Some VSEA Central Vermont Stewards got together on Friday night to present special certificates of merit to VSEA members for "outstanding union activism throughout 2014." Receiving certificates were: Jack Gouin (Agency of Transportation), James Hale (Buildings & General Services), Jodi Parker (Vermont State Housing Authority) and all VSEA VSHA Members (Vermont State Housing Authority). Congratulations to all those honored!
Union Also Announces Senate, House and State’s Attorney’s Endorsements
The Vermont State Employees’ Association’s (VSEA) Board of Trustees concluded its 2014 candidate endorsement process this week, after conducting a face-to-face interview with Governor Peter Shumlin on Tuesday morning. VSEA Board members were able to ask Shumlin a host of questions about issues important to the union’s membership, like the state budget, the Vets’ Home, health care, temporary workers and privatization, and they inquired about his plan to strengthen and promote state services moving forward. After the interview concluded, the VSEA Board met to discuss what they had heard and then voted overwhelmingly to endorse Shumlin.
In a VTDigger story, VSEA Benefits Advisory Committee Chair Dave Bellini explains how state employees argued against health care "premium holidays" in favor of banking the money to prevent increases along the lines of….say 18%. Thanks Dave.
"The VSEA “vehemently” objected to the premium holidays, as well as having no premium increase in 2013, out of concern that doing so would keep coverage costs artificially low, Bellini said, calling those decisions ‘fiscally irresponsible.’
‘What you’re seeing is a rebound effect,’ he said, “We’re getting hit all at once.”
The VSEA would have preferred to see more modest increases this year and over the past two years, he said, but the Department of Human Resources insisted on the flat rate and premium holidays, Bellini said.
Read the full article here via VTDigger
Click here to read this week’s issue of Week In Action!
Subscribe to Week In Action here
Considering all the talk about Vermont’s looming deficit and the Governor recently calling on Departments and Agencies to "eat the Pay Act," the Auditor’s findings are pretty disturbing. How much money is unaccounted for by having no checks and balances in place and are Vermonters getting all the services taxpayer dollars fund?
Read the full story via VTDigger here
