WHEATLAND TUBE STRIKE Company rejects union's insurance suggestion

The Teamsters' fund isn't accepting new members, the company said.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
WHEATLAND, Pa. -- The Wheatland Tube Co. has rejected a union's suggestion on how it can save money on employee health insurance costs.
United Steelworkers of America Local 1660, which has been on strike at the company's plant here since April 28, had suggested switching insurance carriers to the Teamsters Local 261 & amp; Employers Welfare Fund, a move the union said would save the company $1 million annually.
The company has insisted that the 470 members of Local 1660 begin paying a portion of their own health insurance costs in any new contract.
Bill Kerins, vice president of operations for Wheatland Tube, said Monday that the company "has determined that there is no advantage whatsoever" to join the Teamsters' fund.
Kerins said he advised Local 1660 that the administrator of the Teamsters' fund has informed Wheatland Tube that it isn't accepting new members at this time.
Further, even if it could join, Wheatland Tube would be locked into the fund for at least three years and the company would be at the mercy of whatever health care rates the fund might require. If other members of the fund had a year of especially high health care costs, that could affect Wheatland Tube's rates, Kerins said.
Figures challenged
Finally, he challenged the figures Local 1660 used to determine the estimated health care savings the company would secure by joining the fund and said the union failed to compare the current health plan with the same level of service from the Teamsters' fund. Wheatland's insurance plan is less expensive than comparable service from the Teamsters' fund, he said.
Kerins said salaried employees at Wheatland Tube already contribute to their health care plans and it is the company's position that all of its employees do the same.
Dom Vadala, president of Local 1660, said the union wasn't aware that the Teamsters' fund had been closed to new members.
It was still accepting them when the proposal was made to Wheatland Tube, he said.
The two sides were scheduled to meet again at 10 a.m. today with a federal mediator.
Several hundred people showed up at the plant's gate Sunday for a rally in support of the striking Steelworkers.