Nunez Sweetens Deal for Unions
SACRAMENTO -- As Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez sought the
endorsement of two major labor unions for his plan to
overhaul healthcare in the state, he added several
provisions to the legislation sweetening the deal for union
members, including millions of dollars for better benefits
and worker training.
The changes came soon after the unions donated more than $1
million combined to an initiative sponsored by Nunez that
would extend numerous lawmakers' terms, including his
own.
In the final version, unveiled only days before Monday's
vote, the unions received three years of increases in state
funding of health insurance for tens of thousands of
workers who provide in-home care for the elderly, blind and
disabled.
The legislation as approved gives unions unilateral
authority to create and operate trust funds to provide
employee healthcare, taking the power to negotiate away
from the county agencies that employ the workers. The
amendment was sought by the Service Employees International
Union.
"We weren't aware of it until Monday afternoon," said Paul
McIntosh, executive director of the California State Assn.
of Counties. "It appears that we don't have an opportunity
to express our concerns. One of the questions we have, that
we're still analyzing, is whether this would drive up the
cost of that insurance."
He said the benefit increase for home care workers -- which
would reach 75 cents an hour in the third year -- could be
significant because the workers are on duty tens of
millions of hours a year.
Another perk the unions negotiated allocates $25 million a
year for a "Workforce Development Program Fund" that would
provide retraining for their members employed at county
hospitals and clinics.
Nunez's spokesman, Steve Maviglio, said the speaker made
multiple changes to the bill in the final days for many
groups.
"We worked with hundreds of stakeholders, including
organized labor," Maviglio said.
"There was a flurry of activity," he said. "That's part of
compromise -- give and take -- and that's exactly what
happened. Nobody walked away from the table 100%
happy."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the other main architect of the
$14-billion deal to extend healthcare to most Californians
starting in 2010, went along with the changes that Nu?ez
(D-Los Angeles) made on the unions' behalf.
Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger's spokesman, said "the
governor and the speaker gave some ground in this
negotiation, and the governor is pleased with the final
product."
The plan, whose fate in the state Senate is still murky,
also requires that voters approve a companion initiative to
finance it. The governor and speaker plan to place that
measure on the November ballot.
The support of SEIU and the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees will be essential to the
plan's backers in that fight. And the unions were crucial
for Nunez to sway all the Democratic lawmakers in the
Assembly to vote for Nunez's plan. With a number of unions
and other groups opposed, lawmakers would have feared
political repercussions without some of their traditional
campaign supporters backing them.
At the same time they were pushing for changes to the bill,
the unions were also providing big donations to Nunez's
initiative campaign to change the state's term limits law.
The American Federation has given $610,633, most of it last
month, and SEIU has given $1.1 million, half of it last
week.
Andy Stern, the head of SEIU, marked the bill's passage
Monday in the Assembly by flying in from Washington for a
news conference with Nu?ez and Schwarzenegger.
"We were waiting for the payoff to show up," said Jerry
Flanagan, healthcare policy director for the Foundation for
Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica-based
nonprofit that believes the Nunez plan will be too
expensive for some consumers. "It's really remarkable, in
terms of the express aiming of this money toward two
particular unions."
But Jeanine Meyer Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the SEIU
California State Council, said her union's support for the
bill was not based on horse-trading.
"We have been working on healthcare reform really, really
hard all year long," she said. "And there is this
perception that suddenly all these amendments happen and
then we're on board, which is just wrong."
Willie L. Pelote Sr., the assistant director for political
action for the federation in Sacramento, said that others
negotiated the recent changes and that he was not aware of
them.
The new language boosting health benefits for in-home care
workers would add an immediate 25 cents an hour to the
state's current 60-cent hourly reimbursement rate. That
increase would rise to 50 cents an hour in the second year
and 75 cents in the third year if state revenues increased
by a 5% benchmark.
Beth Capell, a lobbyist for SEIU, said the union made no
apologies for pushing to increase benefits for the workers,
who, she added, often make little more than minimum
wage.
"SEIU is committed to getting low-wage workers we represent
health benefits," she said.
The union represents county hospital workers in every
California county where there is one except San Mateo and
Contra Costa counties, which are represented by the
American Federation, Capell said.
She also said trust funds have been used by unions to
provide health insurance for years.
But McIntosh of the California counties association said
that in some areas "there's been some contention
specifically with SEIU over a trust-funded health plan
versus alternatives" that counties would prefer to provide
on their own. He said his group would take up the issue in
the Senate.
"It appears that the amendment restricts the counties'
negotiating ability when it comes to healthcare," McIntosh
said.
As for the workforce development program, Capell said it
was based on a pilot project in Los Angeles County, where
hospital workers have to be trained in new jobs as public
hospitals take on an increased role in providing care for
the uninsured. She said most federal money goes to train
new workers, hence the need for more money for existing
hospital employees.
"When you reorganize big institutions like county
hospitals, people have to be moved around and they need to
be retrained," Capell said.
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