After rallying outside, union retirees packed Monday’s Niagara Falls Water Board meeting to protest planned changes in their healthcare benefits.
The retired steelworkers and building trades members say the benefit changes violate the unions’ contracts with the water board. But Board Chairman Nicholas Forster told the protestors the change had nothing to do with actions taken by the members of the water board.
“This was an internal administrative action,” Forster said as the board meeting began. “It’s an inactionable item for the board. There will be no board action here.”
However, that disavowal did little to ease the anger of the retirees in the boardroom. Scott Jones, who worked 27 years for the board before retiring in 2017, said he first learned of the change, which is scheduled to take effect July 1, just six weeks ago.
“It has caused a lot of fear and anxiety among the retirees,” Jones told the water board members. “This was not voluntary. It’s been forced on us.”
Jone also said retirees are concerned that future changes could further modify their benefits.
“We expect you to respect our collective bargaining agreements that we retired under,” Jones said.
Tim Huether, president of Steelworkers Local 914, which represents many of the affected retirees, said the union is currently negotiating a new contract with the water board and asked, “Why should we be negotiating with you?” in light of the retiree healthcare dispute.
“They don’t want your new plan,” Huether said. “They want what they negotiated. Honor these contracts.”
The current contracts between the water board and its unions expired on May 31. The steelworkers’ union has reportedly filed a grievance over the healthcare changes.
A briefing paper prepared for board members, and obtained by the Gazette, insists that the action taken on healthcare benefits is “consistent with applicable union contracts. Those contracts reportedly “call for the Niagara Falls Water Board to provide medical benefits supplemental to Medicare when the retiree reaches age 65.”
That requirement also reportedly applies to non-union retirees when they reach age 65.
The change will impact 130 retirees and surviving spouses and appears to involve the movement of retirees from an active health insurance plan to a Medicare Advantage plan.
Union representatives were not immediately available to discuss their assessment of the impact of the insurance coverage changes, though a retiree at the board meeting indicated a new requirement for the pre-approval of some medical care would be included.