Members needed at legislative hearing on agency consolidations Wed., Oct 19

The fight for Information Tech members in agency consolidations continues Wednesday at the state capitol.

We need as many members in AFSCME Green to show up for this Wednesday’s legislative oversight hearing on the consolidation of agencies into the new Department of Enterprise Services and the Consolidated Technology Services agency.

As you know, the IT workers especially are under the gun. Legislation has been interpreted as stripping about 175 members of their collective bargaining rights. They and the Federation are already fighting on a number of fronts, including at the bargaining table and the Public Employment Relations Commission.

But when legislators who voted for the bill said they never intended it to exempt more than about 30 high-level managers, there’s a problem that the Legislature needs to fix.

This Wednesday’s legislative hearing is an important update on how the transition has gone. A perfect opportunity for you to turn out in solidarity. We’ll have materials you can hand out to committee members.

The hearing is before the House General Government Appropriations and Oversight Committee. It will be at 3 p.m., this Wednesday, Oct. 19, in Senate Hearing Room 1 of the John A. Cherberg Building on the Capitol campus.

For DOC members:

• The oversight committee will also get updates on consolidation of the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board within the Department of Corrections, merger of the Sentencing Guidelines Commission into the Caseload Forecast Council and discussion of potential consolidation of criminal justice programs.

For Natural Resources members:

• The oversight committee will also review natural resources consolidation proposals from the 2011 legislative session.

Hearing details:

• House General Government Appropriations and Oversight Committee, 3 p.m., this Wed., Oct. 19, in Senate Hearing Room 1 of the John A. Cherberg Building on the Capitol campus.
• Link to agenda