{"id":568093,"date":"2026-03-27T15:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T15:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/568093\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T15:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T15:54:13","slug":"ac-transit-plans-healthcare-cost-cut-and-unions-push-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/568093\/","title":{"rendered":"AC Transit plans healthcare cost cut \u2014 and unions push back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Waves of bus drivers went up to the podium at the AC Transit Board of Directors meeting last night in Oakland to pour out their feelings about a threatened change to their health insurance. The agency had announced plans to switch from directly offering Kaiser Permanente and Health Net medical plans to a health insurance marketplace run by CalPERS, a state administrator.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With some on the verge of tears and others in a rage, the members of AFSCME Local 3916 and ATU Local 192, the union representing nearly 2,000 bus drivers, mechanics, and other frontline workers, argued that AC Transit management had made the change without a negotiation process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a direct attempt to change a section of a legally binding collective bargaining agreement,\u201d a bus driver named Lupe Miller, who less than three years ago was named<\/a> an employee of the month, said. \u201cAn agreement that was reached through negotiations, compromise, and mutual respect. An agreement that both parties committed to in good faith. A contract signed is a promise, not a suggestion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contract includes language saying that modifications of members\u2019 health and welfare provisions can only be made if required by state or federal regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other speakers argued that allowing AC Transit management to make the change unilaterally would open the door to bypassing negotiations on other issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The healthcare decision was communicated to members in a December 1 letter<\/a>, signed by Leonard Bellow, the agency\u2019s labor program administrator, which said the agency intended to replace its current insurance carriers effective January 1, 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith rising health care costs contributing to the District\u2019s ongoing financial deficit, it is imperative that we pursue fiscally responsible measures to ensure long-term sustainability,\u201d Bellow wrote.<\/p>\n

AC Transit is facing a deficit<\/a> of $45 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The letter said the goal of the health plan switch was \u201csignificant savings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change to the CalPERS marketplace, according to Owen Goetze, the vice president of AFSCME Local 3916, would mean that no plan \u201cwould have the same level of coverage, copay, or premium costs\u201d that union members currently enjoy.<\/p>\n

He said both union contracts stipulate copay rates for treatment and prescriptions, and \u201cas far as we know every CalPERS option would have copay costs that are 50%-plus higher than our current rates. So the folks that have chronic health conditions would bear the highest new costs with any shift to CalPERS medical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, according to a recent job posting<\/a>, an AC Transit bus driver can choose between two HMO plans. Office visit co-pays are $10, and prescription co-pays run from $5 to $35.<\/p>\n

An AC Transit spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The statements at the podium followed a major announcement by AC Transit General Manager Salvador Llamas, who said the agency had \u201clistened carefully to the concerns expressed by our union leadership\u201d and had decided not to move forward with implementing the change on January 1, proposing instead \u201ca series of meetings with union leadership and members.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to ensure that our labor partners are fully informed and supported as we continue this dialogue,\u201d Llamas said as dozens of AC Transit employees cheered.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A difficult job with good health benefits
\n\"\"Bus driver Alonso Covarrubias loves his job and says drivers rely heavily on their medical benefits. Credit: Amir Aziz\/The Oaklandside Credit: Amir Aziz<\/p>\n

For people in physically demanding jobs, from drivers who sit for hours without stopping to mechanics who push and twist their bodies every day, health care is a core concern.<\/p>\n

Rachelle Jenkins, an AC Transit bus driver, told the board last night that she understood her job meant putting her physical and mental health on the line but that she at least expected her employer to take care of her when got sick or injured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take abuse from the public, random strangers, and people that we don\u2019t know,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that sets a toll on us over time. Our healthcare is our livelihood, our benefits are our livelihood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sultana Adams, another driver, said that \u200aeven though she\u2019s been assaulted on the job, the one thing she\u2019s never had to worry about was the quality of the healthcare she received. \u201cA lot of my coworkers get hurt on the job every single day,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gideon Murray, a senior systems engineer and president of AFSCME Local 3916, said the potential change to medical benefits would be especially difficult for those who face serious medical conditions.<\/p>\n

A third bus driver, Al Jacobs, told the board that AC Transit medical coverage had saved his wife\u2019s life when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son still has his mother to this day,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got kids. We need that. We need our benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the speakers said that the agency should look somewhere besides healthcare when trying to balance the budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir families depend on that medical,\u201d Murray, the engineer, said. \u201cPlease find other ways because that is not a solution. We come [to work] here because of medical benefits.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carissa Lee, an AC Transit transportation planner, agreed, saying management should \u201creally think about who\u2019s driving this workforce, and that is our operators, that is our maintenance workers, that\u2019s our supervisors, so I really just implore you all to keep that in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goetze, the AFSCME official, told The Oaklandside that \u200aAC Transit\u2019s decision yesterday was just \u201ca temporary victory.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat really is gonna matter is that we\u2019re entering negotiations in the next couple months,\u201d he said. \u201c\u200aNow they\u2019re saying, \u2018We want to talk with you guys,\u2019 but they\u2019re not saying \u2018We have to negotiate,\u2019 which is an important distinction.\u201d He said the union\u2019s position is that \u201chealthcare is a mandatory subject of bargaining, therefore it must go through the collective bargaining process.\u201d<\/p>\n

A failure to clarify health plan costs sparks fear <\/p>\n

Concern about the changes to medical coverage was further heightened, union members said at the meeting, when management failed to offer concrete details about the CalPERS program<\/a> on key expense items, such as copays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The December 1 letter to Local 3916 AFSCME, which was provided to The Oaklandside by a union representative, says management was \u201cprepared to answer any of the Union\u2019s potential questions regarding the proposed change, including health care coverage summaries, cost comparisons, and the anticipated timeline.\u201d It did not, however, provide a summary of benefits and costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Goetze told The Oaklandside that CalPERS was raised as a possible coverage option in 2020. That year, Goetze said, AFSCME found that copays would indeed be higher and employees with kids would end up paying more for medical bills than under their current Kaiser and HealthNet options.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Goetze said AC Transit told his members that the savings would amount to about $6 million, though the agency did not provide a time frame for when that amount would be saved.<\/p>\n

Goetze told us many AC Transit workers felt burned by the planned change because they had recently gone out into the community to gather signatures to help get a regional transit measure on the ballot \u2014 one that promises to provide local transit agencies with millions of dollars a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re out there getting signatures, raising money, knocking on doors to make sure that measure gets on the ballot and passes,\u201d he said. \u201cMeanwhile, our employers are out there planning changes to our healthcare. It feels bad.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waves of bus drivers went up to the podium at the AC Transit Board of Directors meeting last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[279396,279397,64,63,83501,137,5266,500,279398,144051,48154],"class_list":["post-568093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ac-transit","tag-afscme","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-calpers","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-salvador-llamas","tag-transit","tag-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}