Union Leader Letter: “The State Employee Health Plan Will Become Part of SustiNet”

Suspicions over healthcare changes in the Connecticut state employee concessions agreement negotiated with the Malloy administration appear to have originated from within the unions. In an April 14, 2011 letter from AFSCME Council 4 Executive Director Sal Luciano to Governor Dannel P. Malloy, the prominent union leader wrote, “The state employee health plan will become part of SustiNet, which some people call a ‘Cadillac plan,’ clearly a derogatory term to imply overly rich benefits.”

The two and a half page letter was included in a bundle of 15 missives to Malloy, sent to the governor by Juan Figeroa, President of the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, as negotiations were taking place, Daily Ructions has learned. SEBAC, the coalition of state employee unions that negotiated the concessions deal, was put on the back-foot early in the employee review and voting process by widespread membership concerns that changes in their healthcare benefits were putting them in the vanguard of a “social experiment” of universal healthcare that would jeopardize their future benefits.

When the concession deal was rejected last month, indignant union leaders blamed a furtive misinformation campaign form inside and outside their ranks.  Dissident union members who opposed the concessions were characterized as ignorant and paranoid. They now appear, however, to have been reasonable, preceptive, and, most dangerous, candid in voicing their concerns. The Malloy administration tried to steady union member nerves by rejecting SustiNet outright. Union leaders, however, did not join the Working Families and Democratic governor in turning on the sweeping healthcare program they have long championed.  Thousands of union members understood and voted to reject the concessions.

You can read the letter in this pdf: SustiNet Letter from Luciano to Malloy.