|
Comment on this article |
View comments |
Email this Article
|
|
Announcement :: Labor |
|
Picket For Nursing Home Staff |
Current rating: 0 |
by Friend of Labor
(No verified email address) |
28 Sep 2003
|
Wed. Oct 1
11 am - 1:30 pm
Champ Co Nursing Home (1706 E. Main St. Urbana) |
AFSCME L-900-C, from the Champaign County Nursing Home will conduct an informational picket on Wednesday October 1, 2003 at 1706 E. Main St. Urbana, this out front of the Champaign County Nursing Home. The reason for the picket is to protest the fact that after 18-months of bargaining we still don't have a contract. Management is falling short on wages, insurance and take aways that our members simply can't live with. Please share this information with all you Union friends and supporters and ask them to joining us on the picket line anytime between 11:00 A.M. and 1:30 P.M. This will be the first of several actions to be conducted against the County Board in an effort to reach a fair settlement in these negotiations. Any amount of time you can join us will be helpful.
Thank You in advance for being their to help us win this struggle!
|
|
AFSCME Press Release On Wednesday's Picket At Nursing Home |
by via ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
29 Sep 2003
|
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees announced today that they would conduct an informational picket at the Champaign County Nursing Home on Wednesday October 1, 2003 from 11:0 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. Jerry L. Wright, Staff Representative with AFSCME Council 31 said, “The informational picket is being conducted to protest the lack of progress in negotiations over the Champaign County Nursing Home contract. We have been at the bargaining table for nearly eighteen months now and only have a few issues remaining on the table, and nearly all of them are economic issues. We are apart on wages, the County offer of 1%, 1.5% and 2% still leaves some employees without any raise at all over the life of three year agreement. We are only 1.5% apart over the life of this agreement, and of course, everyone has to get the minimum increase being offered. To leave people without an increase for three years is simply not acceptable to the Union.”
Wright went on to say, “On health insurance the County Board is not willing to define the benefit over the life of this contract. They have offered to pay 100% of the employee benefit if we will allow them to define the benefit. The Union has refused to accept this offer unless the County is willing to guarantee that the benefit would remain substantially the same as the 90/10 plan now being taken by most employees. The Union has expressed our fear that with such language the County would put employees in an 80/20 plan in an effort to save money. At the bargaining table management stated repeatedly that that would not happen. We asked them to put that in writing and they refused saying it would hurt their bargaining position with health care providers.
Wright added, “ Yet at a Policy Committee meeting two weeks ago they forced other none AFSCME bargaining units into the 80/20 plan for the coming year and by doing so they proved they weren’t telling us the truth.”
Wright said, “Another big issue is the vacation buy back issue. We simply don’t understand why we should have to give this up when it was the highest paid administrators in the County that were perceived as taking unfair advantage of this program. When our people cash out vacation time it's to pay bills like real-estate taxes, home owners insurance or even college tuition for their children. They don’t put the money in their investment portfolio, or to pay for expensive vacations. ”
Wright went on to say, “The average wage of our members in this bargaining unit is under $18,000 a year. Yet it was the people making $70,000 or $80,000 a year that sold back more vacation time than anyone else did in the County. The Union has been willing to cap the number of hours employees can sell back but the County won’t even discuss it.”
Wright concluded his comments in the press release by stating, “We have put off the informational pickets at least two other times. We did so because the County Board indicated we could work these issues out, each time we went back to the table hoping they would show some movement, each time they came back with the same position. So now we take our position to the streets to see whom the public supports on this issue. It’s our members that make the Champaign County Nursing Home the best Nursing Home in Champaign County all we want is a fair deal for them.”
The informational picket will be held out front of the Champaign County Nursing Home at 1706 E. Main St. in Urbana on October 1, 2003 from 11:00 A .M. – 1:30 P.M.
|
