FROM YOUR EDITOR- ASEA SUMMER PICNIC

Just wanted to remind all of you Anchorage Chapter members that Saturday, July 18th will be our ASEA Chapter Summer Picnic. It’s free and you can bring your family!! Come on over to the Moose Lodge (at 4211 Arctic) on Saturday afternoon (12 noon to whenever) for great food, entertainment, and lots of door prizes. Hope to see lots of people there…

Good news!! All of our vacant Chapter board seats are now filled thanks to volunteers like Mario Ayerdis (now a Board member), Larry Rabideau (our new Chapter president), and Russell Thornton (our new Chapter Secretary).  I want to remind everyone that it takes our members, as volunteers, to make our Chapter a successful organization. It’s going to be tough 2 years ahead of us and we need good people like Mario, Larry, Russell, and especially “YOU” to see us through those times.

On other news, there is a Leadership Training Seminar planned for the Labor Day weekend in Fairbanks. The Chapter will be picking up the costs of travel, hotel accommodations, and per diem for some 20 Anchorage Chapter members to attend this important seminar. All of the ASEA chapters will be sending their best members to this seminar, which will focus on leadership and how to become that catalyst in making things happen in your organization. If you are one of those motivated people who wants to attend, drop a note or write a letter to our Chapter Board requesting attendance at this session. It was announced at our last membership meeting…but I wanted to remind you that there is still time.

I need more people to distribute this monthly newsletter to our Anchorage Chapter membership. I am mailing some 1000 chapter newsletters every month to 80 volunteers who are distributing these newsletters throughout their respective job site locations. That is a distribution of 1000 out of over 3000 Anchorage Chapter members. Most of the volunteers get mailed about 10 newsletters and I usually limit the mailing to 50 newsletters max per person. Those of you wishing to distribute this newsletter to your worksite can drop me a note with your name, the address you want to have newsletters mailed to, and how many (up to 50 please). I need volunteers….

With all that said…here is a letter:

My name is Larry Rabideau.  I am your new President for the Anchorage Chapter. Some of you recognize me from previous involvement with the Union. I have been around since the beginning of ASEA and was the very first Chapter President. I’m back again.

You may be wondering how I got to be President, since you didn’t get to vote for or against me. Your Presidency has been vacant for the last six months or so. I volunteered to step in.

What changes will you see? Very few actually. I believe the Board has been doing a fine job.

I am a fiscal conservative and don’t believe in wasting either the Chapter’s money or the Union Local’s money. I believe the primary issue facing this union is not the upcoming contract negotiations but the fact that the State stole millions of dollars from our Health Care and continues to do so under this current Administration, forcing us to pay for Health Care that should have been paid by the State.

Under contract negotiations, I am a pragmatist. I believe the contracts are getting worse and worse and until the membership is willing to stop our downward spiral, there is little if anything we can expect from a new contract.

Let me state, however, that I have the utmost confidence in our negotiators and the Union to get the very best contract possible. People like Gordon Glaser and Chuck O’Connell will fight for our contract and need all of our support. Personally, I feel we should be going after parity with the Supervisors Union and get everything they have, including Personal Leave Conversion.

Two issues will be addressed as soon as possible. We need to make Chapter monies work as hard as our members. We will push forward on transferring funds to accounts that earn more interest. The other issue is petitioning the Statewide Executive Board to allow chapter membership to be choice between work location and personal residence.

Some people work in Anchorage and are therefore Anchorage members, but they live in Palmer or Wasilla or some other community. They can’t attend local chapter functions and vote where they live…because they are not members of that chapter. We may lose some of our members in the Anchorage Chapter but we would rather have people active in the union instead of just being a number on a tally sheet.

I think this gives you a thumbnail sketch of who I am and what I’m about. The good thing is that you will get a chance to vote me out in a few months. So hang in there with us…the local chapter board…it may be an interesting term.

Editor’s Note:   Since Larry brought up the subject of Health Care, thought you might like to get this final   wrap-up article submitted by fellow member Gordon Glaser, who volunteered his time on the negotiations team that worked on the Health Benefits package.
 

BEHIND THE SCENES IN MEDICAL BENEFITS

The Health Benefits Package has been ratified by the GGU. Basically GGU health coverage remains the same and in some cases expanded.

1. Well Baby Care is now covered. This include services such as immunizations, well baby checks, etc
2. Health Care Reimbursement Account (HCRA) allows the GGU member to use pre-tax dollars for those medical expenses not covered by the plan. Examples being respite care for a special needs child, 20% deductible, cosmetic surgery, etc
3. Raising the $1,000,000 maximum of lifetime benefits cap to unlimited. As an example pediatric heart surgery and aftercare can make a difficult delivery into a million-dollar baby.
4. A 24 hour consulting medical advice “Nurse Line”. This should save us money by diverting  unnecessary  emergency department visits.
5. The final appeal process for a medical expense denied by NYLCare is moved from NYLCare to an independent authority.
6. Premiums paid by GGU members are now in pre-tax dollars.
7. One hundred-dollar co-pay for GGU members for emergency department visits where there is no emergency in the presenting complaint.  For example:

• If you go to the ED with a complaint of a heart attack and it is diagnosed as a stomach complaint you DON’T  pay.
• If you go the ED with a complaint of  a stomach problem and it is diagnosed as a heart attack you DON”T  pay.
• If you go the ED with a complaint of  a stomach problem and it is diagnosed as a stomach problem you DO  pay.

How about our reserves?  We are still processing our grievance on the continual drain of our reserves by the administration. We still have not gotten a firm number of what funds are left in the reserves.

For more information contact your Steward. If you don’t have a Steward at your work site, isn’t it time that you elected one?  …….Gordon Glaser / Steward .

   

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