May 21, 2021
State has the Revenue to Respect Us, Protect Us, Pay Us!
Revenue is up! Time to pay state workers what we deserve
This week we heard that the state’s economists are expecting over $1 billion more in revenue than previously anticipated. That is good news for the state. It means we can fully fund a budget without having to worry as much about a potential downturn and cuts next biennium. It is also good news for our contract. There is enough money to fully fund the Governor’s recommended salary pot ($190M), which is the pot of money available to bargain for wage increases and health insurance. We haven’t yet started to talk money at the table, but in the coming weeks things will move quickly – keep an eye out for these updates, or check out the state worker bargaining page anytime for the latest news from the bargaining table.
Management passed counter package Thursday
We met with management this week and things have started moving (finally!) at the bargaining table. On Thursday management passed a package proposal* that included proposals on a number of different contract articles. This package did not include everything we need within the areas it covered, but we did see movement around some key issues: ADA accommodations, State Worker Training Fund, and Union & Steward rights among other things. The team is still discussing how to respond to the proposals, but we were pleased to finally see counter proposals with actual movement from management. See full list of proposals here.
*A package proposal is when several articles are grouped together as “take it all or leave it”. The team who passed the proposal is not obligated to their position on any one of the individual proposals unless the receiving team accepts all the pieces of the package. Packages are very common in the late stages of bargaining, and you will be seeing a lot of them in our updates over the coming weeks.
What are your thoughts on expanding/continuing telework?
While management’s proposal included quite a few articles, there was no mention of one of our priority non-economic issues – expanding telework and working from home. Take a few minutes to fill out this very quick survey to let management know how you feel about the opportunity to work from home some or all of the time.
Protect Us, Respect Us, Pay Us
It is clear that the state has the money to pay us what we deserve, invest in worker safety, and show us respect by recognizing the hard work we’ve all put in over the past year to keep our state working through a pandemic, wildfires, and civil unrest in the face of racial violence across our country. One concrete thing management can do for our members is support hazard pay for workers who had to mask up and show up in person throughout the pandemic. We have proposals in the legislature to recognize workers putting their lives on the line during COVID, and at the bargaining table (both looking back and looking forward to future pandemics and disasters). Show management you support these proposals. Sign the petition to the Governor now!