CTA and three other employee unions have joined forces with four management organizations to develop statewide solutions to runaway health care costs.
"In this project, school management is showing a real commitment to helping us find a real solution," CTA President Barbara E. Kerr told participants at CTA's Rural Issues Conference in Las Vegas. "For the first time, it's not just tinkering around the edges and shifting costs to employees."
The labor participants, in addition to CTA, are the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), the California School Employees Association (CSEA) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Among them, they represent approximately 734,000 public school employees.
Joining them at the table are the California School Boards Association (CSBA), the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO), the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), and the School Employers Association (SEA).
The labor-management committee's key objective is to develop a statewide strategy for reducing health benefit costs in public schools, says CTA Board Member Bob Nichols, who's serving on the committee.
Health care costs have been rising at an alarming rate while revenue increases for the operation of school districts have been falling due to the economy. The result has been a crisis in negotiations between California school districts and the unions that represent their employees. Without a statewide solution, the districts and their unions have little or no power to solve the problem at the local level in any meaningful way.
The committee hopes to level the playing field between health insurers and providers and the major labor and management stakeholders in California schools. By sharing knowledge, expertise, research and interventions, they believe they can amass the clout necessary to negotiate fair and cost-effective agreements.