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MSD Workers Picket Construction Site

By Kevin Lavery, KWMU

St. Louis – Employees from two unions who represent Metropolitan Sewer District workers are blocking access to a new treatment plant construction site.

The unions are blocking some MSD contractors from working at the Lower Meramec Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The standoff is over MSD's proposal to reduce the amount they'll pay for employee health care.

Union representative Elston McCowan says MSD is better able to pay for coverage than its workers.

"They're giving out $25 million no-bid contracts and all this kind of stuff, and when they come back and say, well, that wasn't enough money," McCowan said. "Give me another $1.5 million. That kind of stuff can fund the increase in health insurance for our workers."

An MSD spokesman says its package is the best it can offer given the national trend of rising health care costs.

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