Menino targets health insurance (teachers, police, firefighters, and other city employees, retirees)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/11/11/menino_seeks_more_control_over_health_insurance_costs/

Wants more say on raising costs for employees

By Sean P. Murphy
Globe Staff / November 11, 2010

Mayor Thomas M. Menino vowed yesterday to go to Beacon Hill to fight for a state law that would allow the city of Boston to save millions of dollar on health care insurance.

Menino said he could save at least $12 million a year if he gained the authority to shift a larger share of the city’s insurance costs from taxpayers to teachers, police, firefighters, and other city employees, retirees, and elected officials.

State law blocks Menino and other municipal managers statewide from shifting costs unless the unions representing municipal employees agree, something most unions have been unwilling to do.

“Taxpayers are fed up,’’ Menino told a gathering of municipal managers at a breakfast forum sponsored by Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School. “They are crying out for help.’’

But union representatives promised continued resistance, saying the benefits they now enjoy were gained over decades of hard-fought bargaining.

“We should sit down and negotiate and not let the city dictate what kind of health care we have,’’ said Rich Paris, president of the Boston firefighters union. “We will work together to get the best we can for our members. This is something that has always been bargained, and it should continue to be bargained.’’

FULL story at link.