BELCHERTOWN — With health care copay increases on the horizon in Belchertown, unions will go through a new negotiation process to disperse town savings among workers following a Select Board meeting in February.
The Select Board voted 3-1 to adopt a state law that establishes a Public Employee Committee (PEC) composed of members from each unit. Previously, the town negotiated with all of the unions individually.
The law has faced strong opposition from the Belchertown Education Association, which represents all school employees. Members attended the past two meetings alongside representatives from the Western MassEducator Action Network and held signs protesting the adoption of the law.
“This isn’t the way a conversation continues,” said Lawrence O’Brien, a teacher at Belchertown High School and president of the Belchertown Education Association. “This is a way to just force something.”
The same law also raised controversy in Easthampton, where as of last week the City Council’s finance committee was considering adopting the law. It has already been passed in South Hadley.
According to Belchertown Select Board chairman Nick O’Connor, “the benefits of adopting (the law) were obvious and evident to most members of the Select Board.”
Select Board Clerk Gail Gramarossa was the only board member to cast a dissenting vote at the Tuesday night meeting.
Health insurance copays are set to increase among Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust members in July regardless of the law’s passage, which O’Connor believes caused confusion among some dissenters.
If the town saves money from the rate increases, the law requires it must give 25 percent of the savings back to workers affected by the increase during the first year. The dispersion of these increases will be negotiated with the PEC.
O’Brien said last week that the town is not required to give back any savings after the first year, which he said will be more costly to employees in the long run. He added that he thinks the new negotiation process will not allow the unions to be heard as effectively.
O’Brien said that he is most concerned that the new negotiation process will impact the lowest paid workers and “the least healthy members who need to use (health insurance) the most.”
Gretchen Holesovsky, a retired paraprofessional and cancer survivor, fears that she will be among those heavily impacted due to her health.
“Being a cancer survivor, you’re always at the doctor’s,” Holesovsky said, “so that would really impact me and our finances.”
The law, which has been discussed for the past year, was originally slated to be voted on at a Feb. 11 Select Board meeting, but was tabled to give members more time to research the issue.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com
