Contract Negotiations Status - 2/17/2012

* Management is continuing to push for drastic changes to our contract that would effectively wipe out job rights and protections that we’ve struggled decades to achieve.


* Management did back off a few of their worst proposals, but they are still pushing hard for many others that are completely unacceptable to the Union Bargaining Committee. So the process is moving very slowly.


* Moreover, Management is continuing to use the excuse of the State’s fiscal crisis to resist even the smallest improvements in employees’ working conditions if they appear to have even minimal cost involved.


* Right now we’re only in the non-economic phase of negotiations. But you’ve got to remember that many of the most important gains made for union members over the years were achieved through negotiations over such matters as job rights, seniority, and layoff protections.


* You’ve got to know that if Management is making these kind of take-away proposals during this non-economic phase, the situation is only going to get much tougher when economic issues move front and center later in the process.


* And we’ve got to keep the fight to secure our negotiated pay raise in the current contract front and center throughout this process.


* That’s why the Union Bargaining Committee recently marched on the Governor’s Office with a giant “collection notice” demanding that he pay state employees’ the wage and step increases they are owed. The Governor’s staff refused to come out of hiding, but the media was out in force and there was widespread press coverage of our action.


* Then last week more than 40 state legislators sent a letter to Governor Quinn urging him to honor our union contract and pay negotiated raises. Bargaining Committee members are now reaching out to any of our legislators who did not sign that letter to urge them to send their own letters to the Governor with a similar message.


* But the Quinn Administration has to understand that it’s not just the Bargaining Committee that’s making this demand. It’s critical that union members back up the Committee’s actions with grassroots action at the worksites. That’s why the Bargaining Committee is calling for statewide informational pickets at all state worksites on Thursday, March 8 demanding that Quinn honor our contract and pay our raises. Let’s start planning now to make our picket a big success.