Caterpillar Union, Florida Unions Fight Plans That Would Affect Health Care
The contract proposal from Caterpillar would have a number of changes for workers, including requirements that they pay more for health care. In Florida, unions are seeking to stop a plan to save money by privatizing health care for prison inmates.
The Wall Street Journal: Union Urges Caterpillar Rebuff
Union leaders at a Caterpillar Inc. plant here say they will urge striking workers to reject a slightly revised contract offer from the maker of construction and mining equipment. ... The basic pay and benefit elements of the Caterpillar offer are unchanged. The six-year contract would allow Caterpillar to freeze wages for workers hired before May 2005. For those hired since then, the company could adjust wages based on its assessment of the labor market. Workers would pay more for health insurance and transition from a defined-benefit pension plan to a standard 401(k) retirement-savings program. Caterpillar would have more flexibility to require workers to switch to different shifts (Hagerty, 5/29).
Miami Herald: Unions Sue To Stop Prison Health Care Privatization Plan
(Florida) Gov. Rick Scott's administration was back in a familiar place Tuesday, the courtroom, where two unions are challenging a plan to save money by privatizing health care to the state's 100,000 inmates. The state has already hired two out-of-state firms to do the work at a minimum cost savings of 7 percent a year. But the Florida Nurses Association and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) say the privatization plan is unconstitutional and want Circuit Judge Kevin Carroll to block its implementation (Bousquet, 5/29).