The union that represents academic and professional faculty at the State University of New York on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the state in an effort to reverse a health insurance rate increase that has "ambushed" its nearly 4,000 retired members.
Representatives for United University Professionals -- the union for some 800 staffers at the State University College at Oneonta -- said an extra 2 percent increase in the contribution retirees pay toward their health insurance premium was "unilaterally" imposed by the state in October.
UUP said retirees had been paying 10 percent of the cost of their health insurance premiums for individual coverage and a 25 percent share on family plans.
The union said its retirees were surprised to learn their premiums would be larger than expected.
"The state's action to unilaterally raise the level of contributions retirees pay for their health insurance is unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious, and amounts to a breach of our contract," UUP President Phil Smith said in a statement. "It's totally wrong to saddle our retirees who are on fixed incomes with this unexpected increase in their health insurance costs."
A spokesman for the State University administration in Albany did not reply to an emailed request for comment on the federal lawsuit.
Bill Simons, the president of the UUP chapter at SUCO, said: "These changes will unfairly and inappropriately hurt retirees. It is important to keep in mind that we are all in the same continuum and all of us (UUP active members) will be impacted in the future when we become retirees."
UUP's suit asks the court to rescind the state's increase in the contributions retirees pay toward their health insurance. The legal action is filed against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state Department of Civil Service and the New York State Health Insurance Plan.
The union said the additional 2 percent contribution the state is forcing retirees to pay is on top of premium rate increases annually imposed by insurance carriers.
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UUP sues state over retiree health coverage
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