TUSD union wary of $700K payback (for an accounting error in health-care coverage)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/188655

Tucson Region
TUSD union wary of $700K payback
By George B. Sánchez
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.22.2007

Resistance is building to TUSD's plan to collect more than $700,000 from its employees for an accounting error in health-care coverage.

The president of the district's blue-collar union has sent Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer and TUSD's Governing Board members a brief e-mail demanding a clear, step-by-step explanation of the mistake as well as a list of how much money is owed by each employee and to what insurance provider.

"As you have no credibility left with blue-collar employees, we are reluctant to take your word for it that we owe you anything," wrote Bruce Slabaugh, president of AFSCME Local 449, which represents 450 Tucson Unified School District employees. "Any attempt to deduct or garnish wages from blue-collar employees without this complete and comprehensive explanation will result in AFSCME taking any and all steps necessary to protect our members."

Slabaugh later explained in an interview that his union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, would take legal action to halt wage deductions.

"When people signed up for insurance, they signed up for a specific cost," he said. "Everybody agreed to that. That's a contract. You can't go back on that."

The e-mail also was sent to Bobby Johnson, TUSD's executive director of education-support services, and the heads of two other employee unions, the Tucson Education Association, which represents teachers, and Communication Workers of America Local 7000, which represents 330 TUSD employees.

FULL story at link.