UC Increases Employees’ Health Care Costs Up to 70%

UC Increases Employees’ Health Care Costs Up to 70%

Employee Health Care Costs Increase Up to 70%

Part of UC’s 10 Year Planned Pay Cuts for Benefits

UC’s long term plan is to shift benefits costs to workers. If UC succeeds in completing its planned pay cuts for pensions and health care thousands of workers will be driven deeper into poverty, forced into homelessness or to take their families off health care. Here is one worker’s story.

“Hello, my name is Leonor Orozco and I’m a single mother with 4 children. I am a custodian making $9.47 an hour. I am worried about UC plans to shift increasing costs of health care and pensions onto workers, I am struggling to make ends meet as it is.

Just recently, my daughter had to go to the doctor for an eye infection. I knew that the co-pay was $15 and the prescription was $35 – so, I didn’t take her to the doctor because I couldn’t afford it.

I rent a studio apartment in Santa Ana for $800 a month for my four kids and myself. I qualify for food stamps but even with that help, it is not enough. As UC increases our costs, I will be forced to make hard decisions like feeding my kids or going to the doctor when they are sick.”

Leonor’s monthly Health Net premium will increase by 68% in 2007. If UC gets its way, Leonor would be forced to spend 32% of her paycheck on benefits in 2014/2015.

Other Low wage workers who cover their entire families with Health Net will be paying 168% more than 2 years ago.

In fact, UC’s planned 2007 health care increases include an average of 38% increases to employees and only an 8% increase for UC.

In the past, UC unions did not bargain over health care, since UC management used to consider covering the cost of benefits part of their responsibility as an employer. Now, several UC unions are demanding the right to bargain over health care for the first time, and will do that bargaining with the support of our sister unions.

This means we will have a right to say, “NO pay cuts for benefits”, and we will have to organize a strong, successful fight. As we enter into pension and contract negotiations, your union’s organizing committee will be talking to you about taking action against pay cuts for benefits.