State Universities Annuitants Association
A Brief Note to All University Members
December 3, 2009
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to the ASFCME website dated December 1, 2009:

Arbitrator rejects grievance over retiree dental contributions

AFSCME has received Arbitrator Gibbons’ decision concerning the State’s unilateral imposition of an $11.00 per month retiree contribution for dental insurance.  Unfortunately, Arbitrator Gibbons found in favor of the State. 

The arbitrator ignored the long history of the parties bargaining over retiree health insurance, and of arbitrators enforcing the agreed upon contractual provisions.  Instead the arbitrator focused on the question of whether the collective bargaining agreement’s grievance procedure allowed the Union to process grievances on behalf of retirees. 

The union presented evidence that the parties had bargained over retiree health and dental insurance since 1985, and had included language concerning retirees in successive collective bargaining agreements.  Prior arbitration decisions have supported the union’s right to enforce provisions related to retirees through the grievance procedure and, ultimately, through arbitration.

In spite of what the union’s attorneys believe is clear language allowing the union to enforce the contract through arbitration on behalf of retirees, Arbitrator Gibbons ruled that because retirees are not employees and therefore not members of a bargaining unit, “the grievance arbitration process is foreclosed to them and instead retirees and their survivors must consider other appropriate venues if they wish to challenge the Employer’s actions in regard to their negotiated benefits contained in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.”

AFSCME’s attorneys believe that the arbitration decision is seriously flawed.  They are continuing to review both the decision itself and other legal precedents, and to assess what other legal options may be available.