You may have heard the Mayor or his spokesperson complaining that the health insurance cost of the police officers is too high for the taxpayers of Louisville Metro Government. I want to explain the facts and set the record straight once and for all.
As you know health insurance costs are a concern in America today. The FOP recognized that fact over 10 years ago and had specific language placed in the collective bargaining contract to protect the officers in this particular benefits area. In order to obtain that benefit the officers accepted a 3 % pay raise when others were getting 7 % pay raises. This saved the government a significant amount of money. It was a win for both sides in this agreement. Over the last decade the officers have accepted lower wage and benefit increases in order to maintain the health insurance benefit.
Then came merger and Mayor Abramson. At no time during the prior decade did any executive officer of the government attempt to circumvent the signed agreement as it relates to the healthcare due to the sacrifices in raises that were made by the officers. They knew very well that a contract was a contract. Mayor Abramson administration decided that the officers who serve and protect this community, who are already under-paid for the work that they do, should do it for even less, because cutting these two plans amounts to a pay cut for officers who currently have those plans. Without so much as a warning, a phone call, a letter, or an e-mail, Mayor Abramson dropped the two health insurance plans that had been negotiated and agreed to in contracts for at least the past 10 years.
The mayor has said that he believes he is following the contract. The Metro Council read the contract language below and agreed that the Mayor was wrong or on thin ice. Now you can be the judge:
ARTICLE 24
HEALTH INSURANCE
Section 1.
(A)Metro Government shall pay the premiums (except as limited by subsection B next below to Plan 400 or its AHDS equivalent) for individual, party and family hospital and medical coverage for any employee who elects to enroll in the ten (10) plans offered by the Metro Government.
(B)Any employee who elects to enroll in Humana Plan 400 or its AHDS equivalent regardless of type of coverage shall pay $10.00 per month in equal amounts per pay period through payroll deduction. The Metro Government shall pay the balance of the applicable premium in excess of the employee contribution.
(C)Health insurance coverage, if available, will continue to be provided unless the premium increases for the coverage exceed the highest annual percentage increase for health insurance that the Metro Government has incurred in the five (5) years preceding the effective date of this Agreement. In the event the coverage is no longer available or the premium increases exceed the percentage increase set forth above, either party may reopen this Agreement as to Article 24 only by giving the other party reasonable notice under the circumstances of the reopening. The parties shall mediate this sole issue, and if mediation proves unsuccessful, the parties shall submit this issue alone to a neutral arbitrator for his/her opinion. The parties further agree that the arbitrator opinion shall not impair the lawful authority of Louisville Metro Government to enter into contracts or determine the personnel policies of Louisville Metro Government.
Section 2.
Every Louisville Metro Police Officer covered by this Agreement shall be provided with the option to choose between hospital and medical insurance coverage provided for in Section 1.
ARTICLE 38
TERM
Section 1.
This Agreement having been submitted to the Metro Council for its adoption, and having been adopted, shall become effective as of July 1, 2003, and shall remain in effect up to and including June 30, 2004.
Should either party desire to terminate this Agreement or to alter any portion of any terms thereof, that party shall notify the other party in writing not less than sixty (60) days prior to June 30, 2003.
Section 2.
The Louisville Metro Government intends to continue the special employment benefit provisions (fringe benefits) of this Agreement upon expiration of this Agreement during the appendence of good faith negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. The Metro Government agrees that such benefits shall not be arbitrarily terminated.
Section 3.
No employees salary or fringe benefits shall be reduced, impaired or modified if the Department is merged, consolidated or otherwise combined with any other law enforcement agency.
Section 4.
Metro Government agrees to provide the Lodge written commitment to begin negotiations for a successor agreement as soon as possible after March 1, 2004.
Sections A and B of Article 24 very clearly lay out the two health insurance plans in debate: the Humana plan 400 or its AHDS equivalent (Anthem FOP Blue access).
Section C in Article 24 describes the process to deal with costs that escalate beyond a certain point. This process was not followed.
Article 38 says that benefits will not change during the life of the contract which expires June 30th 2004. Obviously the Mayor is attempting to violate that section also.
The men and women of the Metro Police Department work hard everyday protecting and serving the citizens of this community. You may remember a recent news media report of a LMPD officer arriving just in time to put himself in harms way to stop a suspect from executing two citizens after breaking into a house on Dixie hwy. This illustrates the job of laying one life on the line, and the risks involved and skills required to be a police officer in America's16th largest city. The pay for this profession we call law Enforcement is not very good. As a result, we negotiated the health insurance benefit that the officers receive.
This benefit was mutually agreed upon this past summer when the FOP negotiated a new contract with Metro Government, a contract wherein officers received NO pay raise. Mayor Abramson asked that all employees of Metro Government neither accept nor request a pay raise in 2003. The FOP went along with his request. The only increase we accepted was the pay parity adjustment which ensured that every police officer of equal time and rank get paid the same salary. It would have been unilaterally unfair to ask people to do the same job for less than someone else they work with. This contract also ensured that there would be no loss of existing benefits. Once again, officers accepted less in order to maintain their health insurance. Mayor Abramson wants to break that agreement.
How much money did Metro Government waste paying for a contract attorney, while trying to take money from Sheriff Aubrey's office when the language of the law on the issue of who collects taxes was very clear? How much money will Metro Government now waste while paying a contract attorney to try and circumvent very clear language in a agreed upon contract?
As you see, this disagreement is not about saving tax dollars (Metro Government has $61 million in cash reserves). This disagreement is about Metro Government keeping its word, honoring an agreement, and treating the employees who put their lives on the line everyday for the citizens of this community with dignity and respect. This is about a Mayor leading us into a new era of a responsive and efficient government through honorable and ethical conduct by keeping agreements and honoring contracts. The employees of Metro Government are the community most valuable assets. As a Government, the people those assets serve are our most precious commodity. The people that protect those citizens should feel comfortable in their employment benefits, and not be distracted by a government so focused on the dollar that it forgets it's purpose: The number one responsibility of government is the safety of its citizens.
David James
President
River City Fraternal Order of Police
6204 Price Lane Rd.
Louisville, Ky. 40229