Greater Dayton RTA, union to resume talks this week to avoid strike

Greater Dayton RTA executives and Amalgamated Transit Union officials will meet with a state mediator Tuesday for additional talks aimed at settling still-unresolved healthcare issues.

ATU Local 1385 represents more than 400 RTA drivers and mechanics. In December, union members elected financial secretary Gerald Duncan as the new local president. Duncan, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, succeeded Glenn Salyer.

MORE: With strike looming, RTA union changes leadership

ATU filed an intent to strike with the State Employment Relations Board in late December. The strike date was set for Jan. 1, though union officials said the contract signed with RTA in January 2017 required them to file the paperwork in order to maintain their ability to strike. Union officials then backed off the strike threat.

The contract approved in 2017 addressed the years 2015, 2016 and 2017. The benefits plan approved during the 2017 strike asked employees to pay 15 percent of the total cost of the health care plan defined by premium charges for years 2015 and 2016.

For 2017, the contract called for the employees to pay for a weekly rate based on the type of the medical coverage selected. A single employee paid $27.53 weekly for medical, prescription and dental coverage, or $88.21 per week for a family. Upon ratification of the agreement, RTA contributed to a Health Savings Account one-time lump sums ranging from $1,100 for a single employee up to $2,500 for family plan coverage.

The agreement additionally called for the development of a non-obligatory wellness incentive plan, with employees able to earn up to $600 in wellness benefits as cash or as a pretax contribution to a health savings plan or reimbursement account.

MORE: RTA union files intent to strike Jan. 1

In October, RTA proposed each full-time employee pay 20 percent of the total cost of the health care plan. A memo obtained by the newspaper using Ohio’s public records law confirms the offer was still on the table as of Dec. 6. This month, RTA CEO Mark Donaghy declined to tell the newspaper whether the offer was still active.

Under the October proposal, employees actively enrolled in RTA’s wellness incentive plan and meet its requirements would pay 10 percent of the total cost of the health care plan if fully insured, or the premium equivalent rate defined each year by RTA if self-funded for a single, one plus one, or family contract.

“We have encouraged non-union employees who have taken advantage of this opportunity to direct those savings, pre-tax into their Health Savings Accounts and would highly recommend that represented employees do the same if adopted,” Donaghy wrote ATU leadership in the Dec. 6 memo.

Salyer, in emails obtained by the newspaper under Ohio’s records law, told Donaghy in December: “We hope we can renew our heath benefits as provided last year, as you know this was the reason for the strike and will be the reason now.”

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