Joint Union-Company Committee Tackles Heath Insurance at Mills
The Joint Mill Health Care Committee, consisting of local union leaders, International union staff and company representatives, was established under the IP Mills global agreement. It met last month with a positive outcome. The premiums for our mill-employee only PPO plan will be reduce from $240.75 per month for family and $87.55 per month for single, to $219.60 and $79.87 respectively. This adds up to a total savings of $253.80 per family per year and $92.16 per individual per year.
At a time in history when health care insurance premiums are skyrocketing, this premium reduction is very good news and a good first step towards normalizing the premium split at 80% company, 20% worker. Normally, this only occurs if benefit levels are decreased, however, in this case, our benefit levels stay the same due to our global agreement. This represents continued movement towards 80/20 cost sharing for family health care coverage.
The Committee realizes there is more work to be done beyond reviewing claims, rating methodology and premiums. We committed to further work together to reduce costs to this PPO plan by exploring some innovate initiatives. The Committee will meet again in February and will continue to share information in the months between.
IP Agreement Paying Off
National paper bargaining started taking off in 2005 when just months after the PACE merger, top USW and International Paper officers met. Through these discussions and the persistence of members, we achieved a major breakthrough: Successorship for the mills that IP would be selling. This marked a big change in labor relations at IP where disputes and conflict had been the norm for years.
The successorship clause quickly paid off when IP sold its coated free sheet assets to private equity and other firms. Two of the sold mills in Sartell, Minn., and Bucksport, Maine, were purchased by a private equity firm now known as Verso Paper. By having successorship, the Verso mills were able to build on their contracts in 2007 bargaining and obtain a common expiration date, which strengthens workers’ bargaining power.
Ongoing discussions with IP also produced a landmark global agreement. It included immediate successorship for all the mills, and addressed economic and other job security issues for the company’s 14 USW-represented mills.
IP mill membership overwhelmingly ratified the agreement, which included a method of funding retiree health care benefits that was worth millions of dollars. Family health care insurance was secured, and the pension multiplier was increased to $50 in an industry where employers are demanding 401k plans instead of a guaranteed pension. The global agreement also allows for local contracts and bargaining to remain in place; no changes can be made to those local agreements without the approval of the locals’ membership.
“We did away with IP’s ability to adjust our insurance, and the global agreement also left us the autonomy to negotiate our contract on local items,” said Randy Burkett, an IP member at the Cantonment, Fla., mill. “Job security in today’s world is not easy to get. With the power of 14 union mills coordinating our bargaining with IP, we were able to secure our jobs.”
Converters Get Protection, Too
The IP discussions then proceeded to a global agreement covering over 30 IP converters—the largest agreement of its kind ever in the paper industry. Successorship was obtained; the
wage pattern was improved by 100%; the workers got the best pension multiplier in the converter sector; and the PPO active medical health care plan cannot be changed unless the union agrees to it. Local unions maintained their ability to negotiate local issues, and management will not be able to force changes to the contract without the local’s approval. As with the mills, the converter master agreement also restricts reduction in the converter work force to volunteers or attrition except during temporary layoffs or where partial or complete closures occur.
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