Mary Sullivan, CSEA Statewide President 

Jarvis Brown, CSEA Long Island Region 1 President 

Regarding the recent bombshell information that Local CSEA Employees will no longer be covered by NYSHIP, which is a negotiated term of our latest contract. 

We feel that the current CSEA Local 830 President and his Administration are not properly representing our Members and retirees in this matter. 

We feel that it is imperative for the Statewide CSEA President and the Long Island Region 1 President to step in and correct this violation of our negotiated contract. 

We understand that NYS has eliminated the Excelsior Plan from the NYSHIP health benefit plan to no fault of the CSEA or the County, Section 38-1.3 of the CBA clearly states that the County has the right to change health insurance providers so long as there is no decrease in benefit levels. 

The proposed replacement plan seems to be a major decrease in benefit levels, Members have not received any documentation the spells out what the plans provide and what the actual cost to the Members will be, there is a lot of hearsay but not FACTS. 

Now we have until Nov. 1 to pick from one of 2 horrendous plans that will cost Members heavily. 

This reminds us of the last-minute rush notification from this Local that we experienced last year when this contract was pushed down our throats without clear facts and time to make an informed decision, especially on the health care changes. 

The August 7th, 2023, MOU document and its attached FACT sheet states that MOU shall be incorporated into the CBA within 6 months of final ratification, to our knowledge this has not happened. The FACT sheet states that Members will have no health care contribution through Dec. 30,2030 and that Members would remain in NYSHIP. 

The union and the county were made aware in February of 2024 that the Excelsior plan was being eliminated. There was certainly enough time to negotiate a fair alternative for the Members and the County. Instead, the Local President sat back and hung his hat on the verbiage in the MOU/CBA and left the County to decide for his Members. 

The State CSEA must get its Members back in to the NYSHIP Empire program on January 1, 2025 with every other State agency. 

Members can not afford to allow this change to happen and wait years for a court settlement which is what appears to be the plan of our Local President and his Administration.