State Contract Negotations

Yesterday, the Commonwealth gave its initial contract proposals. The "highlights" are stated in the SEIU668 website.

On Tuesday, May 17, 2011 the SEIU 668 Negotiating Team had an initial contract negotiation meeting with the commonwealth. The meeting was preceded by an in depth prep meeting of the Negotiating Team.

The commonwealth and SEIU 668 presented their initial proposals to each other. Both sides were given the opportunity to seek clarification of the proposals and present their initial stance on particular proposals.

Key highlights of the commonwealth’s proposal include:

·         Require a give back of the 4% general pay increase from 2010

·         Limit healthcare  employer contribution to $400 bi-weekly

·         Forces employees to take rolling furloughs

·         Eliminate two holiday days

·         Severely limit sick and vacation leave

·         Delete preservation of bargaining unit work language, severely crippling the union’s ability to prevent privatization

The Commonwealth will not allow employees to accumulate sick time. Ok now what would be the incentive to save sick time?
The Commonwealth is NOW reporting a 500 million dollar SURPLUS!
This means they are just using the economic situation as a golden opportunity to slash wages and benefits.
They want to be able to privatize at will without discussion with the union. I have seen that privatizing in the long  run does not save money but looses money due to less accountability.