Weekly News From Your Union: October 3, 2014

VSEA’s State Housing Authority Unit Ratifies New Contract!

 
VSEA is sending big congratulations to members belonging to the union’s Vermont State Housing Authority Unit. The votes were tallied on Tuesday, and the VSHA Unit overwhelmingly voted in favor of a new contract. VSEA issued the following press release:

Members of the Vermont State Employee Association’s (VSEA) Election, Rules and Nominating (ERN) Committee counted ballots at union headquarters today and announced the overwhelming ratification of a new contract by VSEA members belonging to the Vermont State Housing Authority Unit.

“VSEA is extremely pleased that our members belonging to the union’s State Housing Authority have voted in large numbers to ratify a new contract with the State,” said VSEA President Shelley Martin. “This makes VSEA seven-for-seven in 2014, in terms of negotiating fair agreements for our members, and that’s really something given how tough public employees in many other states are having it right now. I believe this new agreement is the State’s recognition of the Housing Authority workers’ dedication and the valuable contributions they make to Vermont each and every day.”

“I’m very proud of the way our rank-and-file State Housing Authority Unit Bargaining Team kept our colleagues updated on any and all developments throughout negotiations,” said VSEA VSHA member Jodi Parker. “By keeping members in the loop, the Team was able to build the kind of solidarity necessary to result in the fair and just contract we have now ratified in big numbers.”

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  Date Change! 

Brattleboro Chapter “Hiking For The Homeless” On October 5

VSEA Brattleboro Chapter President Robin Rieske is inviting Chapter members to join her and others on October 5 to “Hike for the Homeless.” Rieske and other VSEA hikers are meeting at 9:30 a.m. at the base of Wantastiquet in Hinsdale. All proceeds from the hike will benefit the Morningside Shelter.
 
“If you are able to come and wear your VSEA shirt, that would be great,” Rieske told members in an email this week. “We’ll accept any and all donations and present what is collected to the shelter, on behalf of the Brattleboro Chapter.”
 
Rieske is asking VSEA Brattleboro Chapter members who can’t make the hike to please consider supporting “this great cause” by dropping a check off to her at the Brattleboro Vermont Department of Health by Friday, October 3. You can also mail a donation to: Robin Rieske, 94 Hillcrest Terrace, Brattleboro, VT 05301. Make checks payable to Morningside Shelter.

For more information about the hike, please click here. You can also contact Robin by phone at 802-275-7232.
  
“It would be great to have VSEA well represented, if possible,” Rieske adds.
 
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Climate Change Marchers Holding “Homecoming” Tonight To Discuss Event With Participants And The Public

If you were unable to attend the People’s Climate March in NYC, come to the Old Labor Hall in Barre tonight, October 3, to hear firsthand about the event from Vermonters who did go, including VSEA members. The event begins at 7 p.m. and is open to the public and to VSEA members who want to learn more about the climate change issue and its impact on working Vermonters. VSEA marchers hope to see you there!

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  AMENDED!  

All VSEA Retirees To Move Into EGWP Prescription Drug Plan On Jan. 1, 2015

 

Retirees Can Opt Out But Doing So Forfeits Coverage

 

Note: The notice sent this week to VSEA retirees has been amended to include clarification (underlined) for retirees not yet eligible for Medicare. The amended message is below.

 

 

In March 2014, VSEA agreed to allow the State to move all Medicare-eligible retirees and their Medicare-eligible dependents into a federally administered prescription drug plan called an Employer Group Waiver Program, or an EGWP (“eggwhip”) plan.  Federal EGWP rules require employers to offer an “opt-out” opportunity.  However, the state health plan rules say that once you opt out, you cannot get back into the state’s drug plan.  Since the new EGWP drug plan replaces retirees’ current drug plan, there is no other drug plan option besides EGWP for Medicare-eligible retirees. 
 
The agreement calls for VSEA retirees to join the EGWP plan on January, 1, 2015.  All Medicare-eligible state retirees currently in the retiree medical/drug plan will be automatically transferred into the EGWP plan on January 1, except for those who choose to opt out.  There will be no change for retirees who are not yet Medicare-eligible.  Those retirees will stay in the current active state employees’ drug plan until they are Medicare-eligible, at which time they will be switched to the EGWP drug plan.
                                            
If you choose to opt out of the EGWP plan, please understand that you will lose your State-provided prescription drug coverage.  If you still choose to opt out, keep an eye on the U.S. Mail in the coming days and weeks for anything from Express Scripts.  If it’s a mailing about the January 1 EGWP program, and you are choosing not to participate, you must check the opt-out box included and submit your paperwork back to Express Scripts. If you do not do this, like all other Medicare-eligible VSEA retirees, you will be automatically enrolled in the EGWP plan on January 1, 2015. 
 
Medicare-eligible VSEA retirees who wish to remain in the state retiree prescription drug plan (EGWP) do not have to do anything. You will be automatically enrolled in the EGWP plan on January 1, 2015.
  
“Let me be clear that the only Medicare-eligible VSEA retirees who need to concern themselves with this notice are the ones who do not want to continue prescription drug coverage through the retiree medical plan,” clarifies VSEA Retirees’ Chapter President Joan Maclay. “If you don’t voluntarily opt out, you will automatically be enrolled.”   
 

