Healthcare Benefits: Focus Groups
Dear Guild Member:
Soon, we will be inviting randomly chosen members to share comments and ideas on The Newspaper Guild’s benefits program by participating in a focus group session. These sessions will allow you to voice your opinions along with others who represent various groups within The Newspaper Guild. The sessions will focus on our benefits program and ways to get and stay healthy while controlling healthcare costs. The sessions also provide a unique opportunity to discuss how you prefer to receive information about your benefits.
You may wonder why we’ve chosen to pursue this now following months of uncertainty and turmoil in our industry. The truth is, the healthcare landscape is changing rapidly and constantly and we simply can’t afford to miss an opportunity —with your input—to evaluate and “fine-tune” our benefit strategies so that we may strengthen our bargaining position by maintaining/ reducing overall costs and improving benefits.
Background
To keep our membership strong and position us for effective bargaining, we need to assess where we are and where we’re going. All of us need to work together to understand our current benefit offerings—what works and what doesn’t—and what will motivate us to take an active role in our healthcare. Your opinions will provide important information that will be used to help shape our long-term benefit and communication strategies.
To encourage you to give us your honest opinions during these sessions, we’ve arranged to have the focus groups led by a professional, independent representative from a leading benefits and human resources firm. Please rest assured that all comments will be kept confidential and any report will only describe members’ attitudes, identify member needs and may include actual comments from anonymous members; no responses will be attributed to any individual in any reporting to the Board of Trustees.
All participants will receive a summary of the focus group findings.
IF YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVE AN INVITATION BY
REGULAR MAIL, PLEASE CALL THE GUILD OFFICE
TO SCHEDULE YOURSELF FOR ONE OF THE FOCUS SESSIONS.
To confirm your participation, please contact Administrative Officer Frank Santafede at 215-928-0118 or e-mail him at fsantafede@Local-10.com.
Member participation in the Focus Groups is fully supported by The Board of Trustees for The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia.
Henry H. Holcomb
President, Local 38010