Local 617’s family medical
coverage
The Local 617 contract provides excellent medical
and dental coverage for the employee, the spouse and dependents. The
employer pays the entire cost with a contribution of $6.20 per hour
worked. During 2005, the worker may choose between two HMOs—Kaiser
and PacifiCare, or the PacifiCare POS. All of these plans provide
excellent coverage and are accompanied by Delta Dental insurance and
vision care benefits. Dependents are covered through age 23 with
Kaiser or through age 18 (or 24 if they are full-time college
students) with the other two plans.
If a nonunion contractor offers health insurance at
all, it is usually only for the employee; the cost for dependent
coverage comes from the wage. By contrast, the health insurance
under the union plan is a more substantial benefit. Since the
contribution is $6.20 per hour, a month’s benefit costs the
contractor $992.00 ($6.20 × 160 hours). Especially for a worker with
a family, this benefit alone, besides all else the union has to
offer, may well be reason enough leave the nonunion sector.
When coverage starts
A worker’s account is kept by hours worked rather
than by the amount of the contractor’s contribution. A charge of 125
hours is made for a month’s coverage (or 145 hours for the
PacifiCare POS). If one works 160 hours in a month, the extra 35
hours are placed in an hour bank, which may accumulate a maximum of
1200 hours (ten months of eligibility).
Initial coverage starts at the beginning of the
second month after the month when 600 hours of credit are
accumulated. Usually, one is covered starting with the sixth month
after starting work for a union contractor. The coverage continues
until there are less than 125 hours in the account. Since twelve
months of coverage cost 1500 hours, working a full year of 2000
hours leaves a reserve of 500 hours, enough for four months of
coverage. One can have time off and still have employer paid
coverage for the entire family.
Practically no nonunion contractor who offers this
benefit pays for your first 90 days of employment. This is money
that stays in his pocket while you do without insurance. Although
coverage doesn’t start immediately when you first join the union,
the contractor pays from the first hour of work. In fact, working
four weeks in each of three months (12 weeks × 40 hours = 480 hours)
provides insurance for four months, not three. And compared to the
typical nonunion lesser cost plan, this is higher quality coverage
for the entire family, and not just the worker.
Apprentices from beginning through the 75% pay
period and those working with less than full journeyman status are
covered under a different plan where hours aren’t banked but
coverage starts immediately when hired.
Further details on the health plans are available
from the union office.
