AFSCME negotiators go back at it with the University of Minnesota Nov. 14, hoping their next round of bargaining is more productive than the last.
More than 15 hours of mediated talks ended at 2 a.m. Oct. 21 when university negotiators said they couldn't respond to what union officials called their final offer on wages and benefits.
Four AFSCME locals, which represent nearly 3,300 university workers, say they will accept the university's health-care plan ? with one modification ? if they get wage increases that mirror what the university agreed to with a Teamsters bargaining unit this summer.
"Frankly, we don't know why they haven't settled," said Candace Lund, president of Local 3937, which represents 1,000 technical workers on the Twin Cities campuses.
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The union wage proposal would provide across-the-board raises totaling 5.5 percent, divided in three installments between this past July 1 and Jan. 1, 2007.
Under the union proposal, AFSCME workers would remain eligible for existing step increases and, like the Teamsters bargaining unit, would get a $300 lump-sum payment next July 1. Teamsters Local 320, which represents 1,300 campus workers, ratified that contract in September.
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In addition, workers with families who enroll in the most-expensive tier of the university's new health-insurance plan would get additional lump-sum payments to put a dent in higher insurance costs. Those payments would be $300 on Jan. 1, 2006, and $150 on Jan. 1, 2007.
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The AFSCME locals also want the university to pick up 90 percent of any premium increases in the second year of the contract. Currently, the university pays only 85 percent of premiums for family health coverage.
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Taking steps backwards.
The most puzzling part of the university's offer, Lund said, is an attempt to replace clerical workers' progression steps with less-well-defined pay ranges.
"They can't mess with steps," Lund said. "We will not recommend a settlement if they try to take step grids away from clericals, because it will just be us next."
The university's attempt to wipe out steps also would destroy four years of work the university and union put in to accurately classify clerical work, Lund said. "It's really a shame. It just destroys the trust."
The other locals still without a contract are 3800, which represents 1,800 clerical workers at the Twin Cities and Morris campuses; 3801, which represents 200 clerical and 100 technical workers in Duluth; and 3260, which represents about 170 health-care workers in the Twin Cities.
Before the next bargaining session, the locals are holding what they call "strike readiness" meetings. "I don't know that we have anywhere left to move," Lund said. "We want people to know how bad it's getting and we want people to be prepared."
Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@stpaulunions.org
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AFSCME negotiators go back at it with the University of Minnesota Nov. 14, hoping their next round of bargaining is more productive than the last.
More than 15 hours of mediated talks ended at 2 a.m. Oct. 21 when university negotiators said they couldn’t respond to what union officials called their final offer on wages and benefits.
Four AFSCME locals, which represent nearly 3,300 university workers, say they will accept the university’s health-care plan ? with one modification ? if they get wage increases that mirror what the university agreed to with a Teamsters bargaining unit this summer.
“Frankly, we don’t know why they haven’t settled,” said Candace Lund, president of Local 3937, which represents 1,000 technical workers on the Twin Cities campuses.
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The union wage proposal would provide across-the-board raises totaling 5.5 percent, divided in three installments between this past July 1 and Jan. 1, 2007.
Under the union proposal, AFSCME workers would remain eligible for existing step increases and, like the Teamsters bargaining unit, would get a $300 lump-sum payment next July 1. Teamsters Local 320, which represents 1,300 campus workers, ratified that contract in September.
buy lexapro online lexapro online no prescription
In addition, workers with families who enroll in the most-expensive tier of the university’s new health-insurance plan would get additional lump-sum payments to put a dent in higher insurance costs. Those payments would be $300 on Jan. 1, 2006, and $150 on Jan. 1, 2007.
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The AFSCME locals also want the university to pick up 90 percent of any premium increases in the second year of the contract. Currently, the university pays only 85 percent of premiums for family health coverage.
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Taking steps backwards.
The most puzzling part of the university’s offer, Lund said, is an attempt to replace clerical workers’ progression steps with less-well-defined pay ranges.
“They can’t mess with steps,” Lund said. “We will not recommend a settlement if they try to take step grids away from clericals, because it will just be us next.”
The university’s attempt to wipe out steps also would destroy four years of work the university and union put in to accurately classify clerical work, Lund said. “It’s really a shame. It just destroys the trust.”
The other locals still without a contract are 3800, which represents 1,800 clerical workers at the Twin Cities and Morris campuses; 3801, which represents 200 clerical and 100 technical workers in Duluth; and 3260, which represents about 170 health-care workers in the Twin Cities.
Before the next bargaining session, the locals are holding what they call “strike readiness” meetings. “I don’t know that we have anywhere left to move,” Lund said. “We want people to know how bad it’s getting and we want people to be prepared.”
Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@stpaulunions.org