Health care plan costs weighing on Hartford public works employees

A labor agreement that’s saved Hartford about $4 million, helping the city avoid bankruptcy, is proving too costly for some workers, they told the city council this week.

Health insurance premiums have more than doubled for many of Hartford’s public works employees under a contract ratified in 2018 by their union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 4, Local 1716. Several sanitation workers, mechanics and drivers brought their frustrations to the council Tuesday night, where they voiced support for an ordinance to increase their wages through bonuses, hazardous duty pay or a new contract.

The labor agreement started shifting workers into a high-deductible health care plan last summer, while still offering them the option of purchasing a more expensive preferred provider plan through 2021. While similar to givebacks approved by each of the city’s municipal unions, these health care changes have hit particularly hard in public works, where average pay is lower, members say.

Kent Stevens, a sanitation worker, wanted to keep his PPO plan, which covers his four children. Now his premiums have increased from $86 per week to $215, creating a hardship for his family, he told council members Tuesday. Recently, Stevens’ son dropped out of college because he can no longer support tuition costs.

“I can’t live off my pay,” Stevens said. “I can’t even buy groceries. We have guys come in, starting work and look at their paycheck, and they leave cause it’s not enough.”

Samuel Echevarria, a diesel technician who’s worked for public works for two years, said he’s frustrated to work feet away from fire department mechanics who have cleaner conditions, lighter equipment and higher pay.

The garbage trucks are infested with maggots and rats, he said, and “you can’t stop the garbage juice dripping on you” because the vehicles are old, with rotted frames.

“We work much harder for the simple reason that our dump trucks are in very bad condition,” Echevarria said.

Another worker, Purcell Hall, Jr., said he’s tired of public works employees being asked to work just a little bit harder to make up for understaffing and budget cuts across the city. A Hartford native, Hall is one of at least 10 sanitation workers requesting a transfer to a less strenuous division where he’d face less risk of illness or injury. He’s also working a second job detailing cars at an auto shop.

“We’ve been giving our hardest since day one,” Hall told the council. “We deserve something. This is not a job to us, sir, this is a career, so while we’re taking that serious, we need other people to take us a little bit serious too.”

Local 1716, which represents about 400 city workers, agreed to health care changes last year as part of an agreement that brought 2% raises in 2018 and 2019 and a wage freeze in 2020. Wages were also flat for several years prior.

The union previously rejected a similar contract, but union leaders at the time counseled members to vote ‘Yes,’ saying in a memo, “Given the terrible state of Hartford’s finances, and the fact that AFSCME Local 1716 is the only city unit without a settlement, the odds of prevailing on our last best offers would be extremely difficult.”

At the time, Hartford was staring down a $14 million budget shortfall and a $65 million deficit in the coming year. To avoid filing for bankruptcy, Mayor Luke Bronin sought, and won, similar givebacks from each municipal union, including new policies for retiree health insurance and sick leave accrual.

Following arbitration, the union ratified the plan by a margin of more than 92%, saving the city about $4 million, Bronin said.

In a statement at the time, then-union President Robert Swain acknowledged that members “made big sacrifices to help Hartford move forward."

He and other Local 1716 leaders were voted out earlier this year.

Council members Larry Deutsch, rJo Winch, Wildaliz Bermudez and Moise Laurent argue that take-home wages have fallen in public works “more than in any other department.” In an ordinance introduced Tuesday, they propose transferring funds to public works from other departments where there are vacant positions.

The proposal was referred to the committee on operations, budget, management and government accountability.

Rebecca Lurye can be reached at rlurye@courant.com.

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