James Cahill, Vice President of the Labor and Trust Department for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss Taft-Hartley Trust Funds and how unions use the trusts to prevent shifting rising healthcare costs onto members.
Cahill discussed the history of Taft-Hartley Trust Funds and what events led to the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft-Hartley Act. The bill, despite receiving a Presidential Veto, amended the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and added limits to union actions while it established union-specific unfair labor practices. Cahill explained how the Trust Funds establish quality health and wellness benefit plans through Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations while keeping costs manageable for the employer. Ensuring the worker and employer are both heard and taken care of is what Cahill believes is unique to these funds.
To give examples of the importance of what a Taft-Hartley fund can do, Cahill talked about his experience working with the healthcare industry in New York and how they prevented shifting the rising costs on either the workers or employers. He spoke about how a union can plan to use the Taft-Hartley funds during negotiations and ensure they result in a positive member experience. Cahill gave an educated prediction on the future of the way funds will be allocated to support member healthcare and how unions can reduce their risk with health care costs.
A graduate of Fairfield University in Connecticut, Cahill began his career as an Account Management Consult with the New York Labor office of the then Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, now Anthem BCBS. Cahill became an account executive working with several labor clients in New York before moving on to become the Director of the Labor Department for Anthem. About two years ago, Cahill was promoted to Vice President and the national lead of the Labor and Trust work in Anthem’s 14 markets. He talked about his passion for working with all his union clients and believes they have been responsible for supporting his success with Anthem.
If you have questions about Taft-Hartley Trust Funds or Cahill’s work with Anthem BCBS, please visit their website here.
Listen to the show above to learn more about Taft-Hartley funds.
America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.
America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.
