Glenville union leader and Koetzle at odds over health insurance
At least one union leader was surprised by Glenville’s hope to reach health insurance concessions by the approaching Nov. 3 deadline.
During the Glenville Town Board meeting Wednesday, Oct. 6, Roger Harrison, president of Glenville’s CSEA unit, said it is not true that the town is trying negotiate health insurance with unions despite what Town Supervisor Christopher Koetzle has said publicly.
The Town of Glenville CSEA unit chooses not to negotiate in public, said Harrison. `Unfortunately, not everyone feels that way.`
Until mid-day Wednesday, Oct. 6, he said CSEA hadn’t heard anything since they met with town officials six months ago. At that meeting, CSEA was told the town needed more time to work out the details and would contact them again. On Oct. 6, Harrison said CSEA headquarters received a fax from the town to establish a time to negotiate.
`Contrary to what the Town Board was told, CSEA never made a statement that we were interested to negotiate,` said Harrison. `An all-out effort has been made by the town to create a public perception for the need for health-care revisions within the budget.`
Harrison said the town is trying to pressure unions into reach a deal.
`We will not be bullied,` said Harrison. `An agreement can only be reached by face-to-face negotiations.`
Koetzle openly disagreed with statements made by Harrison and said he would not participate in a discussion of who did or said what over the past nine months regarding health insurance negotiations.
`I do have a log, however, of all the negotiation timelines here, and if you want to sit and go over who did what, when, how and where, we can do that,` said Koetzle. `That is not my intent, I am only focused on the future.`
Harrison also said the town now wants to do a `flurry` of negotiations to reach a health insurance agreement, which he said doesn’t allow the CESA enough time to evaluate the proposals.
`It would be short-sighted of the CSEA to settle for anything less than a firm contract,` said Harrison. `We all understand that these are difficult times; this situation didn’t develop overnight. If the town was sincere in its efforts to reach an agreement, they would have initiated action long before today.`
Koetzle contended efforts were made to reach a negotiation with unions, and Harrison’s statements didn’t accurately portray those efforts.
`To say the comments made tonight were disingenuous is an understatement, but we will move on,` said Koetzle.
Glenville’s tentative budget totals $11.7 million with a residential tax increase of 3.8 percent. Koetzle previously said this equal a $20 increase for the average resident within the town and just over $4 for the average resident outside the town.
`If anyone has picked up a newspaper at all for the past six months, they will see what is going on around our area,` said Koetzle. `This budget is one of the least painful in the area, and we worked pretty hard to get there.`
Koetzle said health insurance costs are increasing by 15 percent for next year. Also, he said in order for the three town unions to receive pay raises, they will need to make health insurance concessions.
Koetzle said it should have been clear what concessions would be needed for the budget because of public statements made by him over the past months.
`Anybody who was surprised by the actions in this budget either was not paying attention or did not care,` said Koetzle.
After media reports about his call for union health-care concessions, Koetzle said he received a call from Michael Seburn, president of the Town of Glenville Highway Department Association. Koetzle said Seburn was the only union leader who contacted him.
Seburn said the town has set a meeting date with the highway union for Oct. 21 to discuss options, but he added that it is difficult for everyone to be able to meet face-to-face.
`My biggest upset is we are in the 22nd month of an expired contract, and it is very hard to get timeslots in the town to discuss this stuff,` said Seburn. `We waited probably a good six months before we actually got to sit down and have a meeting.`
One of the concessions Koetzle has called for is raising the health insurance co-pay by $5, which he said would reduce premiums for the town.
Seburn said that solution is not as simple as it sounds.
`If the co-pay increases, I am not sure what that will do to the premiums,` said Seburn. `If there is cost of changing the co-pay I am sure there is something else that will be getting changed with it.`
On top of being tightly staffed, Seburn said highway department employees haven’t received a raise since July 2008.
`I understand that times are tough and money is tight. The general public also needs to know that we are down to 21 employees in the department, and we used to have 24 years ago,` said Seburn. `The town has grown in more miles of road, and that means more work for us. We are doing more with less; it is a tough time for everybody.`
On Tuesday, Oct. 12, Seburn said he received an e-mail over the weekend that information regarding health insurance is at Town Hall, but he said he hadn’t had time to pick it up.
William Marchewka, president of the Glenville Police Benevolent Association, said he would not `comment publicly at this time while PBA/Town contract negotiations are ongoing.`
The Town Board will hold a public hearing for the budget during their meting on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m. and the board will vote on the budget during its meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m.“