UC's PENSION WORRIES

UC administration worried about benefit plans' future.

This PowerPoint on the future of UC benefits plans was presented by a UCOP administrator to fellow UC administrators at their annual May meeting. Here's a summary of the most troubling points by Beth Kean, Executive Director of the California Nurses Association:

Very frank and disturbing information from UC Leadership Conference May 2005, discussing UC's plans to decrease pension, increase benefit costs, change retiree health.

Some of what UC discusses concerning changes to UC benefits:

8% of employee salary to pay for pension: UC wants to re-start employee contributions to pension fund well before over-funding is exhausted; they discuss re-starting employee contribution to pension funding as a given.
Possibility of reducing current employees' future pension benefits (recently enacted for Oregon state employees, city of Houston employees), something UC has always insisted will NEVER happen at UC (but they don't want to go so far as to put it in the contract).
They are continuing to develop pension restructuring plans for new employees.
The HUGE budget costs of retiree health, especially with the new federal accounting standards, means they are looking at options to change their retiree health coverage.
UC is looking at additional major shifting of health insurance cost to employees (currently UC pays 89%; they want to change it to approx 70% by 2010).

Michele French's Presentation, with Accompanying Text