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SCHENECTADY
Union eyes drug change
Vote slated on Canadian plan
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    The city’s second-largest employee union will vote next month on joining the Canadian prescription drug program, a move expected to trim Schenectady’s health care costs.
    Andy Armor, vice president of Local 1037 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, representing 109 city employees, said the membership will vote on the proposal Aug. 10. The proposal is part of a contract re-opener negotiated over the past seven weeks. The union is in the final year of a three-year contract.
    The local’s executive committee is endorsing passage of the proposal, which includes a bonus payment to workers totalling about 2 percent of their salaries, Armor said.
    “It could save a lot of money for city,” he said about the Canadian prescription drug program. “It seems like a good plan, and we know the county workers have it and they are happy with it.”
    Schenectady County became the first municipality in New York to allow its employees to purchase maintenance prescription drugs from outside of the United States in 2004. The county has saved more than $6 million in prescription drug costs since 2008.
    Armor said the Canadian prescription drug program is an add-on to employees’ regular health benefits. “It is a trade off because it is not hurting us,” he said.
    Acting Mayor Gary McCarthy said he has proposed the Canadian prescription drug program to the city’s other unions as a way to save taxpayer money. The other unions include the Civil Service Employees Association, the Schenectady Police Benevolent Association and the Schenectady Firefi ghters Union. They all have signed contracts with the city and would have to agree to re-openers to consider McCarthy’s proposal. The PBA is the city’s largest union, with more than 150 members. There are approximately 650 city employees in unions.
    McCarthy said if all of the unions agree to adopt the Canadian prescription drug program, he calculates the city would save $1.2 million annually in health care costs. He said the drug plan is part of a broader strategy to save money on health care costs.
    “The concept I am looking to go to is the ‘uniform employee benefit package,’ ” he said. ..................>>>>.............................>>>>.......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01103&AppName=1

It will save taxpayer money, and at the same time, will create as many new jobs in Schenectady County as the wonderful, accurate and appropriate spending of the Schenectady Metroplex is making.  Good thing we're keeping those high-paying jobs of pharmacists paid in Canada.  We don't need good paying jobs like that here.  Instead, we need to pay baristas and ticket-takers, whether it be at Proctors or at the Bow Tie Theatre.  

The money saved on the scripts will pay for the 2% bonus these workers will get as a quid pro quo.

This is another card trick. No real savings for the taxpayers, just more money for the Unions.