VLRB Schedules Contract “Last-Best-Offers” Hearing Date Of March 20

The VLRB announced the hearing date for VSEA and the State this week. On March 20, each side will have an opportunity to present argument on their respective last best offers to the VLRB members, beginning at 9:00 a.m. in the VLRB’s hearing room, located at 13 Baldwin Street in Montpelier.

This is the final stage of the collective-bargaining impasse process, following unsuccessful negotiations that began in August 2017. The VLRB is charged with selecting between the parties’ last-best-offer packages, considering them in their entirety and without amendment. However, should the VLRB find that each side’s last-best-offer is unreasonable and likely to produce undesirable results—or likely to result in a long-lasting negative impact upon the parties’ collective-bargaining relationship—the VLRB may select the fact-finder’s recommendations on disputed issues submitted to the VLRB in the last-best-offers.

The VLRB’s decision is expected by March 30, and it will be final and binding.

Here are links to VSEA’s and the State’s
last-best-offers:

• VSEA Teams (PDF 5 MB)
   
• State of Vermont (PDF 19 MB)

Please forward any and all questions or comments to a member of your Unit Bargaining Team. Find a list of Team members here.

VSEA Labor Relations Director Sending Bargaining Message On Monday To Members With Valid Home Email Addresses

VSEA members who have not already updated their home email address with VSEA can update this and other information simply by clicking here.

Seven Days Reports On Stalled Mental Health Care Debate At State House. Frontline Workers Waiting For Help.

Seven Days posted a story on March 7 that concerns stalled debate at the State House over the future of Vermont’s mental health care delivery system. The story details some lawmaker opposition to a State plan to construct a forensic mental health unit at the Northwest State Correctional Facility.

From the story:

The secretary has asked for $2.9 million to build a temporary 12-bed psychiatric wing at the Northwest State Correctional Facility that would cost $6.5 million annually to operate. The House Health Care Committee formally declared its opposition last week, on financial and policy grounds.

While most lawmakers agree on the need for more beds, there’s no consensus on the best solution. That doesn’t bode well for a larger challenge that policymakers have yet to confront: Vermont is three years away from losing millions of federal dollars that help pay for a large portion of inpatient beds in the state system.
 

"We’ve gotta get this moving now,"
[AHS Secretary Al] Gobeille said.

He’s right. And it appears from this story excerpt that VSEA members are not alone in their desire for quick and comprehensive action to address Vermont’s mental health care crisis.

“The bed shortage reached such a crisis that, last August, emergency room doctors and nurses from Central Vermont Medical Center showed up unannounced at [the State’s top] office in Montpelier and demanded to meet with [the Governor]. [He] wasn’t available, but he sent Gobeille to talk with the group the next day.

What the hospital staff told the human services secretary wasn’t news to him: Patients are languishing in emergency rooms, where they occupy badly needed beds without receiving the treatment they require.”

Reminder: VSEA DMH Members Tried To Do The Right Thing In 2006

One legislator who was listening at the time was then Rep. John Rogers, who, after hearing VSEA members’ testimony in favor of a new, state-owned facility, openly asked his colleagues in 2010 “Is there a reason we have to depend on this federal money?"

Here is a link to a 2010 WIA story about VSEA members’ lobbying efforts, which includes a reference to a letter the Vermont State Hospital’s then-Director of Psychiatry Dr. Larry Thomson wrote to legislators about the VSEA plan. At the time, the State was proposing to allow a private entity to take over the service entirely.

Read Dr. Thomson’s Letter

VSEA members are urged to contact Vermont’s federal representatives and your state representatives to voice your support for “repeal of the 16-bed federal IMD mandate” and for them to “find more, much-needed acute beds to care for every Vermonter who depends on the state’s mental health system.”

Note: Dr. Thomson was a VSEA member and leading voice for Vermonters living with mental illness when he penned this letter. Sadly, Larry has since passed away. His voice would have been so meaningful right now, especially given the current crisis right here in Vermont.

VSEA Urges State Employees Who Are Threatened On The Job To
File Form

(Even If Online Form Navigation Is Tricky)

After leading a successful training this week for VSEA stewards, VSEA Field Services Director Gretchen Naylor asked WIA to remind all VSEA members that there is an online form to fill out if you are threatened while at work. Naylor said promoting the form and its link is something several stewards said would be useful.

Find The State’s “eAlert” Homepage Here

Important: Once you land on the eAlert page, you will see an entry labeled “threat” in the menu provided. Click on it and you land on a page with written instructions, but the form’s actual entry fields are located in a menu in the page’s left-hand column.

In November 2017, the current Secretary of the Administration sent the State’s “Workplace Safety and Security” policy to state employees and VSEA members are encouraged to read through the different policies, examples and responses, prior to an actual event occurring. Oddly, the policy does not include a reference to the State’s eAlert online reporting function.

VSEA Congratulates New Barre Mayor & Montpelier City Councilperson

VSEA is sending congratulations to past VSEA Treasurer and current state employee Lucas Herring on being elected on Tuesday to be Barre’s new mayor and to past VSEA staffer Conor Casey on being elected to be Montpelier’s new District 2 Councilperson.

If you know of current or past VSEA members or staff who ran for local office and won on Tuesday, let WIA know, and we will send out congratulations to them as well.  

VSEA Law Enforcement Members’ Feedback Needed By March 16!

VSEA’s Legislative team sent an email late last week to all its law enforcement members, informing you about a bill being considered at the State House that could affect you and your job. If you recall receiving the email, please take a few minutes to learn about S. 198 in the summary provided and then take the short survey and send your thoughts to VSEA to VSEA’s Legislative team.

