By making unilateral changes to 2023 premiums and refusing to uphold their legal obligation to bargain, the Monmouth University administration is violating specific language in the University’s collective labor agreement and failing to uphold their obligations under the National Labor Relations Act. Despite these violations, FAMCO remains committed to working with the administration in good faith to productively and efficiently resolve this dispute internally, as we are invested in a positive labor-management relationship. Our collective labor agreement must be honored, meaning the administration must negotiate the terms of faculty healthcare with the union. FAMCO has proposed two remedies to these violations, and if MU administrators choose to refuse our proposed remedies (below), FAMCO is prepared to use all appropriate avenues available to protect our collective labor agreement.

Where We Stand Now

The administration continues to refuse to negotiate healthcare plans and rates for 2023 and 2024 because they do not like FAMCO’s proposals.

Instead of negotiating healthcare, the administration unilaterally imposed premium changes for faculty for 2023, increasing premiums for many, and unilaterally decided the basis for projected increases in 2024.

In response, FAMCO offered two options to the administration to resolve this dispute and uphold the contract:

1. FAMCO proposed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that would a) freeze 2023 faculty healthcare monthly premiums for the EPO plan, b) hold stable the rates for the Direct Access plan in 2023 as listed in the November 2022 open enrollment period, and c) freeze the 2024 premiums at the 2023 rates outlined above.
2. FAMCO also filed a grievance against the administration for imposing 2023 rates for faculty that exceed the rates of administrators, and for the refusal to continue bargaining the terms of healthcare for 2023 and 2024 as required by our collective bargaining agreement. FAMCO is seeking the following two remedies in the grievance: a) a freeze of the 2023 premiums at the 2022 level, and b) the faculty and the administration return to the bargaining table to continue negotiating plans and rates for 2024.

FAMCO Grievance Meeting with President Leahy

January 9 (today), FAMCO met with President Leahy for Step 2 of the grievance process. In that meeting, President Leahy consistently indicated he understands FAMCO’s grievance and will think about the remedies we proposed. Also in that meeting, FAMCO repeatedly asserted our interest in resolving the matter productively and efficiently in an effort to maintain positive labor-management relations. FAMCO also asserted the importance of honoring our collective labor agreement which requires the administration to fully negotiate the terms of faculty healthcare with the union.

The University Can Afford FAMCO’s Remedies

For some perspective, the estimated total cost to the University to freeze faculty’s monthly healthcare premiums in 2023 would be less than $45,000. 

In all, costs of healthcare to the university have remained relatively modest over the past six years, while the costs to employees increase significantly, meaning that MU administration has essentially made a profit from faculty healthcare premiums for years.

On top of that, there is also no dispute that the University saved over $2,000,000 last year by moving to a self-insured model, and by making changes to our pharmacy benefits program, which was all done after thorough research and dogged insistence by FAMCO and their own industry-expert healthcare consultant.

Those substantial savings mean that faculty should be paying less, not more, for healthcare at Monmouth. The bottom line is, an employer shouldn’t be making a profit on faculty healthcare premiums. The savings should go back to the employees!