Retirees Picket Board of Trustees Office & File Class-Action Lawsuit Resulting in Positive Outcome

Chanting “Do the right thing,” UMaine System retirees and current employees marched down Commercial Street in Portland with picket signs in hand stopping in front of the office of James Erwin, the Chair of the University of Maine System Board of Trustees. The UMaine System announced it would strip the current group health care plan, and Erwin is one of the key decision makers who has the power to help overturn that decision.

The University of Maine System’s change in retiree health care plan eliminates their current group plan and forces retirees into the individual marketplace. Early indications are that retirees are finding plans are more expensive, with higher out-of-pocket costs and less coverage. In addition, under the new system, retirees are being asked to pay out-of-pocket for their medical expenses and then seek reimbursement through a computer or paper system, complicating their health care coverage even more. The health care plan change will impact existing and future retirees.

In the weeks following the picket, retirees, with the support of the Maine Education Association and the local union chapters, AFUM, ACSUM and UMPSA*, filed a class action lawsuit against the UMaine System.

“Filing this lawsuit was not the route we wanted to take but this was the route the University of Maine System’s Board of Trustees pushed us into. We have retirees, who under their new plans, can no longer afford the prescriptions they need to stay alive, and others who are making the tough choices to stop taking one medication so they can afford another at a cost of their own health. This change in plan violates the contract and the promise the University of Maine System made with its retirees, and we will now pursue our rights in the courts,” said Jim McClymer, Associate Professor of Physics and President of AFUM.

Eleven retirees are named in the class-action suit which was filed in Cumberland County Superior Court against their former employer, the University of Maine System. The lawsuit alleges that the University of Maine System violated the retirees’ contractual rights to group health insurance when it unilaterally, and secretly, approved elimination of that benefit earlier this year. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop implementation of the proposed change, and it seeks a declaratory judgment affirming the retirees’ contractual rights to group health insurance. The named Plaintiffs represent a class of over 2,900 retirees and retiree spouses and dependents.

Within hours of filing the lawsuit the University of Maine System released a statement which read: “The University of Maine System announced this afternoon that it would pause to address concerns over a planned retiree health benefits transition with retiree representatives and union leaders to determine if retirees would be better served by the System's existing group retiree health benefit plan or new plans and prescription coverage available through the individual insurance exchange marketplace.”

Shortly following the public statement to pause the transition, the Unions met with the University System and reached an agreement which would fully restore the group plan for all retirees.

“Many of our former employees and our bargaining units have engaged with the Board of Trustees over the last several weeks expressing both

support for our existing group plan and concern that the individual exchange does not provide an affordable solution for everyone,” said James Erwin, Chair of the Board. “The Board has heard these concerns and commends Chancellor Dannel Malloy and his team for the options they have developed to provide coverage consistency and prescription drug protections for our retirees.”

The agreement between the Unions and the University System now allows retirees to KEEP their group plan, if they choose, or switch to an AON plan on the marketplace, if they choose. If a retiree had already switched to an AON plan and wants to return to the group plan, the agreement allows for that change as well.

With the agreement in place, the lawsuit and grievances filed on behalf of union retirees are resolved.

"University of Maine System retirees are collectively breathing a sigh of relief learning they can keep their group health care plan," said the presidents of the three Unions, AFUM, ACSUM and UMPSA.

*AFUM-Associated Faculties of the University of Maine- the only faculty organization that has a contract with the University of Maine system *ACSUM- Associated COLT Staff of the Universities of Maine, represents the hourly COLT (clerical, office, laboratory, technical) staff in the University of Maine System. *UMPSA- Universities of Maine Professional Staff Association, representing professional staff who are not faculty