BTF Rejects Williams' New Health Plan
Posted on: Thursday, 18 August 2005, 09:00 CDT
Buffalo School Superintendent James A. Williams offered a new plan Monday to break the deadlock over employee health insurance and guaranteed to duplicate coverage if district unions drop legal challenges to the new policy.
Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore rejected the offer immediately, saying the union previously agreed to a district proposal with fewer strings attached.
Williams' plan includes these elements:
Evaluation of the district's single carrier plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York -- slated to take effect Sept. 1 -- by a "neutral third-party expert." That consolidated plan is designed to save the district $10.2 million this school year and still provide identical coverage.
Establishment of a health insurance task force, composed of district and union representatives, which would "immediately correct any discrepancies in duplication of coverages if any are identified by the third-party expert." Employees would not be required to pay any portion of the health insurance premiums.
Five district unions would drop all legal challenges to the health insurance consolidation, and 114 laid-off teachers and assistant principals would be called back to work.
Williams also delivered to the BTF a voluminous comparison of three existing health plans and the consolidated Blue Cross plan, saying that document should satisfy a BTF demand for more detailed information.
In rejecting the proposal, Rumore said the district offered just last week to call the teachers and administrators back if the unions took part in the third-party evaluation and the insurance task force. That earlier offer, he said, did not require the unions to drop their legal challenges.
Rumore said that the BTF is willing to work toward a single carrier but that the district chose Blue Cross Blue Shield over Independent Health or Univera without union consent.
"They're still trying to shove their choice down our throats," Rumore said.
e-mail: psimon@buffnews.com
Source: Buffalo News
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