If insurance premiums don’t go up, the Old Rochester Regional School Committee says education cuts will have to be made. But, the 25 members of Old Rochester Regional’s cafeteria, custodial, and maintenance union say higher costs will be crippling to low wage earners.

At present, Junior High and High School employees pay 20 percent of premiums and the school pays 80 percent. In contract negotiations with the union, the ORR School Committee is proposing that new employees pay 50 percent.

With contracts expiring this summer, the group’s union representative wants to see insurance restructured – a discussion that the School Committee says is part of a national problem.

Currently, all employees at ORR pay the same premiums, regardless of salary.

Annual premiums for individuals range in cost from $8,323 to $11,472. Family plans range between $22,270 and $27,219.

“The School Committee is asking that people pay over $12,500 when you’re only making $12 an hour for cafeteria workers,” said Peter Knowlton, President of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Works of America for the Northeast Region and representative for ORR.

With rising insurance costs, he said some workers may not break even in a few years. “Take-home pay would be zero,” Knowlton said. “Some cafeteria workers would actually have to pay the district.”

School Committee Chair Peter Bangs said, “We are certainly sympathetic. We don’t have much choice. Our health insurances costs rise faster than the amount of money we get from the public. The pie is only so big.”

Bangs said if insurance premiums are not raised for new hires, the school will have to make cuts to educational programs.

“The school district’s primary responsibility is to provide the best possible education that it can to the children of our towns,” he said.

“The current 80 percent share of the health insurance premium is increasingly hampering the district’s ability to meet its primary responsibility, and the School Committee is doing all that it can to find a long-term solution to this very serious problem.”

Knowlton predicts that in six to 10 years even current employees will be required to pay 50 percent of premiums.

“Even if you’re a maintenance worker getting $20 an hour, you’re still taking a huge hit. The effective wage is dropped by $8 an hour,” Knowlton said.

Carl Olson, Head Custodian at the Junior High and an ORR employee for 17 years, voiced his concerns to the School Committee on February 13.

“If we ever have to go 50 percent, I can’t afford to stay here with those wages,” he said.

Olson said raising premiums would result in losing skilled workers. And those employees save the school money by keeping many projects in-house, he said.

“It’s going to be a fatal blow for us. The system’s broken,” he said.

“Until we get a handle on it, every year it’s going to get worse,” Olson said. “I can’t pay the same thing that somebody who is making $80,000 or $90,000 can.”

Bangs said there are no plans to raise the premiums of existing employees.“If new people came in at 50 percent, we feel that would solve our long-term issue,” said Bangs.

“That said, every three years the contract comes up, and it’s a different School Committee.”

Knowlton said a more fair system would mean basing employee premiums on salary earnings.

“Health insurance is the only paycheck deduction that has no relation to your income,” he said.

That issue would have to change at the state and federal level, said Bangs.

“I don’t see the ORR School District becoming a national model for how insurance is structured,” he said.

The union is willing to think creatively, said Knowlton. He mentioned the possibility of getting rid of insurance all together for union workers, something that is only an idea at this point.

“It’s good to see there are some creative ideas being kicked around,” said Bangs. “We have to protect the lower wage workers.”

The union is waiting on a word from the School Committee before negotiations continue.