No chance to change minds

Dear Editor,

In a letter to the Editor last week, Ray Hornung offered the current School Board President advice regarding negotiating the very expensive health insurance package enjoyed by the members of the Hudson School District Teacher’s Union, (as well as by all other employees of the District who have chosen to participate), while asking why the teacher’s union would care which insurance company is providing their health insurance, if their coverage stayed the same.

The answer to that question, to my understanding, is that the health insurance company providing the coverage is affiliated with, or owned by WEAC, the Teacher’s Union umbrella organization. That’s why, and the reason the School Board will have little luck changing to a less expensive insurance company is the fact that the contract agreement negotiated by the School Board with the teacher’s union back in

1971-1972 included specific language referring to a mutually agreed upon insurance carrier.

Since that time there have been some 23 renewals to the negotiated agreement, with this language, giving the teacher’s union full veto- power over any change in insurance carrier proposed by the School District, carrying over unchanged to each new contract agreement.

Evidently, no School Board since that time has been able to change the language negotiated in 1972-1972, and judging by the lack of sensitivity for the current economic realities evident in the teacher’s union contract settlement proposal, I am afraid there is little reason to believe that, for the bleeding real estate tax payers of the School District totally unacceptable situation, will change now, or ever.

Tags: hudson school district, health insurance, opinion, letters