Central Washington University Bargaining Team August 17, 2010

CWU Bargaining Update

Washington Federation of State Employees • AFSCME Council 28 • AFL-CIO www.wfse.org

Schedule of
negotiations: Movement at the table slows Affordable health care tops
Thu. - August 26 as frustration grows survey results
Thu/Fri. - September 9-10
We wrapped up another round of bargain- Survey results are the same at every WFSE
Bargaining Team: ing on August 12. Two articles were added bargaining table - Health care tops mem-
Laury Berner to our list of articles TA’d (tentative agree- bers concerns. 50% of our members took
Pat Devlin ment): part in the survey and here’s our top 3
Skip Jensen
• Article 13 - Shared Leave survey results:
Brian Pinger
Chris Stebbins • Article 28 - Privacy and Off-Duty 1. Affordable health care
Conduct. 2. Strong layoff and recall rights
Lead Negotiator:
Kurt Spiegel
We held firm with no takeaways on one 3. Holiday pay equivalent to work shift.
kurts@wfse.org and gained ground on the other. But that
still leaves 31 articles on the table. Members indicated that they
Contact the team:
info@wfse.org
want to support the team by
wearing buttons, talking with
Please put “Message for
the CWU Bargaining
“Paying attention to how and co-workers.
Team” in the subject line. what some people say will show
you if they are taking you Support the team!
Online at: seriously.”
www.wfse.org > WEAR THIS BUTTON AUG 26
Bargaining Center > - Skip Jensen, Team Member Contact a bargaining team member to
CWU Bargaining Team pick up your button.
News & Info

Health Care Coalition bargaining update.

The WFSE/AFSCME-led coalition of all
state employee unions began bargaining
on the health care benefits funding article
August 10. But there was no good news.
The union initiated a proposal that centers on
the unions’ interest of keeping health costs
low in the face of recent and huge increases
in out-of-pocket costs and premiums.
Management did not offer a counterpro-
Support Health posal. They hinted strongly their interest in
Care Bargaining. raising your share of premium costs from
the current 12 percent and decreasing your
WEAR THIS BUTTON
ON AUG 24!
level of benefits.
Contact a bargaining Both sides agreed to meet again August 24.
team member to get
your button.
Health Care Grievance Update:
The state’s Labor Relations Office on
Friday (Aug. 13) denied the Federation’s
health care grievance.
This is the grievance to recoup some $216
million in your surplus health funds di-
verted by the Legislature in 2008. Because
of that diversion, your deductibles, co-pays
and other out-of-pocket costs skyrocketed
this past January.
The union in part alleges that when the
surplus arose, it should have been returned
in proportion to the employer’s obligation
to pay 88 percent of the premium costs and
employees’ 12 percent share.
“In this case, the employer took all the
see GRIEVANCE on back side
CWU Bargaining Update
Central Washington University Bargaining Team
Washington Federation of State Employees
WFSE/AFSCME Council 28 • AFL-CIO

GRIEVANCE to say the state missed the point:

benefit for itself,” AFSCME Direc-
tor of Collective Bargaining Steve
Kreisberg said in the grievance
hearing.
LRO Director Diane Leigh ruled
the grievance was filed too late and
even if it was timely, “no funds
were diverted to other portions of
the state budget.”
The Federation has 30 days to file
for arbitration.
The union will save its counterar-
gument for arbitration. But it’s safe
The union has documented the di-
version; and it only became aware
of the magnitude of the diversion’s
impact this spring—after protract-
ed pushing and prodding to get ac-
curate information from the state.
The Public School Employees/
SEIU followed the Federation in
filing a grievance as well. All were
consolidated and all were denied
by the state.