As employees of the Vermont Judiciary and leaders of the Judicial Unit of the VSEA, we wanted to share this open letter asking Court Administrator Patricia Gabel to address a critical situation facing the Vermont Judiciary. We urge you to contact Ms. Gabel and to tell her to act now to support the 100 Docket Clerks, mostly women, who keep the courts running but earn poverty wages.
VSEA Organizing Director Vinnie O’Connor and Field Services Director Gretchen Naylor announced, via email to all members, that, beginning Monday, May 23, VSEA’s six Union Representatives will now be assigned to specific state agencies and departments, as opposed to regions and territories, which has been the practice.
In case you missed it, here is what O’Connor wrote to members in his email about the change:
Last year, in an effort to provide more targeted, hands-on support for hundreds of state employees working in the Agency of Transportation, a decision was made to assign one VSEA Union Representative almost exclusively to this Unit. The experiment was very successful, and now VSEA leaders want to duplicate its success by making similar Unit/Agency VSEA Union Representative assignments statewide and across government.
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News Release — Cheri Goldstein
May 17, 2016
Contact: Michelle Salvador, Campaign Manager (802) 249-0743, michelle@radvt.org
WORCESTER, VT – Longtime local resident Cheri Goldstein filed signatures by supporters yesterday in her bid for a seat in the Vermont House of Representatives. Goldstein has worked in public service for nearly three decades including serving on the Worcester Selectboard and on the boards of several community organizations. Goldstein and her partner have adopted and raised eleven children in the Worcester community.
VSEA’s NMU, Supervisory and Corrections Units are just now emerging mostly victorious (losing the Risk Management Division with no apparent successor named, nor savings demonstrated, is a definite and unfortunate loss) months of very tough bargaining with the Shumlin Administration. Now your union’s Judiciary Unit is in a tough fight to secure a new contract agreement with Vermont Court Administrator, Patricia Gabel.
One particular group of Judiciary Unit employees, docket clerks, has been fighting for a reclassification and more pay for a long time now, and the Judiciary Unit Bargaining Team made their fight a bargaining priority for this round of negotiations, but, to date, Ms. Gabel is refusing to entertain the idea.
VSEA docket clerks decided to make a video to send a personal message to Ms. Gabel, and the workers are asking VSEA members to please share the video far and wide to educate Vermonters about their fight for a fair wage and reclassification.
Thanks in advance for your support!
