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Make Your Voice Heard! Monday Is Public Hearing On State’s Budget Proposals
Monday, February 9, is a golden opportunity for state employees to let lawmakers know how you feel about the State’s proposed budget cuts and their impact on the service you provide. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees are hosting a joint public hearing on the State’s budget proposal on Monday, February 9 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at 13 Vermont Interactive Television (VIT) locations across the state.
Appropriations Committee members have a tremendous power over the final outcome of the budget process. Join your colleagues in wearing your VSEA t-shirt to the VIT location closest to you. Members of the audience will be given the opportunity to speak to the proposed budget and the impact of such cuts to state services.
Lawmakers need to hear loud and clear:
NO CUTS TO STATE SERVICES!
Find The VIT Studio Nearest You
View State’s Proposed Budget
VSEA members can also submit written testimony in advance of the hearing. You can email your testimony to the Joint Fiscal Office’s Theresa Utton-Jerman (tutton@leg.state.vt.us) or Rebecca Buck (rbuck@leg.state.vt.us).
You can also fax testimony to 802-828-2295. |
Save State Services! Sign VSEA’s Statewide Petition!
In the past few weeks, state employees may have run into VSEA organizers and members at your worksite, leafleting and soliciting signatures for a petition asking lawmakers to stop the cuts to state services and, instead, seek new revenue sources.
If you and your co-workers haven’t yet signed VSEA’s petition, please download a copy here. Please also distribute copies of this petition to other state employees in your region. The more signatures we collect, the better.
Information about where to submit your filled-out petition is on the bottom of the document.
Thanks in advance for the help!
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Tired Of Cuts?
Multiple Opportunities To Make Your Voice Heard At VSEA’s February 17 State House Day. Register Today!
On February 17, VSEA will host the union’s annual day of action at the State House in Montpelier. VSEA State House Day (formerly "Lobby Day") is where VSEA members can talk face-to-face with legislators about the services you provide and the issues and challenges you and your colleagues face.
Register to attend VSEA’s State House Day by clicking here!
This year’s VSEA State House Day features:
- An informal coffee with lawmakers, beginning at 7:30 a.m., right outside the State House cafeteria;
- A noon Town Hall meeting inside House Chambers, providing VSEA members an opportunity to publicly share stories about the service you deliver, the adverse impact of past and currently proposed cuts to services or anything else on your mind; and
- VSEA’s annual Legislative Open House begins at 4:00 p.m. Another great opportunity to meet face-to-face with lawmakers in a casual, relaxed atmosphere.
Member turnout will be key this year, as ongoing budget shortfalls continue to increase the size of the target on additional state services and positions. We must fight back against the mindset to keep cutting public services and jobs, as opposed to finding new revenue to avoid cuts and keep vital state services operating.
Again, please register here to attend VSEA State House Day on February 17. Thanks!
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NMU Bargaining Team’s Survey Now Live!
VSEA’s Non-Management Unit Bargaining Team sent a letter and survey link to NMU members this week. The survey seeks to assess NMU members’ bargaining priorities before entering into formal negotiations this fall with the State. The NMU’s 46-question survey is comprehensive, covering everything from wages to benefits to working conditions.
NMU Chair Bob Stone is stressing the importance of the survey and is urging as many NMU members as possible to fill it out and send it in.
NMU members can link to the survey here. The Team is requesting that surveys be completed by April 15, 2015.
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New VSEA Facebook CHSVT Meme Question’s State’s 2011 Declaration To Wage A War On Recidivism
Click here to view a larger image
VSEA posted a new meme to its Facebook page this week, featuring longtime Community High School of Vermont (CHSVT) educator and VSEA Board member Mary Poulos questioning the State’s 2011 declaration to wage a “war on recidivism.” On the meme, Poulos asks “reduce recidivism?” or “cut the CHSVT program? Which is it?”
Back in 2011, State officials and lawmakers were openly grousing about Corrections costs and the need to bring them down. In a speech, the State’s top official told Vermonters that the way to reduce DOC costs is to declare a war on recidivism. CHSVT employees were thrilled by the proclamation because they knew their program is an effective and proven way to lower rates of recidivism. Segue now to 2015, and the State is proposing to deeply cut the CHSVT’s funding; a move that CHSVT workers flies in the face of the State’s 2011 alleged “war on recidivism” and its efforts to reduce DOC costs.
