The Morning Call: Striking Mack Trucks workers irked after company cuts their health care plan

Striking Mack Trucks workers are expressing frustration after the company cut their medical coverage, something employees say they didn’t realize had happened until they tried to pick up a prescription or visit a doctor’s office.

Matthew DeRitis is one of several United Auto Workers Local 677 members who reached out to The Morning Call to discuss the situation. DeRitis, a 5-year Mack employee, said he was disappointed the company did not notify workers of the cancellation, which is inconveniencing employees who are now dealing with higher prescription costs or the headache of moving an appointment. DeRitis mentioned he plans to cancel a doctor’s appointment scheduled for Tuesday.

“A lot of people were calling the insurance companies to find out,” he said. “We all had to find out from each other.”

Several UAW Local 677 leaders did not return requests seeking comment for this story.  

Mack spokesman Christopher Heffner said the company is continuing short- and long-term disability coverage for any employees who were covered before the strike. In addition, he said, Mack is offering continued benefits under the COBRA health insurance law, which would be funded by the employee.

“It’s our understanding that the local UAW leadership informed their members of this prior to the strike,” Heffner said. “You can discuss strike pay and strike benefits with the UAW. We look forward to finalizing a new agreement so employees can return to work with full pay and benefits.”

George Hlavac, an attorney with Hoffman Hlavac & Easterly in South Whitehall Township, said companies are not responsible to provide benefits during a work stoppage. He said a strike is considered a “qualifying event” under federal labor law, enabling a company to stop providing benefits.

“It would be extraordinary for an employer to continue employee benefits during a strike,” said Hlavac, who specializes in labor and employment law.

The strike — the first to hit Mack in 35 years — started at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, after the UAW and the company negotiated on a day-by-day extension that went several days beyond the Oct. 1 expiration of the previous three-year labor agreement. The strike involves more than 3,500 Mack employees across Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida, a dispute that also will temporarily idle sister company Volvo Trucks North America’s plant in Virginia due to a lack of engines and transmissions that are made by Mack’s Hagerstown plant.

The two sides are scheduled to return to the negotiating table Tuesday, and the union is planning a “solidarity Sunday rally” at 8 a.m. Sunday at the Lower Macungie Township assembly plant.

A post on the UAW Local 677 website from earlier this week informs members that they need to report to the union hall on Mack Boulevard in Allentown to register for strike pay and medical benefits. Registration ran Tuesday through Thursday. Weekly strike pay of $275 per week starts on the strike’s eighth day, the union noted, and the UAW Strike and Defense Fund covers certain benefits such as medical and prescription drugs.

Employers or their third-party health care administrators have 14 days to notify employees of their rights under the COBRA health insurance law, Hlavac said. COBRA — the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act — and its continuation coverage is often more expensive than what employees would pay for group health coverage, because an employer would usually pay for part of an employee’s coverage. An employee has up to 60 days from the start of a strike to decide whether to start COBRA coverage, Hlavac said.

While Mack is within its rights, the company’s decision doesn’t appear to be sitting well with workers.

David W. Fowler Jr., president of UAW Local 171, which represents workers in Hagerstown, told The Herald-Mail that he was “dumbfounded” by the company’s decision. Further, the Chambersburg Public Opinion quoted a Hagerstown worker dealing with significant medical bills after having to take his wife to the hospital this week.

The UAW, which did not respond to an inquiry to its Detroit office, dealt with something similar during a General Motors strike that started last month. The massive automaker reportedly dropped striking workers’ health care plans just after the strike started. When that occurred, labor experts told The Washington Post that GM’s decision was an aggressive one that also carried a reputational risk.

About a week after that, GM reversed course, informing the UAW that it had decided to work with its providers to keep benefits in place for striking workers.