VSEA Members Urged To Rally With Teachers On June 7

On Wednesday, June 7, Vermont National Education Association (VTNEA) members and supporters are holding rallies in various locations statewide to urge public support for their right to collectively bargain. Supporters from unions across Vermont will be rallying in solidarity with the teachers.

VSEA is urging members who live or work in any of the following towns to please attend a VTNEA June 7 rally if you are able:

Barre
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
City Hall Park

Bellows Falls
4:30 p.m.
Arch Bridge
Downtown

Bennington
4:30 p.m.
Four Corners
Main Street

Brattleboro
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Pliny Park
High & Main Streets

Middlebury
5:00 p.m.
Middlebury Green

Montpelier
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Shaw’s Intersection
Main Street & River St.

Morrisville
4:30 p.m.
Four Corners

Rutland
3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Route 4 & West Street

Shelburne
7:30 p.m.
Shelburne Green

South Burlington
4:30 p.m.
Staples Plaza
861 Williston Road

Waterbury
4:30 p.m.
Waterbury Green

Winooski
4:30 p.m.
The Rotary

Hope to see you and others on June 7!

Once Again, Senator Pollina Steps Up To Defend Vermont Workers Under Attack

In response to the State’s threat to veto the budget because teachers are justifiably refusing to give up their right to collectively bargain their health care benefits, Senator Anthony Pollina (P-Washington) penned an op-ed this week, titled “Eliminating Local Bargaining Is A Big Deal.”

Here’s an excerpt:

“There is more money for child care, our state colleges and mental health workers; support for small rural towns, commercial loggers and foresters; and a major investment in much-needed affordable housing. And, it got there without raising taxes, just like the [State] asked. It passed the Senate unanimously and in the House got all but one vote.

So why the veto?”

Read the Full Op-Ed

Looking Again To Fill Open Combined Unit Seat On VSEA Board Of Trustees

The VSEA Board of Trustees is once again casting a net to find members interested in filling the body’s Combined Unit seat. This seat is open to VSEA members working in the Defender General’s Office and at the State Housing Authority.

All full-fledged VSEA members who work for the Defender General’s Office and State Housing Authority are eligible and are encouraged to submit a petition.

The process is easy:

• Download and print a petition here
• Collect the names and original signatures of 25 full-fledged VSEA members on your petition and submit your completed petition to VSEA by 4:00 p.m., Thursday, June 22.

National AFL-CIO Releases List Of 13 Ways The Proposed Federal Budget Cuts Would Hurt Workers

The national AFL-CIO this week posted an article to its website that lists the 13 ways the new administration’s proposed federal budget cuts would hurt working Americans.

They are:

1. Jobs
   It will kill nearly 2 million jobs by 2020 through huge budget cuts.
2. Tax Cuts
   It will waste trillions of dollars on tax cuts for big corporations and the wealthiest 1% and increase the tax incentive for global corporations to send jobs overseas.
3. Medicaid
   It will cause millions of people to lose Medicaid coverage because of its $1.6 trillion in cuts to the program.
4. Social Security
   It will cut Social Security’s earned benefits by $64 billion, and some workers will be hit with an average of $7,000 in cuts to their initial disability benefits.
5. Medicare
   It will cut $59 billion in Medicare and undermine financing of the Medicare program.
6. Education
   It will devastate public schools, eliminate after-school programs and much-needed training for teachers, and make it harder for young people to go to college by cutting student loan funding by $143 billion over 10 years.
7. Workers’ Rights
   It will threaten workers’ freedoms by decimating the National Labor Relations Board while increasing funding for union audits and undermining workers’ pension plans.
8. Safety and Health for
   Working People
   It will eliminate the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s worker safety and health-training program, gut job safety research, wipe out investigations of chemical accident, and weaken OSHA’s ability to inspect workplaces, leading to more workers being injured and killed on the job.
9. Training for Working People
   It will deny training and employment services for nearly 7.7 million adults, displaced workers, seniors, young people and farm workers.
10. Working Women
    It will harm working women, especially working mothers, by cutting funding for Medicaid, food stamps, and child care assistance and eliminating the only federal agency mandated to represent the needs of wage-earning women.
11. Federal Employees
    It will cut federal employees’ retirement benefits by $117 billion and cut their pay by 6% by forcing them to pay more toward their retirement.
12. Infrastructure
    Despite its proposed $200 billion infrastructure initiative, it will continue to neglect crumbling infrastructure by cutting $206 billion in existing federal infrastructure programs, including Amtrak, rail, transit, superfund cleanup, public housing repair, water and other programs.
13. Immigrant Working People
    Immigrant workers, who are a positive part of our communities, and unions face attacks because of increases in funding for programs to arrest, detain and deport them.

