Published: October 10, 2008 09:57 pm         

Labor talks continue over health care costs

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — The Greenbrier presented a counter proposal on health care costs Thursday, but union officials appeared to be unimpressed with the offer in the latest round of talks.

Over a year has passed since The Greenbrier and the Council of Labor Unions first began negotiating a new five-year collective bargaining agreement for the hotel’s 1,100 union members, and little, if any, progress was made this week toward a successful end to the labor dispute.

Greenbrier officials refused to comment about the labor talks and again offered the same phrases that’s become associated with the meetings.

“The master agreement discussions on Thursday between The Greenbrier and the Council of Labor Unions were professional and will continue on Oct. 16,” Lynn Swann, the resort’s director of public relations, said.

Harold Bock, lead negotiator for the Council of Labor Unions, described The Greenbrier’s health care counter proposal as “the most expensive proposition the company has made in the plus year we have been at the bargaining table.”

“They gave us a concept of a counter proposal on health insurance of a set amount of what the company would be willing to pay for health insurance and called it a defined rate,” Bock said by phone Friday.

“But what they really did was to revert back to their original figures, but just presented it in a different fashion.

“We are not discounting this proposal, though. We are turning it in to our insurance company to help us prepare another proposal which we intend to submit to the company on Oct. 16.”

Under The Greenbrier’s original proposal, a single payer’s monthly contribution would nearly double from $47 a month to $92.93 a month and the proposed family plan coverage shows an even larger increase from $95 a month to $397.87 a month, according to documents obtained by The Register-Herald in June.

Union officials previously offered The Greenbrier a proposal they say would save the resort $13.5 million in health care costs over a five-year period.

Bock said their was no discussion from either side concerning the Nov. 4 countywide vote on whether to legalize casino gambling at The Greenbrier. Hotel officials have refused to comment about the subject since labor officials persuaded the county commission to include it on the fall election ballot.

“We are putting every effort into having the referendum pass and we are calling this a vote on jobs,” Bock said.

Bock said state and local political candidates met with union members Thursday night at their union hall.

“The candidates and politicians indicated they supported workers at The Greenbrier and they supported saving their jobs,” Bock said.

Bock and others maintain offering table games to guests at the four-star resort would generate enough revenue to keep the same benefit packages that union members have had in the past.

Resort officials previously said the hotel, owned by railroad giant CSX Corp., cannot afford to pay part-time workers for full-time benefits. The hotel has suffered about $40 million in losses since 2003.

— E-mail: cgiggenbach

@register-herald.com