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Calling all VSEA members! The 2019 membership drive has commenced! Become an active recruiter for your union—and you might be rewarded for your efforts. Never forget that ongoing recruitment is vital to the strength of your union.

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After being held up for weeks by disagreement on a water quality money issue, VSEA Policy Analyst Adam Norton reports from the State House that lawmakers passed the 2019 budget adjustment bill this afternoon.

Norton reports that there are three items included in the budget adjustment bill that are very important to VSEA DOC, DPS and Woodside members, which are:

1. Funding a one-grade-up reclassification of Corrections Officers 1 and 2, who recently prevailed in a class-action request for reclassification. Norton estimates the reclassifications to total approximately $2 million;

2. Funding a one-grade-up reclassification for State Trooper sergeants, lieutenants and captains, who were also successful in a recent reclassification effort. Norton estimates their reclassification will total approximately $1.8 million; and

3. Adding an additional $2.7 million to the beleaguered Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center’s budget to keep the facility operating through June 2019.

The Times Argus has published two outstanding letters to the editor this week, each defending unions and questioning who is behind a series of anti-union radio ads that recently began airing statewide on Vermont radio stations. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to pen these excellent letters Sue LaFleche and Sue Viens! 

Sue LaFleche – 3/27 (Barre Chapter President) 

I have recently heard the anti-union radio ads on WDEV. I am not sure who is paying for them. Could it be the Ethan Allen Institute, or some unknown corporate backer? This is another way the wealthy undermine the efforts of workers. Let’s look back to when there were no unions. Most people probably don’t give the 40-hour work-week a second thought — much less the hard-fought battle that came before it was law, not to mention safety protections or child labor laws. I may not have been around when unions were fighting for workers’ rights initially, but I want to remind others not to go backward.

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