“This cut, under the guise of ‘saving money,’ will ultimately cost the state considerably more in the long run,” CHSVT Educator Sarah Loveless explains. “Study after study has shown that education and employment are the only ways out of the correctional system and off of public assistance.” Loveless points to a 2013 study by the Rand Corporation that found a clear correlation between corrections education and a 43% reduction in recidivism. The study also found that for every $1 spent on corrections education, $4 to $5 is saved in incarceration costs during the first three years post-release. “It is shortsighted to drastically reduce programming that so effectively saves the State money over the long term,” she adds.
One CHSVT educator is also upset that the DOC is not providing lawmakers with data about how many Vermont offenders identified as having “educational needs” are not being placed in the CHSVT system.
“Why are only a small percentage of Vermont inmates with educational needs actually enrolled and regularly attending CHSVT?” asks the Educator. “That’s a question I would like to hear lawmakers ask DOC officials because we sure can’t figure it out. Is not putting the eligible inmates in our program a way to keep numbers down and create a narrative that the need is not there? Trust me, the need is there, and we have an excellent staff to produce the results intended.”
Note: VSEA’s CHSVT members are asking all VSEA members to please contact your local lawmakers and ask them to “stop the budget cut to the CHSVT.” Letters to the editor are helpful too.
Click here to find your local lawmakers contact info
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VSEA Facebook Page Nears 1,000 “Likes!” Thanks!
Today or tomorrow, the VSEA is hoping its Facebook page will reach 1,000 “Likes.”
“Thanks to all the members and supporters who have ‘liked’ VSEA’s Facebook page,” says VSEA Communications Director Doug Gibson. “In additional to helping educate members on issues and campaigns, VSEA members are discovering what a useful tool social media is to combat workplace injustice and wrongheaded decisions. Interestingly, the number of people ‘liking’ our page has increased faster since the State announced its budget cutting plans. We read that as a rejection of the ‘cuts, cuts and more cuts mentality’ and strong support for state employees and the services they provide.”
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More Local Public Safety Officials Bemoan State’s Proposed Consolidation Of 911 Emergency Dispatch Offices
On the heels of a Rutland Herald story featuring three prominent local public safety officials questioning the logic behind the Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) decision to save money by consolidating four 911 Emergency Dispatch Offices into just two, comes a story this week on VPR with even more frontline public safety workers opposed to the ill-advised cut. DPS is proposing to close the Derby and Rutland Dispatch Offices and leave only the Rockingham and Williston Offices open. As reported before in WIA, frontline VSEA Dispatchers are concerned that consolidation means sacrificing a local Dispatcher’s knowledge of the areas surrounding Rutland and Derby, as well as losing all their local contacts. In the VPR story, Rutland City Firefighter Seth Bride joins the growing chorus of public safety professionals opposed to the State’s desire to have fewer frontline Dispatchers covering larger territories.
“It worries me because on more instances than I can count we have had 911 calls coming in and they are looking for help but don’t know an address,” says Bride. “They give us, ‘I’m off this road, next to Mr. Bill’s Farm Stand; I am by the monument.’ With four of us in the room at the Rutland PSAP we have had many times where we can turn around and say, ‘We have been there, we know where that is, and we can get them help right away,” explains Bride.
Rutland Sen. Kevin Mullin questions the consolidation as well, correctly pointing out that the offices being closed are located in two Vermont towns that have taken big economic hits in the past few years.
The story also reports that a public forum is being held Sunday at 7:00 p.m. at the Center Rutland Fire Station to discuss the role Dispatchers play in public safety. Supporters of the Dispatchers are urged to attend, if possible.
Note: VSEA Dispatchers are asking all VSEA members to please contact your local lawmakers and ask them to “stop the consolidation of the Dispatcher offices.” Letters to the editor are helpful too.
Click here to be redirected to the Rutland Herald’s Letters To The Editor page.
Click here to find your local lawmakers contact info
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White River Junction & Springfield VSEA Meetings To Discuss State Budget Proposal
VSEA Labor Educator Tim Lenoch will be hosting a series of meetings next week in Springfield and White River Junction to discuss the State’s proposed budget cuts and their potential impact on state employees’ working conditions.
