Unions representing state and municipal workers are offering their own proposal to help cut the soaring cost of health care spending, which threatens the budgets of Massachusetts cities and towns, The Associated Press reports.
The coalition, including the Massachusetts Teachers Association and Massachusetts AFL-CIO, said the plan would save an estimated $120 million in the first year. The plan calls for half of the savings to go back to workers for health care.
In return for concessions such as higher co-pays, the union officials said they want to preserve collective bargaining rights, calling those rights “sacrosanct.”
“There is no false choice between savings on health insurance and collective bargaining,” said Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes. “You can achieve savings through collective bargaining.”
The three-year proposal includes some of the elements of a bill filed by Gov. Deval Patrick. A public hearing on Patrick’s bill is scheduled for Tuesday at the Statehouse.
The union proposal would establish health care cost benchmarks that both municipalities and unions would have to meet at the end of the bargaining process. If an agreement can’t be reached both sides would enter an expedited dispute-resolution process.
While there has been a push to force municipal workers into the state’s Group Insurance Commission to help rein in health spending, the union proposal would let municipalities and workers bargain either to enter the commission or make changes to existing health plans to lower costs as long as they meet the benchmark.
The unions are estimating savings of up to $120 million in the first year, with half of that going back to cover health care costs of workers.
Another key element of the union plan would be to allow all public unions in a city or town to negotiate as a single unit, a move seen as strengthening the hand of unions.
That measure appears at odds with a proposal by the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which represents cities and towns.
