Stop the presses! Seattle Times busts the myth of "high paid" state employees - and the my that the Seattle Times can't give state employees a fair shake!

The Seattle Times on Saturday busted two myths—that state employees make more than those in the private sector (and therefore should sacrifice even more) and the myth that the Seattle Times can’t give a fair shake to state employees.
 
To be fair, it’s been the editorial pages that have called for the state to stick it to you even more, not the news pages.

The analysis done by the Times compared some 200 standard occupational categories of state employees. It found that the median pay of state employees exceeded private sector workers in only 74 of the 200 categories. Median pay means half earn more, half less.

This finding left anti-state employee groups like the Evergreen Freedom Foundation and the Building Industry Association of Washington without their typically snarky comebacks.

And Sen. Joe Zarelli, who is leading the charge to take away state employee step increases, deflected.

“I don’t know,” he told the Times when asked if state workers are compensated better than private-sector workers.

Zarelli’s comeback: “Right now, our issue isn’t about competitive pay, it’s about balancing the budget and everybody sharing in that process.”

After sacrificing $1 billion last year, state employees would agree it’s time for more shared sacrifices!

The Times quoted an expert on state-employee compensation to verify its findings.

“In general, private-sector pay is higher than in the public sector, and the higher up the occupational hierarchy the job is, the greater the advantage for the private sector,” said Rick Kearney, director of the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University.

Read the entire Seattle Times story here.

Stop the RHC Wipeout Bill

The Senate Ways and Means Committee resurrected a dead bill from 2009 that would wipe out all RHCs and passed it out of committee March 3.

Senate Bill 6182 now goes to the Senate Rules Committee, which schedules bills for votes of the full Senate. We need calls to the Rules Committee to keep SB 6182 off the Senate floor.

SB 6182 is bad. It would wipe out the statutory authority for all RHCs: Rainier School, Frances Haddon Morgan Center, Yakima Valley School, Fircrest School and Lakeland Village.

SB 6182 would allow the governor to immediately shut down any or all RHCs.

CALL TO ACTION:

1. 1. Call 1-800-562-6000 and urge your senator to oppose SB 6182. RHCs are quality campuses that care for some of our state’s most profoundly disabled citizens when there are no resources for the kind of community care they need.
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2. 2. Contact members of the Senate Rules Committee, especially if the senator from your district is on the committee. Especially call if your senator is on the list of committee members below. If you’re able to call or e-mail them directly from your own phone and computer and on your own time, please do so.

SENATE RULES COMMITTEE

Chair: Lt. Gov. Brad Owen
(360) 786-7700
ltgov@leg.wa.gov

Franklin, Rosa
Dist. 29
(360) 786-7656
franklin.rosa@leg.wa.gov

Hewitt, Mike
Dist. 16
(360) 786-7630
hewitt.mike@leg.wa.gov

Brown, Lisa
Dist. 3
(360) 786-7604
brown.lisa@leg.wa.gov

Eide, Tracey
Dist. 30
(360) 786-7658
eide.tracey@leg.wa.gov

Fraser, Karen   
Dist. 22
(360) 786-7642
fraser.karen@leg.wa.gov

King, Curtis
Dist. 14
(360) 786-7626
king.curtis@leg.wa.gov

Kohl-Welles, Jeanne
Dist. 36
(360) 786-7670
kohl-welles@leg.wa.gov

Marr, Chris
Dist. 6
(360) 786-7610
marr.chris@leg.wa.gov

Murray, Ed
Dist. 43
(360) 786-7628
murray.ed@leg.wa.gov

Parlette, Linda Evans
Dist. 12
(360) 786-7622
parlette.linda@leg.wa.gov

Pridemore, Craig
Dist. 49
(360) 786-7696
pridemore.craig@leg.wa.gov

Regala, Debbie
Dist. 27
(360) 786-7652   
regala.debbie@leg.wa.gov

Schoesler, Mark
Dist. 9
(360) 786-7620
schoesler.mark@leg.wa.gov

Stevens, Val
Dist. 39
(360) 786-7676
stevens.val@leg.wa.gov

Zarelli, Joseph
Dist. 18
(360) 786-7634
zarelli.joseph@leg.wa.gov

House passes budget, Interpreters bills

The House on Friday passed SSB 6444, the supplemental budget, with important, good changes on furloughs and health funding.

It now must go back to the Senate because the House made changes after the Senate first passed SSB 6444.

The House adopted amendments that increases funding for your health benefits, but calls on the governor to go to the bargaining table to push for a change in the share of premiums the state and employees pay. Currently, the state pays 88 percent, employees 12 percent. So this is a step in the right direction, even though there are some troubling parts, especially the caving in to the crowd that wants to balance this with higher employee premium payments. So stay tuned.