Thursday, February 12
12:00 p.m. AND 4:30 p.m.*
Springfield State Office Building
100 Mineral St.
First Floor
*Two meetings being held to accommodate workers outside the State Office Building (AOT, DOC) and those who need to leave by 4:30 p.m.
Friday, February 13
12:00 p.m.
Gilman Office Complex, Bldg. #1
ESD Conference Room
First Floor
Pizza and refreshments will be served at these meetings.
For more information on the State’s proposed cuts, click here.
Questions/Concerns: Contact Tim Lenoch at tlenoch@vsea.org or 802-777-2813
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VSEA Awards & Scholarship Webpage Updated
VSEA has updated its Awards & Scholarship page to include new 2015 VSEA and VSCSF Scholarship application forms and new 2015 forms to nominate Chapters, members and staff for various VSEA awards handed out each year in September at your union’s Annual Meeting.
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Rash Of Snowplow Accidents Prompts Secretary To Pen Letter Reminding Motorists To “Slow Down!”
Photo credit: Vermont DMV
Given this week’s new reports about four highway accidents involving AOT members driving State plow trucks, VSEA is happy to join AOT Secretary Sue Minter’s call this week for motorists to slow down during winter, especially when there is snow falling and deteriorating conditions. In a letter to the editor of the Times Argus, Minter wrote: “The best way that the traveling public can honor the hard work of [AOT] road heroes, and the work of our state police and EMS workers, is by partnering with us on the roadway to drive safely. VTrans works hard to make our roads safer, and last year the number of fatalities on Vermont’s roads was the lowest since before World War II. The vast majority of car crashes in winter can be prevented by slowing down. So, please help us, your neighbors and yourself by taking extra time, focusing on driving, and helping to save lives.”
“VSEA agrees with Secretary Minter,” VSEA President Shelley Martin tells WIA. “Our AOT workers are the nation’s best, and we appreciate how difficult their job can sometimes be, especially when, during a storm, someone is in a hurry to get around them or their aggressive driving is causing other drivers to have to swerve erratically on icy conditions. Just use some caution and slow down. A plow driver’s job is hard enough.”
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NMU Looking To Fill Vacancies
VSEA Non-Management Unit Chairperson Bob Stone is actively looking to fill several open positions, including:
- NMU Bargaining Team Clerk; and
- NMU Bargaining Team – Law Enforcement Seat
VSEA NMU members interested in any of the above positions are asked to send a letter of interest by close of business Friday, February 6, to:
Bob Stone
NMU Chairperson
c/o VSEA
155 State St.
Montpelier, VT 05602
You can also send an email of interest to rstone@vsea.org
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Know Your Rights! Organizing, Soliciting And Distributing In Support Of Your Union
Note: VSEA’s Legal team asked WIA to clarify members’ rights with respect on-site organizing, soliciting and distributing of literature in support of VSEA.
“According to the law and VSEA’s contracts, union members and union staff have a right to organize, solicit, and distribute literature in support of the union. These rights include:
- The right to organize and solicit on behalf of the union on non-work time. For this purpose, non-work time includes breaks and meal times; and
- The right to distribute union materials on non-work time, but only in non-work areas, which include break rooms and public areas.
In addition, the VSEA contracts provide that the union may engage in organizing activities on employer premises, so long as those activities are on non-work time, which includes break and meal times. Both union members and staff are protected by these rights. The only difference is that VSEA staff’s access to
non-work areas will depend on the rules spelled out in the contract as opposed to public areas or break rooms.
The employer cannot discriminate against union organizing activities, including speech or email communications.
These rights to organize, solicit, and distribute are fundamental aspects of employees’ legal right to engage in concerted activity, to organize into unions for the purpose of forming or advancing a union, and bargaining collectively. The Vermont Labor Relations Board enforces these rights through unfair labor practice proceedings.
While Vermont law prohibits solicitation in general on state property under some circumstances, that general prohibition conflicts with the specific rights protected under the state labor laws and agreed to by the State in the collective bargaining agreements. Under such circumstances, the courts and the VLRB will interpret the specific law as a legislative exception to the more general law. For example, in the private sector employers may generally bar solicitations on their property, but the specific provisions of the National Labor Relations Act have been interpreted to protect employees’ rights to solicit and distribute on behalf of their unions.
If any supervisor or manager interferes with the rights described above, please notify a VSEA steward, organizer or representative immediately. VSEA will then take appropriate action under the contract or the law.”
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