October Update

Another update you say?  Didn’t we just have one?  Well yes however I promised at the end of the last update to send one out after our Oct. 21 session so here we are.  We met with the University as scheduled on Monday Oct. 21.  The University advised that they are still working on a couple of our data requests however they did give us data on one of our requests.  They also presented us with a slightly revised Health Care Plan proposal which we will be taking a closer look at and discussing as a team in the near future.  Unfortunately, the University’s revised proposal still has as its core provision an absolute cap on the UMS contribution to employee health care.

In terms of wage proposals, the UMS position is still a .75% increase to the wage schedule in year 1 of the contract and a 1% increase in year 2.  UMS has indicated that they will not be granting steps as in the past.  UMS’ current proposal is still to limit the amount of money for steps to 1% of the bargaining units salary cost.  What that means is that in UMS’s view only some employees would be eligible for steps, not all or even most.

We briefly discussed some of our other proposals however the UMS negotiators have taken the position that we have to come to an agreement on Health Care and wages before we can discuss other issues in a substantive way.

Tentative dates for our next negotiations sessions are Thursday, Nov. 7 and Wednesday, Nov. 13.

***Late coming news – the November Session has been canceled due to prior commitments.

Thank you all for your support,

Dale Kuczinski (Chief Negotiator)

Dina Goodwin-Short

Loni Levesque

Peggi Loveless

John Pavliska

Tim Pinkham

Cheryl Spencer