Newton mayor mum on push to limit collective bargaining

July 10, 2011|By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff

I believe in the process of collective bargaining . . . in achieving the savings…

While three Newton legislators have gone on record as supporting a controversial proposal to strip municipal unions of some of their bargaining rights, Mayor Setti Warren praised the merits of negotiation when he signed contracts with two of the city’s largest unions this month.

Warren won’t comment on whether he supports the measure, contained in the state budget, which would give cities and towns some power to change employee health insurance coverage without union approval.

But the first-term mayor did offer his opinion on collective bargaining.

“I believe in the process of collective bargaining and I always have in achieving the savings that we need,’’ Warren, a candidate for US Senate, said in a phone interview last week.

The three-year contracts with the Newton Municipal Employees Association and Newton Police Association will save the city more than $1 million in health care costs, according to the mayor’s office. Warren said the agreements accomplish a key goal of his - to bring expenses in line with revenue.

Newton’s chief financial officer, Maureen Lemieux, said the city will save just as much over the life of the two contracts as it would have by joining the Group Insurance Commission, which insures state workers and employees from 20 cities and towns, including Brookline, Millis, Watertown, and Weston.

Dolores Mitchell, executive director of the commission, said the specific savings would depend on the community.

“By and large the GIC has been able to, year in and year out, over the last decade or so to have lower premium rate increases than the municipalities,’’ she said.

The ability to join the Group Insurance Commission is at the center of the legislation limiting collective bargaining. Currently, municipalities must get 70 percent of union support to join the state’s health plan.

The new law, which was still being debated Friday on Beacon Hill, would make it much easier for cities and towns to steer their employees into the large, state-run insurance pool if they can’t come up with the same savings on their own.

Also, unions would no longer be able to veto higher copayments and deductibles.

The proposal has won the support of state Senator Cynthia Creem and state Representatives Ruth B. Balser and Kay Khan. Newly elected Representative John Lawn could not be reached for comment.

Balser, a Newton Democrat who ran against Warren for mayor, said supporting the limitation on collective bargaining was a difficult decision because of union opposition.

“My friends in the unions were not happy with that vote, and it was a tough vote because I’ve always been and continue to be a strong supporter of the rights and benefits of public employees,’’ she said in an interview last week.

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