Published: October 22, 2009

“This nonsense must stop forthwith,” said Donald Cole, one of about a dozen guards who, after 10 months under a new union contract, is dissatisfied with his healthcare plan.

Students, guards, faculty and members of 32BJ (the nation’s largest union of its kind) began advocating for better benefits for Fordham’s Summit security guards two years ago, prompting Fordham’s decision to open the school’s security contract to outside bidding.

The decision gave the Summit security guards at Fordham the opportunity to elect a new workers’ union, 32BJ, with the hope of getting better benefits than under their former union, Allied International.

In a June 8 letter to 32BJ, Fordham’s Committee of Concerned Students and Guards complained about the high costs and the few benefits in their new, basic health plan.

In the letter, they claim that the $574 spent per month, per guard, according to the Central Bargaining Agreement between Summit and 32BJ, is “more than adequate to provide guards with superior coverage… Yet guards were enrolled in 32 BJ’s ‘basic’ health plan which furnishes them with the most limited form of health coverage.”

Among their complaints were higher union fees (which jumped from $15 per month to $45 per month), the inconvenience of filling prescriptions through the mail and the paperwork required to add a guard’s dependent to his or her plan.

In a Sept. 1 response, Terry Meginnis, of 32BJ’s general counsel, discounted the validitiy of the Committee’s claims.

“The letter[s] do not accurately reflect the economics of the health care market or of the quality of health insurance being provided to the Security Officers at Fordham University, employed by Summit Security,” Meginnis said in his letter.

His letter provided a chart with the co-pays for a variety of services under 32BJ’s basic plan, compared to the co-pays for the same services under their old union, Allied’s provider, Altantis. The chart shows that for lab tests, x-rays, chemotherapy and home healthcare, 32BJ’s basic plan has no co-pay, compared to the $20 co-pay under Atlantis.

In a Sept. 30 response to Meginnis’ letter, the Committee of Concerned Students and Guards dismissed his chart as “misleading,” because of its “selective comparisons.” “You omitted to mention that members who made use of the Medical Centers established by Atlantis incurred no co-payments,” the response said.

The committee’s letter included a chart that compared the co-payments for pharmaceuticals under Atlantis to the co-payments for pharmaceuticals under 32BJ’s mail order service. Pharmaceuticals under Atlantis were three dollars and $10, compared to $14 and $44 under 32BJ’s mail order service, for generic and brand-name drugs, respectively.

Their second letter also accuses them of “fail[ing] to mention that your entire drug prescription package has been deemed by your actuaries as falling short of federal CMS (Center for Medicare/Medicade Services) standards and is considered ‘non-creditable’ coverage.” They have not received a response from 32BJ.

“True enough, wages have improved,” said Donald Cole, of the Committee of Concerned Students and Guards about the new union’s benefits, “but we didn’t ask for an inferior health plan.”

According to Cole, the change of union came with the understanding that the guards would receive better benefits.

“John Carroll assured us the benefits would be better, so we’re surprised to find ourselves  in this position,” Cole said.  “Why take us out of a plan that met government standards? Premiums are high and co-payments are high. It’s indefensible.”

“I can’t assure anything,” said John Carroll, director of security at Fordham. “We can’t get involved in what goes on between Summit Security and their union.”

Carroll said that because of the enormity of the school’s security contract, which covers 175 guards, working for 273,000 hours on three campuses annually, “only the big guys can bid on this.”

Of the 18 contract proposals Fordham received, many did not meet the university’s health care standards for its guards. The four most competitive proposals all came from contractors who had 32BJ as one of their unions.

“I’m very sorry they are dissatisfied with who they elected to represent them,” Carroll said, “It’s hard to digest that 32BJ is providing sub-standard healthcare coverage to Summit guards.”

“It is clearly, irrefutably not enough coverage,” Cole said.  “They [32BJ] have set the guards up to take advantage of their ignorance,” Cole said. “Most guards haven’t looked at [the new healthcare package], and consequently, they don’t care.”

“I would like the students to know that, before getting behind a movement, get educated about what you are doing,” he said.