CLEVELAND, July 21 — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) recently won a major arbitration award on the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, which caps members’ health and welfare contributions while maintaining the same level of coverage.
In the award, handed down in Public Law Board No. 7093, Arbitrator Jacalyn J. Zimmerman determined that the carrier improperly increased BLET members’ health and welfare contributions for a period of more than one year. She capped the contributions at $146 per month and ordered the carrier to refund all charges over that amount to each member. The refunded payments coupled with future savings will put several thousand dollars back into the pockets of each BLET member at Grand Trunk.
“This victory has not only greatly reduced our financial health care obligations while still maintaining the same health care coverage, it will also have the effect of greatly enhancing the paycheck power of our upcoming general wage increase of 3 percent which is due on August 1 of this year,” said General Chairman John Karakian.
In ruling in BLET’s favor, Arbitrator Zimmerman determined that the carrier improperly applied a Harris COLA formula to calculate increases in health and welfare payments made by BLET members. The BLET-GTW contract required a COLA increase as a prerequisite to any increase in the monthly employee contribution to health and welfare. In other words, health and welfare increases for BLET members were tied directly to cost of living increases only.
The problem arose when the Carrier stopped paying COLA increases after January 1, 2007, but continued to increase member health and welfare payments after that time. The BLET successfully argued that health and welfare increases were invalid because the members failed to receive COLAs.
According to the arbitrator’s decision, “The unique documented evidence presented by the Organization, in this Arbitrator’s view, lends credence to the position of the Organization. The record establishes that this is the only Local Organization to advance a claim that a Carrier was not entitled to raise the employee contributions absent an increase in COLA.”
General Chairman Karakian thanked BLET First Vice President Paul T. Sorrow for all his hard work during the Public Law Board and during contract negotiations for the 2003 and 2006 GTW agreements.
“We always knew that we had the unique evidence and what it took to lift up the ropes and step into the ring of the main event and overcome all odds into the awaiting hands of a big BLET victory in regard to putting a big financial stop to the rising health care expenditures continually flowing from the wallets and paychecks of our Locomotive Engineers,” Brother Karakian said. “And that””s exactly what we did.”
Every month, each member on Grand Trunk pays about $146 for health and welfare costs. Throughout 2007, the Carrier improperly increased that rate to more than $166 per member. The Arbitration Award caps membership contributions at $146 and refunds all money paid over that amount, which will add up to a several hundred dollars per member. The Award also caps the contributions at $146 until January 1, 2011, or until a new price is established in a new National Agreement.
Vice President Sorrow said it was a pleasure to assist such a hard working and determined General Chairman as John Karakian. Sorrow also said it was necessary to step up and defend the membership in light of ever-increasing health and welfare costs.
“As we are always being reminded from the constant information coming to us from over the airwaves and elsewhere, in 2007 total national health care expenditures rose at the fastest rate in history at 6.9 percent — two times the rate of inflation,” Sorrow said. “Total health care spending was $2 trillion in 2007, or $6,700 per person. Total health care spending has reached a whopping 16 percent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is expected to account for $1 of every $5 spent in the United States in the next 10 years.
“Faced with this situation, we were greatly motivated to step into the ring with the sole purpose of putting a halt to, and reducing, this rising financial health care burden which was weighing heavily upon the paycheck shoulders of our hard working GTW Locomotive Engineers,” Sorrow said.