Negotiations Update November 8, 2011
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The Negotiating Team met with the Employer on November 7, 2011, to discuss several items. Here is an update on each issue:
2012 Furlough

Local 17 let the Employer know that we are willing to do more furloughs next year under certain conditions. We provided the conditions to the employer and we are waiting for a response.

Layoffs
Planning - The Employer notified us that Planning would most likely experience layoffs but that no details would be available until early December. The Employer is considering a full re-structuring of the Department and there is not enough clarity to provide additional information at this time.

Health - The Health budget will be affected by the State budget. The outcomes and results are not yet known. We will not know more until, at the soonest, early December.

Contract Language - There are several areas of contract language regarding layoff and recall that could affect upcoming layoffs. Local 17 and the Employer are working to define and interpret that language so that no disputes occur, if possible, during this layoff. As soon as we have more information we will provide it right away to membership as we know that several of you will be affected by whatever decisions are made.

Early Retirement

We discussed with the employer several options that would make it likely that some of our members would consider early retirement. We did indicate that employees would want to see the layoff lists prior to making a retirement decision. The employer is reviewing our proposals and we will let you know when we hear a formal response.

2012 Contractual Wage Re-opener

With so many other pressing items on the agenda we did not discuss the 2012 wage re-opener but expect to do so at our next meeting. The Employer is on notice that we have two people in Public Health that appear to be working out of their classification and that if this is found to be true a new wage will need to be negotiated.

New Steward

Mel Pedrosa was selected to be the new Health Department Steward for Clerical. She will replace Dorothy Epps. We will be working with Mel to train her and bring her up to speed on issues. Welcome Mel and thank you Dorothy for your years of dedicated service!

What's Next

Our next negotiations meeting with the Employer is a shared date with the Teamsters on November 21, 2011.

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