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BARGAINING UPDATE: BMWED/SMART-MD CONSULTANT, CHEIRON, PROVIDES NCCC
WITH HEALTHCARE PRESENTATION
The BMWED/SMART-MD National Bargaining Coalition's healthcare
consultant, Cheiron, provided the National Carriers Conference
Committee (NCCC) a presentation at the latest negotiation meeting
Tuesday, Dec. 1.

In it, Cheiron disproved the railroads' allegations that railroad
employee health and welfare benefits are far outside the "mainstream.,"
They showed that railroad employees (and their dependents) are not "bad
consumers" of healthcare benefits, and that further cost-shifting onto
railroad workers was neither the best nor the appropriate answer to the
railroads' alleged need to tamp down healthcare costs.

Indeed, Cheiron's presentation primarily demonstrated that railroad
workers health and welfare benefits are on par with other comparable
industry workers, that railroad workers and their dependents adequately
navigate a complicated health and welfare system despite a lack of
robust information available to them, that the railroads' dangerous
work environments contribute to the leading costs under the Plan, and
that the best ways to control such costs are to create a better
incentivized, more easily navigable health Plan.

Cheiron's presentation can be found at the link below. Cheiron also
reiterated that the railroads' total health care costs are a relatively
insignificant portion of their total costs. However, current health
care costs absorb a significant portion of rail worker income,
including the possibility of crippling costs in connection with a major
illness or injury. This is a legitimate and major concern for rail
workers.

Despite Cheiron's well-reasoned presentation, the NCCC provided the
BMWED/SMART-MD Coalition with a formal health and welfare proposal that
would effectively double railroad workers' annual out-of-pocket
healthcare expenses by year 2022, and substantially increase
out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for those railroad workers that are
fortunate enough to make it to retirement. The NCCC's health and
welfare proposal is disappointing and particularly tone-deaf to the
harsh, perilous work conditions railroad workers face daily (which has
increased during the pandemic), and the substantial value they deliver
to the railroads. The NCCC's health and welfare proposal can be found
at the link below...

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