The Fight for a Fair Contract Continues

After our bargaining team proposed a 30% general salary increase and 100% paid health care coverage, negotiations with the State continue with a focus on the voices and expertise of our members at the table. While our Bargaining Unit Negotiating Committees (BUNCs) work on rollovers and new language for each SEIU Local 1000-represented unit, our leadership is drawing on the energy and demands of workers across the state.

“We are in our fourth week of bargaining and we are making progress,” said SEIU Local 1000 Vice President for Bargaining Irene Green. “There is some movement to our articles and we are making sure that we are living up to our mantra of respect, protection, and pay.”

Our contract negotiations are still in the early stages, however, as the State and our BUNCs have to agree on hundreds of articles of the contract before negotiations on key issues can take center stage.

“The State has been receptive to our rollover proposals, but we haven’t heard any response to our proposed new language yet,” said Green. “We’re going to push forward lifting up the voices of our members in any way we can.”

While BUNCs are led by members with deep experience bargaining for and enforcing our contract, the State moves at its own pace, which can be frustrating for teams with a large number of articles to address before the contract expiration deadline.

“Some units are moving faster than others,” said Green. “The State is typically slow to respond, but our members have lit a fire under them at the master table and we have received a number of tentative agreements after previous delays.”

As more progress is made in laying evidence-based foundations for our negotiations, the voices of our members become increasingly important.

“Our discussions during active bargaining are going to continue to look at proposals and use the data that we’ve collected to ensure that our articles reflect what our members want us to do,” said Green.