You are on page 1of 9

HPAE 5094 Newsletter

Issue 01

September, 2011

Welcome to 5094's Monthly Newsletter!

You told us you wanted better communication about the news that you care most about. So we have responded with a monthly newsletter geared towards what you want to see! These are tense times for public employees across the nation. Here in New Jersey UMDNJ employees are deeply concerned about Governor Christie's plan to restructure higher education for state schools in New Jersey, which could result in UMDNJ being dismantled. Our newsletter will bring you all the latest news about UMDNJ. Each edition of the newsletter will feature news articles relevant to your employment at UMDNJ specifically, and as a public employee in the state of New Jersey. In addition, the news articles we link will allow you to discuss them in our 5094 community forum. Well also archive the stories on the forum. You can read more about the community forum in the next article below. Regular features of the newsletter include links to news articles updates on contract negotiations a calendar providing locations of membership meetings and other events for each campus helpful information about the union contract that supports and protects your

worker rights links to our community forum's hottest topics of the month a wide range of helpful resources for HPAE members education on utilizing your unions benefits to their fullest potential Regarding the look of the newsletter, there are many different templates to choose from that we can modify. We're still looking them over. To get the newsletter off the ground we decided to keep it simple. We'll probably play around a bit with the design in the coming months.

Introducing the 5094 Community Forum:

(view) We cannot emphasize enough how important it is for our members to attend bimonthly general membership meetings for their site! There is no substitute for meeting in person. But we also face the practical reality that many of you provide direct patient care, and as such your schedule often does not afford the opportunity to attend those meetings. Many direct care providers also work off hours shifts. Of necessity, the membership meetings are subject to a time limitation of one hour. That unfortunately compresses the time allotted to present news, and for you to ask questions, receive detailed answers, and fully express opinions. While we feel it is absolutely vital for our members to regularly meet face-to-face from a social and organizational standpoint, from a strategic vantage we must also offer everything at our disposal to improve communication. Thus our community forum was created to allow you to fully articulate whatever you wish to say, at your convenience;

and it allows all members to respond in kind. The forum is an incredibly valuable tool. And quite honestly we have no one to blame but ourselves if members don't make use of it! The 5094 community forum offers a convenient way for our members to communicate with their site Reps, unit Liaisons, the local's elected officers and committee chairpersons, and HPAE staff organizers. The forum provides a mechanism for your individual input to filter up. And it tells our leadership what is most important to our members. The forum also provides an opportunity for our members to speak amongst themselves across the entire University, and to share their thoughts and opinions about a wide range of topics. Should discussion about issues concerning your employment be limited to just the people that work in your immediate vicinity? Or just those who attend membership meetings? We think not. You must register in order to create a thread or comment in the forum. And the 5094 General Discussion board is restricted to registered members only. When you register you will create a username, also known as a forum 'nick'(name), which can be anything you wish. No one has to know who you are. There are some terms and conditions to forum membership: The forum should not be used to express specific problems and grievances with UMDNJ management or coworkers. You must follow official channels to seek to have those types of problems addressed by contacting your supervisor, and your unit Liaison, site Rep, or a HPAE staff organizer. We cannot emphasize this strongly enough. Never, ever, violate the HIPAA law in any respect. Every member is solely responsible for their own conduct on the forum. Obviously there are likely to be consequences if you break the law. Similarly, it is your responsibility to make sure that you do not violate UMDNJ's Code of Conduct in your behavior on the forum. The forum will be moderated. While we expect people to express views passionately, we also expect civility and professionalism. Remember that you represent both HPAE's membership and UMDNJ to the world in how you conduct yourself on our forum. And finally, forum membership is ultimately at our discretion. Your constitutional rights to free speech allow you to create your own forum; not to use a forum that someone else created however you please.

