Health-Care Cuts at 'S.F. Chronicle'

By: Joe Strupp Employees of the San Francisco Chronicle represented by the local Newspaper Guild are facing emergency health-care cuts and cost increases beginning Nov. 1, because the joint trust fund that helps offset such costs is all but depleted.

In an unusual twist, the health-care crisis is expected to also affect Guild members of the nearby San Jose Mercury News, whose "me-too" clause allows Mercury News management to make the same cuts as well.

About 900 Chronicle Guild members, currently in the middle of an eight-year contract set to expire in 2005, have already been forced to give up a negotiated raise averaging $24 per week, slated for July, to offset health costs, and may lose another one set for Jan. 1.

"People are angry and confused about what is happening, and we are trying to communicate with them," said Doug Cuthbertson, executive officer of the Northern California Media Guild, who added that the joint trust managed by the Guild and Chronicle officials had been hit with major health cost hikes for years. "Three years of double-digit increases for health insurance and a declining number of full-time employees means it was running out of money."

Steve Rubenstein, a 28-year Chronicle employee, said, "It stinks, it stinks, it stinks." Rubenstein, a general-assignment reporter and former columnist, added: "It is no secret that health care is going through the roof, but this is eating up raises. I have not seen this level of concern in some time."

Chronicle labor representative Richard Jordan did not return calls seeking comment.

The health care crisis caused Chronicle officials and Guild leaders to agree to a number of emergency cost hikes and benefit cuts set to take effect Nov. 1. They include:

? Elimination of vision-care plan;
Reduction in life-insurance benefits from $50,000 to $25,000;
? Elimination of accidental death and dismemberment coverage;
? Reduction in dental coverage to include only preventative and diagnostic service at 80% of costs, and no coverage for fillings, crowns, root canals, or orthodontia;
? Elimination of dental and life insurance for part-time employees;
? Elimination of Blue Cross option, leaving only two other providers from which to choose;
? Increase in co-payments; and
? Early retirees, who had paid only $10 of premiums, will now have to pay 100%.

"There are some options we are looking at, such as having the members give up a piece of their January pay increase to defer the dental care costs," Cuthbertson said. "We are trying to hold together these programs in the face of an onslaught in cost increases."

Sabin Russell, a medical reporter and chair of the health-and-welfare board that oversees the trust, blamed part of the problem on an increase in part-time employees, who only pay 50% of their premiums, and early retirees, who had only paid 10%. "We simply ran out of money," he said. "It really caught up with us."

Chronicle staffers, including many with children, say the situation is the worst they've ever seen at the paper.

"There looks to be plenty of blame to go around on this issue between management and the union," said columnist Andrew Ross, a 20-year Guild member. "People are upset. This is the first time I can remember a real reduction in the health-care plan."

Some workers, such as business writer Dan Fost, said they are actually speeding up some dental services to get them done before November. "It is going to make life difficult for a lot of us," said Fost, a six-year employee who had pushed up a dental appointment this week to make sure it was done before the changes occur. "There are a number of unhappy people."

In San Jose, meanwhile, Guild employees are bracing for similar cutbacks and cost increases that the Mercury News has announced will take effect Jan. 1, 2005. Under the San Jose Newspaper Guild's current contract, an eight-year agreement that runs through 2006, a "me-too" clause requires the Mercury News to offer at least the same health care benefits as the Chronicle. Ironically, the clause is intended to protect Mercury News employees. But in this case, the provision is hurting them.

"It has been a good thing for 34 years," said Luther Jackson, San Jose Newspaper Guild executive officer. "Our focus now has to be exploring alternatives, and that is what we are doing." Although the San Jose contract has nearly two years left, Jackson said the health-care issue has sparked the union and management to begin early negotiations for the next contract.