08/03/2007

CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE #15
PEF's PS&T contract team continues to meet with a team of negotiators from the Executive Branch headed by representatives of the Governor's Office of Employee Relations (GOER).

TABLE TALK
This past week state negotiators responded to the union's attendance and leave related contract proposals. Their responses fostered good dialogue and a clearer understanding of how much energy would be required in order for the union to have a chance of succeeding in achieving its goal on each of the issues.

Negotiators will take up the remaining attendance and leave matters at the coming week's session.

FAQ
Q. What has the State said about raises at the negotiations table?

A. Money is the number one issue in negotiations. Across the board raises, in fact, may be the only issue which impacts each of our 58,000 members. Historically any real bargaining on money hasn't occured until the final hours of negotiations.

PEF has provided the State information relevant to determining raises including contract settlements, CPI data and other USDOL BLS info. The State is expected to provide us with economic data important to determining raises at a special negotiations information session on a date the parties are currently discussing. Some of the data the state will likely provide include the increased costs since the last negotiations associated with inflation in the negotiated health and prescription programs as well as state budget projections for the out years.

OTHER UNIONS
CSEA reports on its website that their negotiators will return to the bargaining table the week of August 6.