TAYLOR, Mich. – Organized employees of $45 million Taylor Community Credit Union are picketing, but both sides say a strike is unlikely. Employees picketed the morning of Thursday, Feb. 16 – the third such demonstration in the past two weeks. According to both sides, picketing occurs before the credit union opens, and is meant to educate the community about outstanding labor negotiation issues. According to TCCU CEO Phil Matous, credit union management and the employees union, AFT Michigan, have been negotiating the contract for about a year, and only one issue remains to be resolved: health insurance. "The present issue is that we've consistently paid 100% of health care premiums for employees and family members with a $0 deductible," Matous said. "It's a Cadillac plan, but as we go forward, we need to ask them to pay portions of the premiums, or we'll get too far out of line." Matous said management is asking that come September, when health care provider Blue Cross Blue Shield announces new premiums, employees pay half of the increase. "If we assume a high increase like 15%, a single person paying 50% of the increase would pay about $260 a year, and a full family would pay roughly double that," Matous said. Beth Thoreson, union spokesperson, said credit union attempts to offset the premiums with wage increases have fallen short. "They're offering a 2% increase in salary; however, the increases in health care premiums would more than take care of that 2% and then some," Thoreson said. Additionally, the union is asking for a cap to be placed on any premium amounts employees agree to pay. Matous said the credit union has asked that instead of a cap, the union consider a less expensive health care plan, possibly with a deductible. TCCU employees organized and affiliated with AFT Michigan in 1988. The American Federation of Teachers primarily represents teachers, with TCCU being the only credit union bargaining unit the group represents in Michigan, Thoreson said. While unionized employees are rare in the credit union industry, TCCU is not the only credit union negotiating with employees in labor-friendly Michigan. Matous said nearly 10% of credit unions in the state have organized employees, mostly in the Detroit area. Thoreson agreed the unions are a way of life for the residents of Taylor, a Detroit suburb located 15 miles southwest of downtown, not far from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. "It's a very industrial area, a lot of people work for the auto industry and related industries, so it's a very heavily union town," Thoreson said. "This morning, I spoke with one gal on the picket line and she said `I just don't think management cares if we're out here' and I said, `you know, around here, I think they're going to have to care because there's a lot of people in this area who aren't going to cross picket lines'," Thoreson said. Matous said he isn't worried the credit union's 8,800 members will turn on the community-chartered institution, because health insurance premiums are a very common sticking point in labor/management negotiations. "Having to pay health care premiums is pretty much a standard part of most union contracts now. We're not asking our people to do anything other union members aren't doing," Matous said, adding, "In the three days they've picketed, we haven't had one call asking what's going on." The CEO also said neither he nor his board, many of whom are union members themselves, feel any animosity toward picketing employees. "There's no disharmony among the staff. In fact, we bought them bagels this morning to let them know we're all cool, we just have to work through this final issue . they don't care to pay for an increase in their health care premiums, which is only human nature," he said. Matous said the health care premium increase is unfortunate, because "it has to come out of somebody's pocket, either our members' or our employees'." -

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