CONTACT: Nat Bender, 908-377-0393
Community outreach emphasizing quality education leads to health insurance cost decreases
EDISON…Faculty and staff bargaining units at Raritan Valley Community are announcing a new four-year contract with two percent raises per year and significant decreases in health insurance costs in two of the four years, according to Donna Gero, Laboratory Assistant at RVCC and negotiations chair for the staff bargaining team.
Gero prepares biology labs at the school and has worked at RVCC for 28 years. “The increasing costs of health insurance has been a primary problem for workers,” she said. The new contract reduces health insurance costs and establishes college-funded health reimbursement accounts (HRAs), which can be used to pay for certain medical expenses, such as deductibles and other qualified out-of-pocket expenses.
In order to raise awareness of the issue on campus, faculty members organized rallies calling on the school’s Trustees to bargain a fair contract and were joined by vocal students and alumni, according to faculty union President Maria DeFilippis. “We reminded our Board of Trustees that RVCC faculty are ‘Educated, Dedicated and Effective’ and that we deserve to be respected and fairly compensated for the work we do. While we did not get everything we wanted in this contract, the two-year reduction in health care contributions to ‘tier three’ levels, along with the establishment of employer-funded HRAs for all, offers significant relief to our members.”
Both units were working under contracts that expired last July so the new deals cover the period between July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2019. In years three and four of the contracts, the employee contribution to health insurance is significantly lower than the ‘tier four’ highest rates set in 2011 by statewide legislation for public workers. That legislation sunset last year, making is possible to negotiate lower costs.
Union members ratified both contracts and the school’s Trustees approved the settlements at June and late August meetings.
[END]
The Raritan Valley Community College Staff Federation-AFT represents approximately 75 staff members on campus. The Raritan Valley Community College Faculty Federation-AFT represents approximately 200 full and part-time faculty members.