All day today, Tuesday, March 8 at the State House, there will be a public hearing on whether or not health insurance will continue to be a subject of collective bargaining in Massachusetts.
Public employee groups from around the state have been meeting regularly in an alliance that seeks to retain collective bargaining rights for their members’ health insurance. Last Thursday, city of Boston unions representing close to 90% of the city’s employees met with the city seeking to find mutual ground in settling the issue of health insurance.
What is important to us is threefold:
reining in skyrocketing healthcare costs;
creating the fairest system of spreading out those costs; and
maintaining the right to collectively bargain over co-pays, deductibles, and premiums.