In the Oct. 30 edition of the Hicksville News was a letter from the Union representing the employees at the Hicksville Library, commenting on a previous article covering the current contract negotiations, under the caption “Setting the Record Straight”. The letter does anything but do that, but instead misstates the status of contract negotiations.
The library board has offered a fair contract to the Union members. It calls for salary increases for every employee in the bargaining unit. The proposal also calls for those employees with health insurance to begin paying a small amount toward the cost.
The letter claims that some employees would wind up losing money under this proposal. This is simply a false statement. The wage increase for even the lowest-paid employees with health coverage will more than cover the health insurance contribution in every year of the agreement.
The board’s proposal calls for phasing in health insurance contributions. The contribution will start at 2% of the district’s costs, and will not reach 10% until 2018, when employees will have received four years’ worth of annual wage increases. To quote the unnamed author of the Union’s letter, “do the math”, but please do it correctly. No one will lose money.
These contributions are reasonable by any stretch of the imagination. How many members of the reading public are only contributing 2 percent, 5 percent or even 10 percent of the cost of their health insurance? Most contribute far more.
The union is requesting that wage increases be retroactive for over two years, but with no mention of the health insurance costs during that period. Indeed, the union has dragged its feet in negotiating with the Board simply to avoid the day when its members join the rest of the world and share in the costs of the healthcare system. The union acknowledges that most of its members have continued to receive “step” increases previously agreed to by the board, but ignores the fiscal effect of these increases. The union seems heedless of the tax burden on Hicksville residents, as well as the tax cap imposed by the state.
It is unfortunate that the union seeks to negotiate its contract in public by making false, incomplete and misleading statements.
Board of Trustees of the Hicksville Public Library
