Bargaining Update

There is not a lot of news but what is there is good. The Union is preparing the paperwork needed to officially start bargaining.

By law we have to seek the State's permission and notify them of our intent. On the practical side we need to notify them as that is the means for team members to receive administrative time to prepare for bargaining.

The intent is for our teams to get together prior to meeting with the State in order to discuss issues and share information with each other. Many of your team members have been calling and emailing on their own time already in order to prepare.

Proposals are being collected and once the teams are able to meet formally will be studied for the best approaches to meet your requests. This is looking to be an extremely challenging session of bargaining, but the teams are ready for it, they volunteered knowing how much time and effort it it will take.

There is a lot of preparation already being done by members of the teams. Once we can get together and find out what the member priorities are we will be in a position to go forward in unity.

I know this isn't much but some things can only be discussed with team members and are not for the open web. You will never see any discussion of priorities or strategy on this site. The State will never find out we have decided to give up our demand for free donuts on Mondays in return for free BLTs and cookies on Friday. Even though some members were tempted by the one time offer of a box of kittens, we turned it down.

It may not look like it but we are way ahead of where we have ever been at this point before and we have a new level of member involvement. We are going to have excellent guidance, with new ideas, and a thorough knowledge of bargaining mixed with a great respect for our members.

Our new chief negotiator is no babe in the woods and has seen it all before. Rod Hiltz respects our members and brings a varied set of experiences and an impressive resume of labor involvement. His experiences may very well be unique to our Union and he brings valuable skills that can only help us all.

We are going to have a professional, experienced chief negotiator, and dedicated teams with a valuable mix of both experience and new ideas. As good a line up as you will have there are things only you will be able to give them......Your support and your ideas. Please give them your support. Give them your ideas. We will do our best together, in Union.


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