Clarification appended.
As the Department of Facilities Management's labor contract approaches its Oct. 12 expiration date, negotiations for the next contract are moving forward smoothly.
The University and Facilities Management workers made "progress" yesterday in resolving "big ticket issues" such as health care costs and wage increases for workers, said Karen McAninch '74, business agent for the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island, a union that represents Facilities Management. Other issues — whether workers will staff University buildings off campus and the number of available health providers — are still under review.
As the University expands its presence in the Jewelry District and beyond, the question of whether Facilities Management employees will staff off-campus properties has increased in importance.
Yesterday's meetings focused on a potential 3 percent increase in health care premiums and a wage increase ranging from 1.75 to 4 percent per year for the contract's duration.
In the initial stages of negotiations, the University proposed an immediate increase in employee health care contributions from 10 to 13 percent of the premium and a wage increase of 1.75 percent per year. The union counter-proposed that health care costs not increase from their current rate and that wages increase 4 percent per year.
Yesterday, the University revised its proposal to a gradual health care premium increase of 1 percent per year until 2014, when the contract will expire again.
McAninch said that health care costs increased at the last contract negotiation in 2006, but generous wage increases offset those costs.
"We took a pretty big hit last time," she said. "We'd just like to stay at 10 percent and have our wage increases be fair and modest on top of that."
Because the University switched to self-insurance in 2008, health care costs are not fixed by insurance providers, Karen Davis, vice president for human resources, told The Herald Sept. 19. Instead, the University hires consultants to analyze the employee population and estimate costs for the year, she said.
To calculate the cost for an individual employee, the University divides its estimated costs by the number of employees covered and multiplies this result by a percentage that varies by income and position at the University, McAninch said.
For non-union staff members and faculty, this percentage varies on a sliding scaled based on income. For unionized staff members, the percentage is fixed by contract. Currently, workers pay 10 percent of their calculated individual cost to the University.
The Facilities Management workers' contract is the last University labor contract that guarantees a choice of health care provider. If the new contract does not include such a guarantee, the University could limit all staff to a single health care provider. Doing so could reduce the University's overall health care costs, by allowing it to obtain a bulk discount.
Negotiations will continue next week and are scheduled to be finalized by the contract's expiration date.
An earlier version of this article referred to the contract under negotiation as a "three-year contract." The length of the contract was in fact a point of negotiation, and has since been set at five years.