The email was sent to state employees working in the following:

• Sworn Law Enforcement;
• Corrections;
• Department of Motor Vehicles;
• Liquor Control; and
• Lottery Commission

If you do not recall receiving this email and feel you should have, please contact VSEA Organizer David Oppenheimer by email at doppenheimer@vsea.org.

David is asking VSEA’s law enforcement members to please complete this important survey by Friday, March 16.

Franklin / Grand Isle Chapter Meets March 13

The VSEA Franklin / Grand Isle Chapter is holding a meeting on Tuesday, March 13, at 5:00 p.m. at Mimmo’s Restaurant, located at 22 South Main Street in St. Albans. Food is being provided!

Please direct any questions or comments to VSEA Franklin / Grand Isle Chapter President Janine Cary via email at janine.cary@vermont.gov.

Organizer’s Worksite Meeting On March 13 In Middlebury!

NEK / St. Johnsbury Chapter Meets March 14

Please RSVP in advance—or direct any questions or comments—to VSEA NEK / St. Johnsbury Chapter President Ellen Hinman via email at ellen.hinman@vermont.gov.

Springfield Chapter
Now Meeting March 15

Weather forced the VSEA Springfield Chapter to cancel its March 8 meeting and reschedule it to March 15 at 4:30 p.m. at the State Office Building’s first-floor meeting room, located at 100 Mineral Street in Springfield. Food and beverages being provided!

Please RSVP in advance—or direct any questions or comments—to VSEA Springfield Chapter President Joey Holmes via email at jholmes2013@comcast.net.

VSEA Facebook Group Pages

Responding to VSEA members’ requests for new ways to engage with their fellow union members and state employees, VSEA recently created two new Facebook group pages, one for Council members and another for Stewards. The pages are being administered by VSEA, and in order to keep out trolls or non-members, the name of anyone seeking to join one or both of the groups will be checked through VSEA’s membership database.

Hopefully, these pages will provide VSEA Council members and Stewards with a place to ask questions, provide information and post articles of interest to the group. In addition, Council members and Stewards can now engage with their counterparts statewide on a daily basis.

• Join VSEA Council Facebook Group
   
• Join VSEA Steward Facebook Group

West Virginia Teachers’ Stay Solid And Win New Agreement

This week’s contract victory by West Virginia teachers is being called one of the biggest wins for organized labor in a long time—and rightfully so.

In case you missed the news, a much-publicized West Virginia teachers’ strike finally forced state lawmakers this week to agree to a 5% pay raise the teachers had been promised. Last week, there was news that a tentative agreement had been reached, but teachers, to their credit, refused to stop picketing until lawmakers officially approved the raise. Thanks to the teachers win, state employees will also receive a raise.

Here are some of the better press generated by the teachers’ victory:

• The Guardian: West Virginia Teachers’ Triumph Offers Fresh Hope For US Workers’ Rights;

• Steve Greenhouse, New York Times: The West Virginia Teacher Strike Was Just The Start;

• Christian Science Monitor: West Virginia Teachers, State Workers To Receive 5 Percent Raise;

• Bloomberg: Could Wildcat Teachers’ Strikes Spread to Other States?

• Governing: West Virginia Teachers Strike Inspires Talk of Protest in Other States; and

• New York Times: West Virginia Raises Teachers’ Pay To End Statewide Strike.

Oklahoma, Kentucky & Arizona Teachers Could Be Next To Strike

This week’s huge victory by West Virginia teachers has opened the door for more teachers across the country to consider taking collective action like a strike to obtain fair wages and benefits. Here is some of the press about what might be coming soon:

• Reuters: Oklahoma Teachers To Lawmakers: Raise Pay By April 1 Or We Shut Schools;
• Associated Press: Kentucky Teachers Rally Over Retirement Cuts, Warn of Strike; and
• KVOA: Could Arizona Teachers Strike?

Don’t Forget What International Women’s Day Is Really About

For International Women’s Day on March 8, Independnet UK published this piece on the history of International Women’s Day and how it came to be.

From the story:

"In the early 20th century, their movement blossomed. New York City’s streets again saw women march demanding shorter hours, better pay, an end to child labour and the right to vote in 1908. Leading labour organisers sought to strengthen the movement internationally. At the Conference of Working Women held in Copenhagen in 1910, Clara Zetkin asked over 100 women from 17 countries – representing unions, socialist parties and women’s working clubs – to pass a motion for an International Working Women’s Day. They did so, unanimously, and the so International Women’s Day was born."

Read the full article here

VSEA Bus Trip To Foxwoods Casino!

The VSEA Membership Recruitment Committee is pleased to announce a 2018 casino trip with a two-night stay!

Lodging Cost:
(Two Nights at Two Trees Inn):

• $248/single occupancy;
• $138 per person/double occupancy; or
• $122 per person/triple occupancy.

Bus Cost:
$70 per person
Bus will depart from Waterbury at 12:00 p.m. and White River Junction at 1:00 p.m.

Included Bonuses:

• Baggage handling;
  (2) $10 food credit or full Festival Buffet;
• $5 food credit or full Breakfast Buffet;
• $20 slot play;
• 20% discount at any Foxwoods gift shop with a purchase of $25 up to $1,000; and
• A Foxwoods souvenir.

To register or for more information, please contact VSEA Union Rep Bob South (bsouth@vsea.org) or Administrative Assistant Sue DeVoid (sdevoid@vsea.org). Each can be reached by phone at 802-223-5247.

Important Information!
Payment must be received within one week of registering or you will lose your spot. Cash, check and credit card payments accepted. To pay, please contact VSEA Union Representative Bob South by email (bsouth@vsea.org) or phone 802-223-5247. Thank You!