 

 

 

 

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New Report Proposes DCF Changes. VSEA Wants To Know What Frontline Workers Think

In the wake of the recent, tragic deaths of two young Vermont children, newly appointed AHS Secretary Dr. Harry Chen and DCF Commissioner Ken Schatz released a study on October 1, summarizing ways to improve the Department for Children and Families. Not surprisingly, at the top of the list was a need for more staff; an argument VSEA members have been making for years now at the State House and to the press.
 
“It should be no secret to lawmakers or other State officials that there is a dire need for more staff within DCF,” VSEA President Shelley Martin tells WIA. “VSEA members have warned both parties for years that the previous administration’s ‘job cutting exercises’ severely decimated many services, especially in places like Family Services. VSEA is pleased that more positions are now being considered, but we’re equally concerned about projected future budget deficits that could cause the fixes recommended in this report to never see the light of day. They desperately need to happen…sooner, not later.”    

An October 2 VTDigger story about the study discusses the recommendations Martin references, reading, in part: “The Department for Children and Families needs eight more staff immediately and stronger coordination of the services it provides Vermonters” and “In addition to authorizing the department to create 27 new positions earlier this year, Gov. Peter Shumlin asked state human services officials to analyze whether DCF should be reorganized. The report recommended against splitting its two divisions, economic services and family services. Instead it called for eight new positions immediately as well as four more staff later, if budgets allow. It also calls for more staff training, better collaboration between DCF and other state and community partners, more transparency and better communication within DCF and with the Legislature and public, and more effective mid-level management so the department’s commissioner is free to move DCF forward.”
 
Martin is urging VSEA members, especially those working in DCF, to review Chen and Schatz’s report and let VSEA know what you think. Are the suggested added positions enough to address the problems that exist? What more would you do? Are there issues not identified in the report that you believe should be? VSEA wants to know.
 
Send your report feedback to vsea@vsea.org and write “DCF Report Feedback” in the subject line. Thanks in advance for your input.   

Click here to read this story on VTDigger.org

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VSEA President Promoting Vermont Vets’ Home To Members

 
If you’re a VSEA member with an aging relative who now requires hands-on care after serving in America’s armed forces, VSEA President Shelley Martin is appealing to you to consider allowing VSEA’s 200-plus members at the Vermont Veterans Home to provide your loved one with the top-level care they deserve.
 
“As I travel the state, talking with frontline workers about worksites where VSEA members are, I’m surprised by how many members are unaware of the Vermont Veterans Home or that several hundred VSEA members work there,” says Martin. “I always try and promote the Vets’ Home wherever I am. I tell people how dedicated the frontline workers are there and how much they care about their residents and how much pride they take in caring for this very special population of Vermonters. The Vets’ Home is a true Bennington landmark, and by supporting it, you are also supporting state employees.”
 
Martin asked WIA to provide members with the Vets’ Home admissions policy, which is:
 
“Vermont Veterans have priority for admission to the VVH.  Veterans from other states are welcome to apply. Eligible Veterans are those who served at least ninety days in the Armed Forces of the United States and were discharged under honorable conditions. Gold Star parents and spouses of qualified Veterans also are eligible for admission.”

For information and assistance with admission, send an email to vvh-admissions@state.vt.us. You can also find more information here.

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Public Assets’ Blog Post Sounds Alarm About Possible Cuts To Services And Positions

 
The Vermont non-profit group Public Assets posted a blog on October 1 that warns about possible service and position cuts, pointing out how counter that action would be to existing state statute that calls for a budget that “advances human dignity and equity.”
 
Here’s the post, verbatim:
 
“A month after announcing a 2 percent cut to the current year’s budget, the [State] is signaling its intention to make additional cuts of as much as 5 percent and possibly more next year (fiscal 2016). For an already anemic state government that is suffering from staffing shortages and struggling to meet its obligations to residents, the [State]’s directive cannot be good for Vermonters or for state employee morale.

The Department of Finance and Management sent fiscal 2016 budget instructions to state agency and department managers in mid-September. Managers have about a month to respond, explaining how they will deal with upward “pressures”—such as cost-of-living increases for state employees, caseload increases, contractual increases, loss of federal funding, inflation, and other new demands—and still meet their budget targets.

The [State] laid out two scenarios for fiscal 2016:

• Level funding—the same amount appropriated for this fiscal year after the cuts adopted in August; and
• Five percent cut from fiscal 2015 levels—again after the August cuts.

With both scenarios, the [State] is requiring that agencies and departments absorb state employee salary increases put in place in fiscal 2015. So ‘level funding’ really will mean less money for services next year than this year (see also 2011 blog on level funding). And because department managers are being warned there will be no state funds to make up for any cut in federal funds, except to meet ‘a critical state policy goal,’ the second scenario is likely to produce cuts deeper than 5 percent.

While Vermonters expect a balanced budget, the fact that a budget is balanced does not make it adequate. State statute says: ‘The state budget should be designed to address the needs of the people of Vermont in a way that advances human dignity and equity.’ Among the needs cited in the law are ‘health, housing, dignified work, education, food, social security, and a healthy environment.’

Next month when agencies and departments submit their responses to the governor’s budget targets, Vermonters also should get a look at what’s being proposed. Then they can judge whether the [State] is preparing a budget that is adequate to provide the services they need or simply one that makes the numbers come out even.”

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