It's Not Too Late to Make an Impact: Sign the What We Stand For Petition

In April of 2011, HPAE convened its first ever coalition meeting of our three Locals that have contracts with UMDNJ. Those Locals are: 5094 (ours) comprised of professionals employed at UMDNJ; 5089 consisting of UMDNJ nurses; 5135 representing our nurses at UMDNJs University Correctional HealthCare (UCHC). Our three Locals are tremendously concerned about the Governor's plan to restructure New Jerseys state schools, which could result in University Hospital being sold to a private entity and parts of UMDNJ being merged with Rutgers. We also feel it vital to respond to the assault on public employees that is recently underway both in New Jersey and nation-wide. The coalition, which is named "HPAE United @ UMDNJ," crafted a statement of common purpose for our three Locals, defining the core principles that we stand for. The coalition has circulated a petition in support of those principles, which are: Maintain the services, research and medical education that UMDNJ presently provides Stop the rush to a merger that is being orchestrated behind closed doors. There must be full transparency and meaningful input from employees and their unions No additional tax burden to New Jerseys working families should result from a reorganization University Hospital, a public institution, should not be given away to a private entity Our right to collective bargaining, to have a voice regarding our wages, benefits, and working conditions should be guaranteed. Stalled negotiations should be resolved in a timely, fair and reasonable manner. (Read and print: the "What We Stand For" Statement.) The more signatures we have on this petition, the louder our collective voice will be to the decision-makers--and in particular to the politicians who depend strongly on Labor's support in their bid for reelection. Unless you don't actually care about your job to begin with, there's no good excuse not to sign this: "What We Stand For" Petition If you haven't signed the petition already, you can print the petition form, sign it and either scan and email it to earacena@hpae.org, or FAX it to (201) 262-4335. We will soon provide an e-petition link at the 5094 webpage at HPAE.org. Until then it literally takes but a few seconds to print, sign and fax the form!

The Latest Headlines

At the forefront of most every member's mind these days is the possibility that UMDNJ might be dismantled and/or parts of it merged with Rutgers. The Governor's advisory panel on how to implement the restructuring of New Jerseys state schools is scheduled to issue their report sometime in September. Proposed UMDNJ-Rutgers Merger forum link In New Jersey, oversight of higher education is up in the air - Philly.com, July 21, 2011 - comment Newark residents speak out against restructuring of UMDNJ NJ.com, July 26, 2011 comment New CEO of University Hospital stresses its importance to the community NJ.com, July 27, 2011 - comment Dr. Owens May 31st Email about St. Barnabas CWA Local 1031 Newsletter, June 3, 2011 - comment And in other news: NJ State Budget forum link Citing Debt and Benefits, Fitch Lowers Bond Rating for New Jersey NY Times, Aug. 17, 2011 - comment N.J. suffers a setback in its credit rating NJ.com, Aug. 18, 2011 - comment NJ Public Employee Pension & Retirement forum link N.J. Government-Worker Retirements Surge Amid Pension Changes Bloomberg.com,

July 28, 2011 - comment N.J. still paying lobbyist pensions NorthJersey.com, Aug. 10, 2011 - comment NJ State Health Benefits Plan (SHBP) forum link N.J. Assembly passes landmark employee benefits overhaul - NJ.com, June 24, 2011 comment NJ Political Landscape for Public Employees forum link N.J. Gov. Chris Christie poll numbers take a dive after budget proposal - NJ.com, Apr 7, 2011 - comment N.J. pension reform vote reveals unusual political alliances - NJ.com, June 20, 2011 comment Sweeney Denied State AFL-CIO Endorsement NJSpotlight.com, Aug. 5, 2011 comment N.J. Democrats losing support of unions NJNewsroom.com, Aug. 5, 2011 - comment N.J. union representatives are 'dragging their feet' on developing new health plans, Gov. Christie says NJ.com, Aug. 15, 2011 - comment

