decided. The LMC is tasked with making recommendations on both the supplemental insurance benefit and on qualified health-related expenses for the alternate benefit.
The final paragraph of the MOU simply synchronizes the MOU with the lifecycle fo the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It acknowledges the simple concept that we'll be opening our whole contract for negotiations in April, May, and June.
Healthcare is changing as costs go up. We fully expected that within the next couple years, the traditional PPO plan would have to be de-emphasized. With our 31% increase in claims over the last benefit year, this year turned out to be the one where the PPO was relegated to the status of "alternative plan." Your negotiating team worked hard to make sure that the bargaining unit actually gained a benefit at the same time we had to shift away from the traditional PPO.
Now it's your turn to make sure we get something in the trade off. When you cast your vote, you have the choice. You can either reject the MOU, declining to offer the traditional PPO and rejecting the supplemental insurance benefit, or you can keep the PPO available and accept the supplemental insurance benefit. We hope you'll vote to accept the MOU and the supplemental benefit.
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