Mayor de Blasio pushes for healthcare savings in exchange for pay raises in contract talks with city unions
In future talks with New York City?s unions it is obvious that Mayor de Blasio will seek concessions around the cost of providing healthcare to the city?s 300,000 employees. The unions have made it obvious that they will be collectively asking for over $7 billion in retroactive raises, and with the city?s surplus from last year they will likely receive some of that. De Blasio has indicated that he would be open to negotiating some retroactive raises. In light of the ability to save the city $15.6 million per year for every $1 that employees contribute over what they do this year, it is likely that those raises will come at a cost. Other options on the table include finding lower cost healthcare providers for city employees and a combination of increasing employee premium contributions or preventative healthcare measures. Multiple independent measures project that New York City will generate a surplus above and beyond de Blasio?s budget, which may play strongly into how much the unions are willing to give.
See "Mayor de Blasio pushes for healthcare savings in exchange for pay raises in contract talks with city unions", Erin Durkin, New York Daily News, March 5, 2014