Over 1,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield workers repped by UAW go on strike

More than 1,000 United Auto Workers members employed by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan walked off the job Wednesday morning.

The workers, represented by the UAW at several locals across the state, authorized the strike in late August with 95% of the bargaining units voting in favor. Negotiations kicked off in July with workers demanding significant wage increases, increased health care benefits and the return of certain jobs that were outsourced.

Related: Michigan Blue Cross to axe 20% of prior authorization requirements

The union is attempting to eliminate BCBSM's multi-tiered pay structure, where it would take 22 years for a lower-tiered employee to reach parity with a top-tiered employee, according to the union.

"Such a system is untenable for our union brothers and sisters, who strive to provide their families with a comfortable standard of living," the union said in an emailed statement. "Regrettably, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan rejected our demands, steadfastly maintaining a twenty-year service length prerequisite for pay equality."

The union is also calling for an end to outsourcing roles they represent.

"Our main thing we’re having some concerns with is outsourcing," Janice Hilliard, president of UAW Local 2145 in Grand Rapids, told Crain's. "Currently a lot of our work gets outsourced to vendors, including out of the country, such as El Salvador and the Philippines. This is work in our claims area or customer service area, so we wanted to get some type of (contract) language to pretty much stop that, so to speak."

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Hilliard said the outsourcing has led to a dramatic reduction in UAW employees at BCBSM, which represents about 1,100 today, down from more than 5,000 years ago.

The UAW workers employed at BCBSM across the state, including Detroit and Grand Rapids, also noted opposition to the compensation of BCBSM CEO Dan Loepp, which totaled $15.7 million in 2022. 

The UAW represents BCBSM workers in Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Marquette and Traverse City.  Workers at all of those locations are striking. Those workers perform customer service, membership and billing, claims and enrollment, maintenance and other administrative functions for the state's largest health insurer. 
BCBSM acknowledged the strike Wednesday morning and said in a statement on its website that contingency plans are in place to not disrupt customer service during the strike.

“Blue Cross has put contingencies in place to enable our company to continue to provide services to providers, group customers and our millions of members around the nation,” the company said in the statement. “Some of those services – particularly those provided over the phone – will require longer wait times. We encourage our members and customers to use our online and app-based services during this period, and we regret the inconvenience caused by this situation – which we desire to resolve quickly, consistent with the spirit of collective bargaining, with our partners at the UAW.”

The workers are picketing at BCBSM's headquarters on E. Lafayette Street and the Renaissance Center in Detroit as well at its offices in Grand Rapids.

The UAW strike at BCBSM comes only days before a planned strike of the Detroit 3 automakers on Friday, after its current contract with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis expires.

Those negotiations are ongoing for the roughly 150,000 autoworkers represented by the union at the automakers.

— Crain's Grand Rapids Business Managing Editor Andy Balaskovitz contributed to this article.

This story first appeared in Crain's Detroit Business.