The House also stripped out budget language mandating furloughs, instead directing state agencies and higher education institutions to reduce state compensation costs by $48 million. So, stay tuned on this one, too.

The House also restored funding for seven positions at Eastern State Hospital, seven at Western State Hospital and for important programs in Ecology, Health and Commerce.

The final vote was 55-43.

Again, the Senate and House must work out their differences. And on institutions closures, furloughs, health care and other key areas, the differences are significant. 

ALSO PASSED: 

The House on Friday also passed the Federation-initiated interpreters collective bargaining bill, 58-40. The House did approve amendments, so ESSB 6726 must go back to the Senate, which must concur in those amendments.

REPORTS OF SPONTANEOUS WILDCAT JOB ACTIONS COMING INTO FEDERATION OFFICE

We’re getting reports of members today staging impromptu job actions as they get more and more fed up with the latest legislative budget attacks on programs for the abused, elderly, vulnerable, disabled and public safety.

As we get more details here in Olympia we will pass them along to you. They appear to be spontaneous but lively and not like the tightly coordinated rolling actions during the union’s 2001 statewide strike.

Planned events, like Tuesday’s “Hotdogs and Hotlines” event that generated dozens of phone calls to legislators outside Fircrest School in Shoreline, continue. 

At Fircrest School Local 341's "Hotdogs and Hotline" job action March 2.

But this new development we’re seeing for the first time today only underscores the growing frustration of state employees. They perceive the Legislature as targeting state services already cut to the bone and asking state employees who’ve already sacrificed so much to sacrifice even more while billions in tax loopholes remain on the books.

From what we can gather, employees at the Centennial Building walked out at noon today and set up several impromptu picket lines along busy 19th Avenue and in front of the Tacoma News Tribune. According to reports, motorists honked in support as they drove by the peaceful picketers. The only apparent opposition came from an employee of the Tacoma News Tribune who asked the picketers not to exercise their First Amendment rights on the public sidewalk outside the newspaper that is dedicated to the First Amendment rights of its community. 

Impromptu peaceful picketing today in Tacoma.

We also understand that employees picketed at Western State Hospital, which has been hit by downsizing and faces loss of the successful Program for Adaptive Living Skills (PALS). These peaceful picketers walked out and marched off campus to wave signs and chant along busy Steilacoom Boulevard in Lakewood.

Western State Hospital members march off campus as frustration over legislative budget attacks builds.

No disruption of services to the public or clients took place during either of the spontaneous job actions.

Pick up the phone - critical calls to action!

Call 1-800-562-6000. Tell your legislators:

STOP HEALTH CUTS!

Tell legislators to fund state worker health care at a fiscally responsible level in the supplemental budget (SSB 6444/HB 2824). They will know what you mean. They want to triple your health care costs—that is unacceptable on top of the $1 billion you’ve already sacrificed and the average hike of $1,100 a year in health care costs imposed on you this past Jan. 1.

STOP HEALTH CUTS!

Tell legislators to fund state worker health care at a fiscally responsible level in the supplemental budget (SSB 6444/HB 2824).

CLOSE TAX LOOPHOLES!

SUPPORT HB 3176 to close tax loopholes. It will recoup hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.

OPPOSE FURLOUGHS!

OPPOSE SSB 6503, the state employee furlough bill. Its unintended consequences will cost more, not less. It’s in the budget bills, but has not been voted on by the House.

OPPOSE INSTITUTIONS CLOSURES!

PASS INTERPRETERS’ COLLECTIVE BARGAINING BILL, E2SSB 6726.

Give state Medicaid interpreters a voice on economics and workplace issues and a seat at the table on a reform-oriented work group. It needs to pass out of the House.

Stop the Madness/Closures Rally

“Stop the Madness/Closures Rally,” this Saturday, March 6, 1-4 p.m., Denny’s Foods, N. Lefevre St. and Hwy. 902, Medical Lake. Hotdogs and soft drinks will be provided. Come show your support to those who provide quality services to the citizens of Washington. Increase revenues, not decreased services.

DOC 2009-2011 supplemental contract ratified

Department of Corrections members ratified their supplemental contract that will now become part of the current, 2009-2011 General Government Collective Bargaining Agreement. The vote to ratify was 139-48 with 19 invalid ballots. The supplemental bargaining came about because the issues could not be included last spring in negotiations on the re-opened 2009-2011 contracts.

About the furlough bill - SB 6503

You’ve created so much pressure that the furlough bill, SSB 6503, has been stalled for several weeks in the House. We hope it never comes to a vote. However, furlough language is in both the House and Senate budgets.

One point of confusion you’ve asked us to clear up so here goes:

• There are several proposed amendments to the furlough bill that also await floor action if and when the House takes up SSB 6503. 

