A LABOR-MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO HEALTH-CARE COST SAVINGS - THE PEORIA EXPERIENCE

Health care costs and the nature of the benefits package are an issue that plagues most jurisdictions. Written in a cooperative effort to re flect the perspectives of the labor and management co-chairs, Peoria's story is an example of the cooperation that has developed in that cit y. In addition to describing a remarkable city-wide effort to reduce h ealth care costs and maintain an attractive benefit package, the artic le shows how success on a topic of importance to the parties and the c ommunity can sow the seeds of a broader cooperative relationship that improves services, quality of work life and the nature of the labor-ma nagement relationship. By agreement, the city and labor unions took th e health care plan off the bargaining table, and instead,gave it to a citywide joint committee, which solved the crisis and manages this dif ficult issue. Among other advances that mark a change from the past, t he positive effects from the dramatic success in health care has contr ibuted to a first-ever, five-year negotiated settlement between the ci ty and the firefighters. Read about how Peoria accomplished this chang e by bold risk taking and by carefully nurturing the effort.