AFSCME Workhouse Negotiaions

This is an update from our Workhouse counterparts. It's where negotiations are with them:


Council 5 Local 1719

8-30-07

To: Membership of AFSCME # 1719
From: Dean Enge, your President D. Enge
Subject: Negotiations and other issues

Negotiations at this Time

Currently the status of negotiations is that the county has given us a proposal that is unacceptable to the union. The county has offered little in pay and a lot of take aways from our current contract. One of the things that they would like to be able to do is have supervisors be able to bump back into the bargaining unit with their seniority from when they started working for the county. So if they laid some off or demoted some they would be protected. While this has never happened in recent memory an example where we would be hurt is a closing of a department unit like the Home School. If the Home School were closed and the students privatized then the Correctional Supervisors there would be surplus. Would our department then decide some of them could replace some of ours at the ACF and if so this language could affect you? Currently once supervisors have passed their probation as a supervisor they have lost their seniority rights in the bargaining unit. The county also would like to deposit your severance pay and stability pay in a health care savings account instead of you getting it. While that proposal has some merits for those close to retirement, it would hurt those you would like to keep the stability pay for the holidays. The county would save a lot in not contributing to FICA and PERA on parts of this proposal. The county has also offered PTO again with take aways of two days a year for current employees and four days a year for new employees. The union’s position on PTO is no as it is currently being offered. After three meetings the county has not yet offered us their position on Health Insurance and is promising to offer one maybe at the next meeting Sept. 10. The only thing on Health Insurance that has been mentioned by the county is to suggest a high deductible plan with a VEBA for 2009. They have stated they want to meet on Sept. 10 for six hours to chat about their various issues and hopefully present the Health Insurance component.

Rally

On September 18, 2007 at the Plaza at the Hennepin County Government Center there will be a rally for all AFSCME members in Hennepin County. This noon rally is to show the strength of your union to the county board and management by expressing our solidarity and objection to what they have offered. If you are off on that Tuesday please join us in the rally so the strength can be shown to the public and the governing board. It was actions like this two years ago that helped to get the contract we did then.