VSEA.org

Several news outlets published stories this week about the results of a recent State Human Rights Commission investigation into allegations of patient-to-employee and employee-to-employee racial discrimination and harassment at the Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital in Berlin. The findings were disturbing, to say the least.

In response, VSEA President Dave Bellini is sending the following statement to VSEA members today as part of the union’s weekly email update "Week In Action"

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The House and Senate Appropriation Committees are holding hearings around the state on Monday, February 12, to take public comment on Gov. Phil Scott’s FY2019
budget proposal.

The hearings begin at 6:00 p.m.* at the following locations:

Seven Days reports today that former DOC Commissioner and AHS Secretary Con Hogan returned to the State House recently to blast the Scott Administration’s ill-adivsed proposal to allow CoreCivic to set up shop in Vermont.

From Seven Days Fair Game Column: 

"Hogan’s testimony was a thorough, point-by-point takedown of the plan. Vermont’s corrections system works because it’s spread around the state, he said, while a ‘campus’ would be isolated from community. Prisons ‘are schools of crime; large facilities are even better schools of crime.’ Large projects are prone to cost overruns. Putting mental health patients in a prison complex is a bad idea. Building beds for federal detainees, simply to harvest revenue, is also a bad idea. Demographic trends indicate a likely decline in inmate populations. Reducing the number of inmates "should be our first priority, not building more beds." And "private prison corporations cannot be trusted." 

Well said Mr. Hogan. Thanks

Each spring, the VSEA Awards & Scholarship Committee solicits scholarship applications from VSEA members and their spouses, dependents and domestic partners. The application process is easy, requiring the applicant to write a couple of short essays as well as provide a grade history, employment history, personal references and a few other things.

All applications received before May 8, 2018, will be reviewed by Committee members, who will then decide from among all this year’s eligible candidates who is awarded a 2018 VSEA scholarship.

Winners will be announced at the VSEA Council’s June 2018 meeting.

Download a PDF application here (Opens/downloads PDF)

Click here to be redirected to the download page…