• Those floor amendments are not a done deal. Some managers have created a stir by going to the legislative website, seeing the floor amendments and concluding they’ve been approved. Again, they have not. 

• Those current seven floor amendments include the one from Rep. Ross Hunter that would take away your personal holiday (which the Legislature can’t do to represented employees without negotiations) and formally backdating the thumbs down on your original contracts that, as you recall, were re-negotiated last year when the Legislature effectively vetoed funding. 
• The other floor amendment getting attention is the one from Rep. Brendan Williams that would cut legislators’ daily allowance (“per diem”) by an amount equivalent to any pay cut caused to state employees by the furlough bill. Again, these are proposed amendments that have not been adopted.

Oppose latest sneak attack on RHCs - key vote at noon today.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee has scheduled a quick lunchtime vote today on an old bill that could wipe out all residential habilitation centers.

The committee is set to vote on SB 6182 that would wipe out the statutory authority not only for Frances Haddon Morgan Center, which the Senate specifically targets in its budget, but all the other RHCs: Rainier School; Yakima Valley School; Fircrest School; and Lakeland Village.

SB 6182 was introduced last April in the final hours of the 2009 legislative session. It’s sat dormant since today.

So, if you get this message in time, at the very least call the Legislature’s toll-free message center at 1-800-562-6000 and urge your senator to oppose SB 6182. RHCs are quality campuses that care for some of our state’s most profoundly disabled citizens when there are no resources for the kind of community care they need.

Especially call if your senator is on the list of committee members below. If you’re able to call or e-mail them directly from your own phone and computer and on your own time, please do so.

SENATE WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE

Prentice, Margarita
Dist. 11
(360) 786-7616
prentice.margarita@leg.wa.gov

Fraser, Karen   
Dist. 22
(360) 786-7642
fraser.karen@leg.wa.gov

Tom, Rodney   
Dist. 48
(360) 786-7694
tom.rodney@leg.wa.gov

Zarelli, Joseph
Dist. 18
(360) 786-7634
zarelli.joseph@leg.wa.gov

Brandland, Dale
Dist. 42
(360) 786-7682
brandland.dale@leg.wa.gov

Carrell, Mike
Dist. 28
(360) 786-7654
carrell.mike@leg.wa.gov

Fairley, Darlene
Dist. 32
(360) 786-7662
fairley.darlene@leg.wa.gov

Hewitt, Mike
Dist. 16
(360) 786-7630
hewitt.mike@leg.wa.gov

Hobbs, Steve
Dist. 44
(360) 786-7686
hobbs.steve@leg.wa.gov

Honeyford, Jim
Dist. 15
(360) 786-7684
honeyford.jim@leg.wa.gov

Keiser, Karen   
Dist. 33
(360) 786-7664
keiser.karen@leg.wa.gov

Kline, Adam
Dist. 37
(360) 786-7688
kline.adam@leg.wa.gov

Kohl-Welles, Jeanne
Dist. 36
(360) 786-7670
kohl-welles@leg.wa.gov

McDermott, Joe
Dist. 34
(360) 786-7667
mcdermott.joe@leg.wa.gov

Murray, Ed
Dist. 43
(360) 786-7628
murray.ed@leg.wa.gov

Oemig, Eric
Dist. 45
(360) 786-7672
oemig.eric@leg.wa.gov

Parlette, Linda Evans
Dist. 12
(360) 786-7622
parlette.linda@leg.wa.gov

Pflug, Cheryl
Dist. 5
(360) 786-7608
pflug.cheryl@leg.wa.gov

Pridemore, Craig
Dist. 49
(360) 786-7696
pridemore.craig@leg.wa.gov

Regala, Debbie
Dist. 27
(360) 786-7652   
regala.debbie@leg.wa.gov

Rockefeller, Phil
Dist. 23
(360) 786-7644
rockefeller.phil@leg.wa.gov

Schoesler, Mark
Dist. 9
(360) 786-7620
schoesler.mark@leg.wa.gov

House unveils revenue package; Governor sort of backs you on health care costs - or maybe not.

QUICK UPDATES:

1. The House Monday unveiled a revenue package that does not include a general sales tax increase. The House Finance Committee holds a public hearing on that today. The governor said yesterday she supports the House revenue package but prefers the Senate budget. Stay tuned.
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2. The Clean Water Act of 2010 (SHB 3181) passed out of the House Finance Committee Monday.

IN A SIDEWAYS KIND OF WAY, GOVERNOR SORT OF BACKS YOU ON HEALTH CARE COSTS. OR MAYBE NOT. IT’S TOUGH TO TELL

You may hear rumors about what the governor said exactly in her Monday press conference when asked about the $200 million-plus deficit in your health plans that left unfilled will mean a tripling of your health costs.

