Dear fellow Oak Harbor employees,
This letter was written under the auspices of the Committee of Concerned Oak Harbor Employees, an informal group of union and non-union OHFL employees dedicated to countering the propaganda the Company is putting out.
Medical insurance is the hot topic these days. The Company is clearly intent on moving all of their employees into their own self-funded medical insurance plan, and to have all employees paying for a portion of the insurance premium, which is new even to the non-union employees. This is unacceptable for the unionized employees to consider. The Company plan has lower benefits levels than either of the current union plans. The Company plan has no provisions for retiree healthcare, nor are they interested in offering such an option. By converting to a Company plan, the unionized employees lose any hope of controlling their benefit levels, their cost allocations, or plan options.
On the retiree issue alone, the unionized employees cannot in good conscience even consider a Company plan. Our retirees count on us to help subsidize their healthcare, and to keep the cost reasonable in a time of rapidly rising healthcare expenses. If we turn our backs on them now, we turn our backs on ourselves, for one day we all hope to be retired with a sense of security where our pensions and healthcare is concerned.
We recognize that the Company wants to free up operating capital by converting all us to their plan. They can accomplish this because their plan is self-funded, which means that they only pay the claims as they are generated; rather than paying a flat monthly premium into a trust fund as they currently do in the case of their union employees. In any given month, probably only twenty percent of employees actually use their health benefits, which results in an immediate cost savings... for the Company.
However, they are not required to keep a trust fund of money set aside to pay these claims, and if they ran short of operating capital, they might not be able to pay the claims as they come, which means that you the employee would then be liable for the cost of the claim. There is a question about medical privacy. Since they are handed a bill every month, they would know which employees went to which doctors, and might even have knowledge about what procedures were undertaken. Do you necessarily want your employer knowing such details about your medical conditions?
The non-union side has little choice in their benefits, but the union side has the right to say no, and to back it up with the threat of a strike. Hopefully this will underscore to the non-union employees the value of joining a union and being able to negotiate with the Employer instead of being dictated to.
The Committee of Concerned Oak Harbor Employees