Contract Negotiations Update: Finally, A Little Movement

As we are all painfully aware, UMDNJ employees have now entered our 4th year without a pay raise. Granted, the entire country is in the midst of an economic recession the likes of which

we haven't seen since the Great Depression. And for over a decade New Jerseys Governors and State Legislature shirked their moral and legal obligation to fund the public employee pension and health benefits funds resulting in an astronomical combined shortfall of $120 billion. This precipitated an economic crisis of its own in New Jersey that caught the politicians completely flatfooted when the nation-wide (worldwide) recession hit. So in other words, we all recognize that times are tough for everyone. Across the nation everyone is being asked to do more with less. We do get that. There was, in any event, finally a little movement during the last negotiation session on August 26. After 3 years of contract negotiations with management continually asserting that they lack the funds to give us a raise, they have finally made an offer regarding wages. Here is the most recent bulletin from our Negotiations Committee: On Friday, August 26, our union bargaining committee met with management to continue negotiations for a new contract. After submitting our wage proposal to management in June, the University responded with a counter wage proposal. UMDNJ proposal: 1% across the board for all bargaining unit members on July 1, 2012 1% across the board for all bargaining unit members on July 1, 2013 No retroactive increases for previous contract years Management indicated their offer was an initial wage proposal and we believe it is not their bottom line. Our committee countered with a new proposal. HPAE proposal: One step on the salary scale on October 1, 2011 for all bargaining unit members hired prior to July 2011 (Steps movements range from 1.5% to 2.2%) 1 % across the board increase on July 1, 2012 plus one step on the salary scale for all bargaining unit members 1% across the board increase on July 1, 2013 plus on step on the salary scale for all bargaining unit members Members at the top of the steps would receive an increase equivalent to a step The University agreed to withdraw one of their more onerous proposals that would have undermined job security by allowing supervisors to use evaluations to determine layoffs. We also withdrew a proposal to expand our grievance and arbitration procedures in exchange for management's withdrawal of a proposal that would weaken the process. In addition, a number of tentative agreements were reached on minor language issues. Important non-economic issues such as layoff, seniority, bumping,

reclassification and the inclement weather policy still remain on the table. We are scheduling another negotiating session later this month and membership meetings are scheduled throughout September to discuss the negotiations in greater detail. No agreement has been reached yet, however we are confident that we are finally in a position to be able to settle the contract. In Solidarity, Tom Murphy, Co-president Judy Cunha, Co-president

We're hopeful that we'll be able to get contract negotiations concluded very soon. The proposed restructuring of New Jerseys state schools looms large, and it seems likely that the Governors advisory panels recommendations will soon dominate our attention. We'll keep you posted with regular updates about both, of course, both via the monthly newsletter and emails.

Learn Your Contract


In each newsletter we'll try to educate you about what's in your contract. This month we spotlight 3.02 Work Outside of Job Classification: If a staff member has performed work substantially outside of his/her job classification for a period of three consecutive weeks, or 25 or more work days in any 12 month period, the staff member will receive pay at the rate of the higher job classification for the period during which substantially higher level duties were assigned. If you believe that you have been assigned job duties that fall outside of your job descriptionand especially when the duties clearly belong to another job titleyou may file a reclassification claim. Contact your area Rep if you think this might be the case. And you can always ask questions about out-of-title work and job reclassification in the 5094 forum. The forum at your disposal for exactly that purpose.

Getting the Most Out of Your Affiliated AFT Membership Benefits

Who doesn't want to save money these days? In each newsletter we'll showcase several discounts that are available to you as an HPAE member through your free affiliated membership with the American Federation of Teachers' AFT Plus and AFT Advantage benefits programs. AFT Advantage is also affiliated with Union Plus, which offers a wide variety of discounts as well. In the 5094 forum we have a board dedicated to this subject, which features an instruction thread that you can view here. The forum will show you how to get your AFT Plus card and begin shopping. Why not start taking advantage of some significant savings? They're yours for the taking. To kick things off, here are a few good deals we've stumbled upon: Men's Stone Wash Relaxed Fit Gusseted Jeans under $40 per pair with 10% Union Plus discount comment Six Flags Great Adventure and Wild Safari, Jackson, NJ save up to $41 per ticket with Union Plus discount - comment AT&T Wireless save 15% per month with Union Plus discount - comment

Comments?
Wish to respond to anything you've found in this edition of the 5094 newsletter? Please let us know what you think. Good, bad or indifferent, we want to hear from you! Post your comments about the September 2011 edition of the newsletter in this thread of our forum. In the same thread you'll find an archived .pdf file of the newsletter. Thanks for reading and see you next month!

You might also like