Published: March 19, 2023

As we shared on Thursday, we had a big day at the bargaining table this week. Management finally presented us with their opening economic offer: a 4.4% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in December of this year and a 2.3% COLA in December 2024. They also proposed moving to a biweekly pay schedule. They have not given us any responses to our proposals for longevity pay, raising the pay floor to $22/hour by the end of the contract, or any of our differential improvement proposals.

Our Central Table team passed a number of proposals to the state, including ones dealing with safe and equitable workplaces. These proposals would improve remote work language; allow workers to use up to three days of ‘critical incident leave’ (for employees who experience direct threats or trauma on the job); add preventative care leave. In addition, we gave management a proposal that would create a labor/management taskforce that can investigate claims of harassment and discrimination. We also passed a sustainable workloads proposal, which would create a paid differential for those with extremely high workloads and would restrict management’s ability to discipline these workers for performance-related reasons.

In all, we passed 33 proposals this week to make our workplaces safer and more equitable, and to address the overwhelming workloads so many of us experience.

Have you signed the petition yet? Our union’s power at the bargaining table and our ability to win strong contracts comes from workers taking action together. If the state doesn’t see that we are united and ready to do whatever it takes to win a great contract this year, they won’t have a reason to offer us a better deal. Sign the bargaining petition now to who the state we are united and ready to fight for a great contract!