TALKING POLITICS Unfinished business: Pensions and contracts for state workers BY BRIAN C. JONES

Two of the most costly — and controversial — issues facing the Carcieri administration have yet to be resolved: new contracts for unionized state workers, and the future of the state employees’ pension program. According to union officials and the Carcieri administration, talks on both fronts are expected to resume, but just when remains a question.

On the pension front, a union-administration committee convened by Carcieri to discuss the spiraling costs of the pension system is expected to restart talks after stalling earlier this year. George H. Nee, secretary-treasurer of the state AFL-CIO, says that a startling $94 million increase in taxpayer contributions to the pension system — above the current $196 million state expense — prompts the reconvening of the panel. Carcieri spokesman Jeffrey Neal also says the group will get together again, predicting it’s likely to happen in mid-January.

Two years ago, Carcieri proposed that state workers and teachers increase the amount they put into pension system as a way of taking the burden off taxpayers, but the General Assembly disagreed and left worker levels the same. Meanwhile, negotiations that began last spring for new union contracts for state workers seem to have slowed down, although Neal and union leaders expect them to continue.

One of the key issues is Carcieri’s proposal that state workers pay a portion of their health insurance premiums — something he ordered in August for 1100 non-union workers, who received a two percent salary hike.

The state’s 16 unions are resisting premium "co-sharing." Nee says a complicating factor is that a contract to administer medical insurance, awarded to UnitedHealthcare of New England, has been stalled by a legal challenge from rival Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island. A state Supreme Court hearing on the dispute is scheduled January 18. One of the ramifications is how the unionized workers are now in their second year of going without a pay raise, operating under terms of expired contracts that provided no pay hikes in 2003, but with the state continuing to pay health insurance premiums.

Dennis Grilli, interim executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 94, which represents about 5000 state workers, says, "We’ve been negotiating since April, but basically concentrating on non-economic issues. We’ve come to some agreements on some of those issues."

Grilli says talks have fallen off mainly because of the holidays, and he expects them to resume in January, when the health-care contract issue might be clearer.

Typically, the state and the unions are both tight-lipped about negotiations, on the premise they are more likely to succeed if disagreements are played out at the bargaining table and not in the press.

But it’s clear that both sides are concerned. Members of one local of United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) representing 140 nurses at the state-run Zambarano Hospital in Burrillville and the Veterans Home in Bristol have started wearing protest stickers. Shaped like 10 Commandments tablets, the stickers say: "Governor Carcieri: honor thy workers." Rick Brooks, UNAP’s director, calls the signs "Our own way of lighting a little bit of a fire under the administration."

Meanwhile, the pension discussions run on a different track because they are set as part of state law for both union and non-union workers.

Nee, the labor chief, says only that the unions understand the financial size of the situation, which is why they are willing to restart the pension discussions.

As for the administration, Neal says, "The governor reached out to the unions to see if we can come up with a real solution that was acceptable to everyone, and that process has not concluded. But one way or another, the governor is going to have to deal with the pension issue. It’s far too large for anyone to ignore."

The state spends about $1.4 billion on employee salary, benefits and other personnel costs — a little less than a quarter of the total state budget.