WDET News
- Teachers and Administration Battle Over Insurance
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Oct 7, 2008General - Link to Audio
Contract talks are scheduled to resume mid morning. In the meantime…teachers at Wayne-Westland continue to walk the picket line and students remain at home. The teachers and their union want smaller class sizes. But like their colleagues around the state who are also working without a contract…healthcare is also proving to be major issue. The district wants to move away from insurance administered by the Michigan Educational Special Services Association or MESSA. They want teachers to use Blue Cross Blue Shield’s PPO plan…the same program offered to administrators. But Mellissa Sortman says based on the information the district has provided… that will cost teachers and the district more. She’s a spokesperson for the Wayne -Westland chapter of the Michigan Education Association or MEA.
“The information that they have shared of what the premiums are and what their paying for the administrators…the MESSA product that the teachers are proposing is 130 dollars per employee per month cheaper.”
MESSA has historical ties to the MEA…the state’s largest teachers union. That troubles people like Paul Kersey. He’s the Director of Labor Policy at the Mackinac Center…a conservative think tank based in Midland. Hersey says school districts can actually save money by dropping MESSA.
“The Waterford school district recently went to another program that they did…again it was Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance…same as MESSA provided ultimately…and they found savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars and they did like I said with a fairly generous Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan package.”
The Wayne-Westland dispute is being closely watched by educators around the state. There are teachers in several Southeastern Michigan districts…including Utica, Brighton, and Northville…that are currently working without a contract. I’m Noah Ovshinsky, WDET News.