Hunter safety program scheduled

Make plans to attend the fifth annual hunter safety program, hosted by state Sen. John Cherry and the Flint Area Building Trades.

The free Michigan Department of Natural Resources-certified program includes two classroom sessions and a shooting range lesson. The classroom sessions will place Tuesday, May 8 and Thursday, May 10 from 6-9:30 p.m. at Kearsley High School Auditorium. The shooting range lesson will take place from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Grand Blanc Huntsman's Club. Refreshments follow the range lesson.

To register, call (800) 551-1636 or (810) 606-0737. All supplies and safety equipment will be provided. Gifts will be provided for all program graduates.

Average wage and benefit settlements in the construction industry have moved over 4 percent per year in Michigan - a welcome change from when wages barely kept up with inflation - but there's a big, fat fly in the ointment.

Eating away at workers' wage packages are the still-skyrocketing costs of health care insurance, pegged at no less than 10 percent across the nation.

There's "no magic bullet" to bring down annual premium increases, said McLaughlin Co. President Theodore Pappas, whose firm represents about 2,300 labor unions worldwide. Speaking to a Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association labor seminar last month in Arizona, Pappas said this year marks the third consecutive year that companies have been hit with significant health care cost increases.

The Construction Labor Report said the average health care plan is projected to cost $4,707 per employee in 2001 - up from $4,222 in 2000. Some companies have been forced to pass along that cost to their employees, who will pay an average $125 more for their health coverage.

Saving money on health insurance is difficult, Pappas said. The number of health insurers has declined, reducing competition. In the area of managed care, he said plans "probably have realized about all that we are going to achieve" in cost savings.

So what is an employer to do? "There is no simple answer," Pappas said in the Construction Labor Report. "You may want to reduce your health care costs, but your Number 1 goal should be in providing quality. If quality is not perceived among the unions and your employees, then your true goals will be suspect. Quality is easier said than done."

Mike McCormick, executive vice president of Associated Third Party Administrators of Alameda, Calif., told seminar attendees that a firm can try to save costs by looking at its benefit design to see what areas can be tightened up - like reducing unlimited visits to chiropractors.

William Ecklund, a trust fund attorney, said mergers are one way health and welfare funds can achieve savings. Also, he also said if no co-pays are in place, "studies have shown that implementing a $10 or $15 co-pay (results in) anywhere from a third to a half of that in cost savings, as opposed to cost-shifting."