VSEA Invites Female Members To Sign Up For 2017 Northeast Regional Summer School For Union Women

VSEA is inviting members interested in attending the 42nd UALE Northeast Regional Summer School For Union Women to contact your union today. This year’s school is being held July 22-26 on the campus of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in Amherst, Ma. VSEA is sponsoring 10 members who want to attend, and two have already signed up to go.

The UALE Summer School includes classes and workshops on a variety of union-related topics. Women from all over the country and beyond learn the skills and knowledge needed to play leadership roles in their unions. Visitors from unions in other countries frequently participate. One of the most valuable aspects of the schools is the chance to meet and network with other union women from around the region and beyond.

The deadline for interested members to let VSEA know that you would like to attend this event is the close of business, Tuesday, June 20! Email a letter of interest and your contact information to VSEA Clerk Katelyn Chase at kchase@vsea.org.

Learn more about the 2017 UALE here!

VSEA Board Endorses Member Participation In 2017 “Vermont LGBTQIA Solidarity March”

Montpelier marchers are meeting at 10:00 a.m. in the parking lot of the Department of Labor, located at 5 Green Mountain Drive. The march begins from there at 10:30 a.m., and there is a rally on the State House steps, beginning at 11:00 a.m.

Small Corrections To Supervisory Unit Bargaining Team Contact Info

Earlier this week, the VSEA Supervisory Bargaining Team sent an email to Unit members, soliciting ideas from them to include in upcoming negotiations and listing current contact information for each Team member. The email listing contained a couple of errors, and Supervisory Unit members are urged to amend with the following correct information:

• Change Barbara Zonay’s email address to: Barbara.Zonay @vermont.gov; and

• Change Sheila Manchester’s phone contact information to: 802-479-1135 (W), 802-249-8877 (H) and 802-223-7404 (C)

Newport Chapter Holding Employee Appreciation Day Event On June 9

Stop by during your lunch break for treats and VSEA giveaway items. VSEA staff and member leaders will be on hand to provide Newport Chapter members with updates on the issues and challenges facing state employees and learn more from you about how your service is functioning and what your needs are.

Come share your ideas about how to build a stronger VSEA and also hear what your colleagues think. Bring your lunch, your co-workers, and your concerns.

VSEA Member Scores Vehicle Discount Thanks To VSEA Advantage Program Discount

One week after WIA announced that Paquin Motors had added its name to the growing list of vendors participating in your union’s Advantage Discount Program, VDH member Colleen Bedard wrote VSEA to say how happy she is with the money the program saved her this week at the dealership.

“The transaction was incredibly smooth at Paquin Motors,” says Bedard (pictured here with new vehicle). “My salesman, Jeff Devoid, let me in on a little secret that as a member of the VSEA I was eligible for a nice discount on my 2017 Dodge Ram. Unbelievable savings. Thank you VSEA!”

Here is more information about VSEA’s new and improved Advantage Discount Program.

Right-To-Work Is Wronging Workers

The story ends ominously with a quote from one of the story’s authors, saying, “There needs to be a broad recognition amongst the public of what’s at stake. This is not just an attack on unions but an attack on democracy itself.”

To help VSEA more effectively reach active members—and really all those members who want to know what’s going on in their union—VSEA will be working hard in the coming months to collect members’ emails on its own and begin to build contact lists that cannot be altered by a State download.

You can help us get started by clicking here and signing up for the VSEA communications you are interested in receiving.

Thank you in advance for subscribing. Please urge your colleagues to do the same.