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No doubt all of you know the results of this year’s Legislative session. It is disturbing to see our State Legislature refuse to fund benefit agreements with those state unions that have settled their contracts with the administration. The refusal to fund such negotiated agreements makes one wonder what is the point of having a collective bargaining process.
As our ASEA union negotiations continue into the month of June, the questions need to be asked as to
“JUST A CLERK?”
Our state’s Administrative Support personnel are special people. We are competitively tested to prove our proficiency before being considered for state employment. The best then compete for specific openings just to be interviewed. To be finally selected shows we are much more than “just clerks”. We perform the front-line duties with the public and do the hands-on work that allow our departments to function. We are the tops of our profession.
We chose to work for the state. We are dedicated to public service. The conventional wisdom when we began our careers was that the state did not pay as much as the private sector, but the benefits were good. On that basis many of us chose a state career.
Over the years the state has changed our working conditions. Our wages have fallen behind inflation, our benefits are eroded, and our job security is threatened. These conditions are being further pursued by the state this year.
We must draw the line soon. This trend cannot continue, as so many of us are eligible already for public assistance. We must use our Union tools this time around or we may not have the chance again. Each of us must fight our own battles for what we need and perhaps our time is at hand!
There may be a strike. This is our ultimate tool. Be prepared to stand
united and repel this attack on our careers. We shall prevail when we commit
to defend our chosen profession and ourselves. DRAW THE LINE IN ’99!……..Jim
Laflamme.
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FROM THOM WYLIE:
Let’s get something straight. Nobody wants to strike. The fact that this union has never gone on strike is strong evidence of that.
Let’s get something ELSE straight. This year, perhaps for the first time, large numbers of us are thinking that we are not going to have any other choice. We are beginning to believe that no matter how hard the choice, the hard choice will ultimately have to be made. The fact that there is no such thing as too much “strike literature”, lately, is strong proof of that.
According to our Bargaining Team, the Administration is holding firm in it’s position that state workers should accept wage cuts equal to inflation over the next three years. Inflation has averaged 2.06% per year over the past five years, and 3.06% over the past 10 years. Nobody knows, but I’m guessing inflation will be about 2% a year for the next three years. That would mean a salary 2% less in purchasing power next year, 4% less the year after, and 6% less in the third year. This, of course, is in addition to the 20% loss to inflation that the average state worker in Alaska has already experienced over the past 15 years. What a sorry situation for a worker in America’s richest state.
Last year we were able to get the Administration to split the increase in health care costs. This year, however, the Governor is promising EVERYONE that there will be NO increase in the budget due to increased state employee contract costs. This Administration is implying that it will want us to pay the additional health care cost increases, or decimate our current level of benefits. They project cost increases of another $54 per month this year, and similar increases thereafter. So, that adds up to a total of $138.50 per month each month during the first year of the contract (since the current out of pocket cost is already $84.50 per month). In the second year of the contract it will be $192.50, and then $246.50 a month each month during the third year of the contract. In other words, by the last year of our new contract, members would be paying almost $3000 a year, out of pocket. And health care is supposed to be a BENEFIT…..
Forget the cost of insurance. I’m 52 years old, and I’m still trying to remember the last time I ran up $3000 in a year in expenses for covered medical care.
Like most of the professional group who elected me to serve on the Statewide
Executive Board, I worked my way up the ranks through a combination of
hard work and educational attainment. Currently, I work as a Labor Economist
III in the Dept. of Labor, Research and Analysis Section, in Juneau. My
degree was in Research Methodology, my post graduate course work primarily
in economics, statistics, social research…. I like my job: it’s what I
trained to do.
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I always thought that with hard work and a good, continuing education, I would not have to worry about my wages. But, it hasn’t turned out that way. Inflation (3.06% over the last ten years) combined with 15 years of labor contract wages below the general rate of inflation, has brought my paycheck’s purchasing power to its knees. When I look at the price of a new car today, I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face. The average state worker’s paycheck has shown a 20% drop in purchasing power in the last 15 years. And let’s not depress ourselves talking about our out of pocket losses to increased health care costs, and all of the other benefits we have given up.
As Alaska has grown more and more wealthy, her workers have continued to be bombarded by the legislative and administrative propaganda machines. Here, in America’s richest state, this so-called “fiscal crisis” has become a song and dance routine that reaches a full crescendo every three years during state worker contract negotiations. The “crisis” is nothing but a political shell game of accounting tricks which is designed to hide Alaska’s considerable wealth and assets and take them off the negotiations table. Don’t be part of that group of unsuspecting , but well intended, state workers who fall for the shysters’ parlor tricks, and their politically motivated calls for sacrifice in the name of the gold-plated idol of the false god of the “fiscal crisis.”
If you divided Alaska’s Permanent Fund ($26,000,000,000) by the total number of all public and private sector workers in this state (260,000), its easy to see that Alaska has a savings account of over $100,000 per worker. And guess what? The $26 billion Permanent Fund is only half of Alaska’s $51 billion in total assets. Some fiscal crisis, heh?
Alaska’s professionals in state service have worked long and hard to get where they are. They deserve respect, not lies. If the administration and the legislature is unwilling to negotiate in good faith towards a fair contract, then we have every right and every reason to strike the lie in it’s heart……Thom Wylie.
Final Comment by your Editor: I would like input from
our chapter members. The time may be coming close when we may have to make
some hard and difficult decisions………