Gov. Chris Gregoire appeared to make the case for why that would be devastating to state employees but that the solution is that you pay more for premiums.

The governor got the question as a followup from the National Public Radio reporter who had filed a story on the health care deficit issue that was broadcast Feb. 26.

That piece recapped what led to the crisis. Was it the Legislature’s diversion of $215 million in 2008 or is it medical inflation, or rather underfunding to cover medical inflation?

“Despite charging more for co-pays and deductibles, the cost to run the state plan continues to outpace projections,” the NPR piece said. “And that’s led to finger pointing. Greg Devereux heads the largest state employees union. He blames the Legislature for creating the cash crisis by dialing back the state’s contribution in 2008.

"Greg Devereux: ’There’s no question it was a cash grab. There was $215 million in reserves and they simply lowered the funding rate so that reserves would be eaten up in the next year, which it was.’”

The piece went on to say that Republicans faulted the governor for not forcing contract re-negotiations to make you pay more for premiums. And they fault her for not declaring a fiscal emergency to do that.

(Before we go on, remember, that basically happened last year when the governor and Legislature effectively declared a fiscal emergency, and the contracts were re-negotiated so that you sacrificed hundreds of millions of dollars in pay raises, jobs—and, yes, higher health costs.)

NPR quoted Sen. Joe Zarelli, the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, as saying “having employees pay higher monthly premiums would actually be fairer to them.”

• Listen to NPR clip here.

“I think there’s a way that better serves the employees too to raise up the employee contribution rate and reduce some of the other cost sharing costs,” Zarelli told NPR.

Responded Devereux on NPR: “Our members have taken so many hits over the years trading off wages for health care that they don’t want to trade health care again now.”

Now, what the governor said Monday.

“I need everybody to understand: You cannot unilaterally re-open a contract,” Gregoire said.

But… “So what I need from the Legislature is a path forward. And I am prepared to open up the issue of 88/12 (the current state/employee premium split). I am prepared to open up the issue of the benefits package. I am prepared to open up the issue of deductibles and co-pays. I’m prepared to do all of that and I’ve talked with all sides about that. I encouraged the unions to come in and talk to me before we got into the legislative session about it. Again, it takes two and they wouldn’t agree to do it.”

She was asked why she doesn’t declare a fiscal crisis and re-open the health care article in the contracts for a second time:

“I have a fiscal crisis if the Legislature does nothing. While we’re sitting in a legislative session, my take on it was, ‘How can I declare a fiscal crisis when there’s a solution?’ I provided a solution. For example in my budget. So if they choose not as so far the House has nothing in it whatsoever, that will create a crisis. The Senate version will probably create a crisis as well. Let me tell you what it means. What it means is the deductibles for state employees will be somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000. The co-pay at point of service will be dramatic. The results of which is state employees will have cards that say they have insurance and as a practical matter they (will) have none. They can never afford to go to the doctor for the most part. So that will create a crisis. And I brought two of the three largest unions into my office last week to tell them this.”

To set the record straight, the Federation not only knew the gravity of the problem, but the union and its members have been the ones who for some time have assertively put the issue in front of the governor and legislators. And the 88/12 split does not cause the problem, it’s not about how and when to re-open the contracts, it’s about that diversion of more than $200 million from your health fund in 2008. No one disputes the governor’s take on the tragedy facing state employees if nothing is done. The dispute is over the fair solution to head off that economic tragedy for state employees and their families.

CRITICAL DAYS AHEAD—KEEP THE PRESSURE ON

CRITICAL CALL TO ACTION ON HEALTH CARE
STOP HEALTH CUTS! Call 1-800-562-6000. Tell legislators to fund state worker health care at a fiscally responsible level in the supplemental budget (SSB 6444/HB 2824). They will know what you mean. They want to triple your health care costs—that is unacceptable on top of the $1 billion you’ve already sacrificed and the average hike of $1,100 a year in health care costs imposed on you this past Jan. 1.

KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING WITH CALLS ON THE KEY ISSUES:

Call 1-800-562-6000. Tell your legislators:

• STOP HEALTH CUTS! Tell legislators to fund state worker health care at a fiscally responsible level in the supplemental budget (SSB 6444/HB 2824).

• CLOSE TAX LOOPHOLES! SUPPORT HB 3176 to close tax loopholes. It will recoup hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.

• OPPOSE FURLOUGHS! OPPOSE SSB 6503, the state employee furlough bill. Its unintended consequences will cost more, not less. It’s in the budget bills, but has not been voted on by the House.

• OPPOSE INSTITUTIONS CLOSURES! 

• PASS INTERPRETERS’ COLLECTIVE BARGAINING BILL, E2SSB 6726. Give state Medicaid interpreters a voice on economics and workplace issues and a seat at the table on a reform-oriented work group. It needs to pass out of the House.