Confronting the Health Fund Crisis
The new Local 804 leadership team inherited a Health Fund in crisis. Before we even set foot in the door, we were told that the Health 
Fund would be nearly $5 million in the red by May of next year unless we took action.
UPS was demanding severe benefit cuts including increasing the cost of retiree healthcare to more than $1,100 a month. We were not going to let that happen.
The responsibility for this crisis lies squarely with the company and former union trustees who inherited a strong fund and ran it into the ground. In 2003, our Fund had more than $34 million in reserves. When we took office, the Fund had less than $4 million in assets.
We didn’t create the crisis in the Local 804 Health Fund. But we are determined to fix it.
- We published a Local 804 Health Fund Update so members know exactly where we stand. It’s your benefits and your money. You have the right to know.
- We hammered out a tough agreement that saves affordable healthcare and retiree healthcare for the membership—stopping cuts demanded by UPS.
- We strengthened the Fund’s finances for the future and got UPS to put 65¢ of our contractually negotiated benefit increases into the Health Fund starting Aug. 1, 2010.
The agreement with the company trustees includes some tough medicine—including higher co-pays, higher out-of-pocket expenses on out-of-network claims, and an increase in the cost of retiree healthcare.
We are also required to sit down with the company trustees this fall to negotiate a plan to build up six month’s reserves in the Fund by Dec. 31, 2015. Building up these reserves will not be easy.
Our contract expires in 2013. We all need to be ready to make UPS deliver the contribution increases we’ll need to protect our medical benefits and retiree healthcare
