Two interconnected problems are becoming increasingly urgent as they go unresolved. Municipal employees—both current and retired—receive health insurance paid for by the city, and the unions representing these workers have shown reluctance to engage in negotiations that might prevent serious consequences. Those consequences are already materializing. The rapid escalation of city-funded health insurance costs, with no indication of slowing, has created an inescapable reality for every municipality in Massachusetts. Renegotiating health insurance benefit packages for city employees has become mandatory. Without such changes, city managers, mayors and town managers will find themselves unable to balance budgets or cover the expenses of employee health insurance. On Monday evening, city hall hosted a gathering of numerous concerned current and former city employees. Eight union leaders representing city employees attended a city council subcommittee hearing focused on health insurance. While concern was evident, there was little appetite for substantive change. In this situation, the unions are pursuing a strategy destined to fail. The financial capacity of cities and towns to absorb steep increases in health insurance premiums no longer exists. Those days have ended. The era in which municipalities covered the majority of employee health insurance costs is finished. Union leadership must grasp this reality—otherwise, they will fight to lose rather than negotiate to win. When unions refuse to negotiate downward from generous payment structures toward more modest premium reimbursements for municipal health insurance, everyone covered by these plans stands to suffer. Their insurance won’t disappear, but costs will climb dramatically, creating significant hardship for both active workers and retirees. The municipal employees who gathered at city hall Monday night had valid reasons for their deep concern. Circumstances have shifted fundamentally, and municipal employees must adapt accordingly. Unless municipal workers recognize this changed landscape and choose negotiation over resistance, their city-paid health insurance faces genuine jeopardy.
Nothing lasts forever
