Unions representing thousands of Walt Disney World employees called on the company Tuesday to help workers put the brakes on soaring health-care costs.þþA letter signed by the six unions and sent to Walt Disney World President Al Weiss urges Disney to take steps to help workers save money, such as by creating a pharmacy on Disney property to dispense generic drugs at no cost to employees.þþIt also asks the company to freeze the co-payments that employees must fork over when they use their medical, dental or vision coverage.þþJoe Condo, president of the Service Trades Council, the umbrella group for the unions, said Disney's recent reports of rising profit and rebounding tourism bode well for the company's future. But he said the good news is ÿovershadowed by the daily crisisÿ that many Disney employees face as health-care cost increases outstrip their pay raises.þþIn the letter to Weiss, Condo said Disney has pinched workers with ÿhidden taxesÿ in the form of higher co-payments and reduced benefits in recent years that have ÿeroded the valueÿ of the company's once vaunted health-care plans. Unions representing an estimated 22,000 workers -- about 40 percent of Walt Disney World employment -- negotiated a three-year contract with Disney that was narrowly approved by workers last November.þþWorkers first rejected the contract but then ratified it on a second vote. A number of workers and union leaders said they had little choice because a strike was a poor option. Starting wages of $6.70 an hour go up 10 cents a year to $7 under the new contract, but in return, employees face higher health-care premiums.þþDisney representative Jacquee Polak said the company was surprised that the union coalition is raising the health-care cost issue now, three months after the contract was approved. The union said at the time that the new contract was fair, Polak said, ÿand we plan to honor the contract.ÿ It expires April 28, 2007.þþDisney specialists as well as outside experts had studied the union proposal regarding the on-site pharmacy and found that it would have cost both the company and employees more money, Polak said.þþMorty Miller, president of Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 362, one of six Disney unions in the trades council, said Disney would not be changing the contract if it froze insurance-rate increases or added the on-site pharmacy. ÿThey have the ability to do this,ÿ he said.þþDisney employees said Tuesday they need help with their insurance and prescription-drug bills. ÿThe company can afford to take on the costs. But we can't,ÿ said Mike Ganley, 50, a bellman at the Disney Yacht and Beach Club and a 13-year Disney employee. He earns $3 an hour plus tips.þþGanley and his wife, Judith Blumberg-Ganley, 51, who works in housekeeping at Disney's Grand Floridian hotel, said they each pay $9 a week for the basic HMO plan -- more than double the $4 they paid under the old plan -- and pay hundreds of dollars more each month for prescriptions.þþÿI only have one kidneyÿ and take a number of medicines, Blumberg-Ganley said. ÿOur insurance costs keep going up.ÿþþPartly to rein in rising costs at the corporate level, Disney has been increasing the percentage of part-time workers at Walt Disney World Resort. About 30 percent of Disney World's 53,800 employees work part time -- nearly double the percentage of a decade ago. Disney's part-time employees are not eligible for health-care insurance, saving the company millions of dollars annually.þþCondo said the company could save millions more if it would work with the unions to establish the same kind of ÿfree-genericÿ pharmacy that the culinary workers union has in Las Vegas and other cities.þþUnions pitched the idea of a Disney employee-only pharmacy during contact negotiations last summer. The concept did not win approval, but union representatives are hoping that it might be possible to adopt the program, as a money saver for both the company and employees, in between contract talks. Sav-RX Prescription Services, a managed-care prescription service company, operates the program for culinary union employees in Las Vegas and elsewhere.þþIn the presentation last year, union representatives said the lower overhead and efficiency of an employee-only pharmacy, featuring free generic drugs that are paid for by insurance, could save Walt Disney World $1.04 million a year and save employees more than $706,000.þþBecky Cherney, executive director of the Florida Health Care Coalition, whose members include Disney and other major companies looking to rein in costs, said ÿfree-genericÿ programs generally charge much higher prices for brand drugs. ÿThat's the hitch,ÿ she said.þ
Source: Chicago Tribune
