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From: LuAnn Claps
Date: 10 Dec 2004
Time: 20:27:54 -0700
Remote Name: 68.174.154.172
This insurance change is alarming for so many reasons, but having it presented to us just 3 weeks before the end of the year is truly disturbing! What were they waiting for? While I do understand that the dynamics involved in developing a decent group health care coverage (particularly for people who work on a freelance basis) must be exceptionally difficult, especially considering the state of the health care fiasco that we are facing in this country. I’m just wondering if there was another way to protect our reserves. Like increasing employer contributions, for instance. The current rates are: Majors, $4.48 per hour, TV, 11% of the daily salary and the East Coast Council rates vary with each individual contract. (I scribbled those rates down in a hurry last night, I’m sorry I didn’t get the Broadway rate) In our President’s recent note to us in the feedback section of this website she stated: “Also, the business of our local is not to turn a profit. It is to enforce contracts, organize and otherwise serve the membership” Wouldn’t the membership be better served if the trustees had waited to make this change until after the Major’s contract was negotiated? (I don’t know when the TV and Broadway contract is up for renewal, but our president said that the next Majors contract negotiation is in March). Wouldn’t a raise in contributions be helpful, at least to the point of being able to put this decision off for another year? In that case the members would have a proper amount of time to prepare for the change! The insurance rep stated, if we continued with the current status of eligibility rules, we were in danger of bankrupting the reserves in (roughly) 2 years time. Why can’t we take a year to try an alternative method before resorting to these drastic measures? Why not use the financial status of the Welfare fund as motivation for a stronger fight at those negotiations? I’m sure our “trustees” would argue that when you get something, you ultimately have to give something away in return. In other words . . . the threat of losing turn around, meal penalties, etc. What are we willing to give up in return for reasonable insurance coverage for us all? Can’t we be involved to some degree in these decisions? Does anyone know when the last raise in employer contributions took place? I don’t know, I’m asking. What I do know is that it would serve the entire membership to think about the people that we are sending in to do our negotiating for us. This is where we absolutely can be involved. Are they really looking out for our best interests? I myself am guilty of having been uninformed about how this (or any) union is run, what my rights are and how important it is to know all the facts. Not anymore. The events surrounding the business of our Local in the past few months has certainly gotten my attention. Hopefully it has with the rest of the general membership. I don’t claim to know what is truth and what is not, but I do believe that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I’m concerned and I want to make the correct decisions this time, when the election comes around. In addition, it’s a bit shocking the way some of us have been speaking to each other on this site and at the meetings. Yes, this is a situation to be passionate about, but I think that some level of decorum and respectability would serve in making us all feel better about ourselves at the end of the day. My best wishes for a peaceful and happy holiday season, LuAnn Claps.