December 22, 2023
Yesterday, we had a short bargaining session that was intended to be focused on negotiating our health insurance plan. It was a frustrating day, to say the least, so let’s start off with some good news first: our list of items on the table are quickly dwindling. Yesterday, we reached a Tentative Agreement on our Layoffs article. As always, you can review all of the full proposals & Tentative Agreements that were presented in the Bargaining Center. Read on below to hear more about healthcare negotiations:
We had high hopes for yesterday’s meeting with Admin, which was dedicated to discussing the benefit design of our health insurance plan. Our meeting was a continuation of every other healthcare bargaining session that we have had thus far, and reflected a consistent truth: Admin has continued to mismanage the process of finding the most affordable and comprehensive insurance plans, thereby prolonging bargaining and continuing to impact our health and well being.
As far back as last March, and throughout bargaining, ASEs have asked Admin to begin a process called a Request for Proposals (RFP). This process allows us to compare our current insurance carrier (United Healthcare) with other potential options. Our ASE bargaining team has placed significant emphasis on the importance of this process, because we know that ASEs have trouble finding providers under our current plan and because this process enables competitive bidding between carriers and allows us to explore possible cost saving options even while benefits improve.
We were disappointed to spend the meeting discussing fundamental questions that Admin did not bother to investigate in the months before this week’s meeting. For example, Cigna and Premera had issues providing a quote, but Admin and their insurance broker failed to follow up with those carriers. Admin also said that, despite having over a year, they had not yet discussed the option of switching from a student plan to an employee plan (which is what our ASE colleagues at UW have). In addition, Admin had not followed up on the one quote they did receive from Aetna, which needed clarification and additional information; it was unclear whether the quote that was provided is reflective of what ASEs have asked for (including $1,000 out-of-pocket maximum, improved mental health coverage, etc.) or just an apples-to-apples comparison to our current plan design.
It is a fundamental issue when Admin is not willing to do the bare minimum of following up on responses to their Request for Proposals. It is in our mutual benefit to have quotes from as many insurers as possible, making their lack of information all the more astonishing .
Many ASEs have reported issues accessing affordable healthcare. In the last plan year, 15 ASEs exceeded their out-of-pocket maximum costs of $7K for healthcare. In a unit where that much money often amounts to half of an ASE’s annual take home pay, this is completely unacceptable. We have reiterated to Admin the necessity of an improved network and benefit design in our contract. This needs to be done ASAP – we do not accept their continuous delaying and stalling. Months ago we were told we could complete negotiations on healthcare in November, and now we’re being told that we need to wait until January or February. We needed changes in our health plan 4 months ago, but Admins’ illegal actions in May already cost us the chance to negotiate health insurance coverage for the 2023-2024 plan year. We need to make it clear to them that we cannot wait, and that we will not tolerate more excuses that push this process past January.
We deserve better health coverage than what we are provided. If Admin are not able to deliver on their requirement to negotiate that coverage, we will strike on January 17th. Join a strike readiness committee or come to a bargaining session by signing up at this link.
In Solidarity,
WSU-CASE Bargaining Committee:
Acacia Patterson, Physics & Astronomy (Pullman)
Adam Bozman, Carson College of Business – Finance (Pullman)
Andre Diehl, Comparative Ethnic Studies (Pullman)
Arianna Gonzales, Psychology (Pullman)
Aurora Brinkman, Psychology (Pullman)
Chelsea Mitchell, School of the Environment (Puyallup Research and Extension Center)
Chia-Hui Chen, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (Spokane)
Claudia Skinner, School of Languages, Cultures, and Race (Pullman)
Cody Lauritsen, College of Veterinary Medicine (Pullman)
Dano Holt, School of the Environment (Pullman)
Evan Domsic, Crop and Soil Science (Mount Vernon NWREC)
Gavin Doyle, English (Pullman)
Hannah Cohen, Veterinary Clinical Sciences (Pullman)
Kartik Sreedhar, Physics & Astronomy (Pullman)
Kayla Spawton, Plant Pathology (Mount Vernon NWREC)
Kelsey King, School of Biological Sciences (Vancouver)
Miles Hopkins, School of the Environment (Pullman)
Miranda Zuniga-Kennedy, Clinical Psychology (Pullman)
Naseeha Cardwell, Chemical Engineering & Bioengineering (Pullman/Tri-Cities)
Natalie Yaw, Chemistry (Pullman)
Ninh Khuu, Plant Pathology (Prosser)
Peter Obi, Pharmaceutical Sciences (Spokane)
Raymond Bennett, Psychology (Pullman)
Rebecca Evans, Biology (Vancouver)
Shawn Domgaard, Communication (Pullman)
Tazin Rahman, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (Pullman)
Tholen Justin Blasko, Animal Sciences (Pullman)
Victor Moore, History (Pullman)
Victoria Oyanna, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (Spokane)
Whitney Shervey, Sociology (Pullman)
Yiran Guo, Mechanical and Materials Engineering (Pullman)