Union sues over retired workers’ benefits BY KATHY PARKER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Kathy Parker at 885-6705 or kparker@dailygazette.net.
The CSEA had filed a grievance on behalf of the retirees and an arbitrator had been named to hear the case, Phinney said, so he was surprised when he was served with court papers saying the union was suing. “I guess this could actually turn out better if a judge decides it,” he said. “We have been paying for years, but since 1986, the contract has included the word ‘or.’ ” He said the payment of both insurance premiums has cost the village about $33,000 a year and it’s not yet known how much of a savings could be realized by having retirees pick one or the other. “I think most people will take the insurance we have,” Phinney said. Assalian said it’s not known how many retirees have been impacted by the change in policy. Two former employees were named in the suit, but Assalian said it is a class action suit covering any former village employee with benefits. regular health insurance and Medicare Part B but in March sent a letter to the retirees telling them they had to choose one or the other,” Assalian said. Mayor Robert Phinney said the letters were sent after village trustees discovered that they had made an error in paying both. “For 15 years or more, the village had been paying both, my mistake. The contact The Civil Service Employees Association representing retired South Glens Falls workers has filed a lawsuit against the village claiming that insurance payments have been illegally cut. Therese Assalian, spokeswoman for the CSEA, said a class action suit was filed against the village in state Supreme Court in Saratoga County last week. “The village has always paid for both The town retirees named in the suit are John Dixon and Marvin Millington. Millington said the Medicaid deductions will cost him about $1,000 a year. “The village makes the deduction out of my check now where they had been paying it. I signed a form allowing for a payroll deduction, but the village was reimbursing it. I don’t know why they changed things mid-stream,” he said. language states we can pay for one or the other and gave the employee the choice of which,” Phinney said.
SCHENECTADY COUNTY Staffing dispute figures in CSEA talks County may drop appeal if negotiation can solve Glendale issue BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
County negotiations with its unionized workers are focused on health benefits, according to a spokesman, but include an attempt to sort out a weekend staffing dispute at the Glendale Home. That dispute has been in contention since 2005, has now moved to the state appeals level, and shapes part of the talks with the CSEA for a new contract, according to Christopher Gardner, county attorney. The issue emerged recently when a state Supreme Court judge upheld an arbitrator’s ruling that Schenectady County violated a union contract in trying to meet a state mandate at the Glendale Home. State Supreme Court Judge Vincent J. Reilly Jr.’s June 5 decision requires the county to rescind any changes it made to its collective bargaining agreement with Local 847 of the Civil Service Employees Association. Gardner said the county is appealing Reilly’s ruling with the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court. At the same time, he said, the county is attempting to address issues that led to the defi - ciency through negotiations with the CSEA. The state Department of Health in 2005 cited the Glendale Home for failing to provide planned activities for residents on weekends. At the time the deficiency was issued, the county was providing part-time activities for residents. The state said the county had to provide full-time weekend activities or else face fines, possible closure or both. In response, the county changed or eliminated shifts, benefits and overtime, and also required exempt employees to work weekends. The union filed a grievance against the “unilateral violation of the agreement,” said CSEA spokeswoman Therese Assalian. An arbitrator sided with the CSEA. However, the county refused to comply with the arbitrator’s decision and the union brought the matter to court. Reilly rejected the county’s contention that the arbitrator’s ruling was faulty because it “conflicted with other laws or affected public policy, was totally irrational or clearly exceeded a specifically enumerated limitation on the arbitrator’s power.” Assalian said the arbitrator’s decision and Reilly’s ruling “upheld the validity of an agreement that was agreed to by both parties and has been in place and worked well for over a decade. The agreement was the result of a grievance settlement that came about through the assistance of a mediator.” Assalian said the county could have addressed the state deficiency “without violating the agreement.” Reilly agreed, saying nothing in the arbitrator’s decision prohibited the county from adding additional staffing to meet state requirements. Gardner said the county has since corrected the deficiency by “redeploying existing staff and by increasing staff.” He also said the county would withdraw its appeal of Reilly’s ruling if it and the CSEA are able to resolve weekend staffing issues through contract negotiations. The county has been negotiating with the local CSEA unit since its four-year contract expired in January. The CSEA represents 800 employees at the Glendale Home, Schenectady County Community College, the public library, Department of Social Services, the Schenectady Job Training Agency, as well as county nurses and highway workers. The county also is negotiating with the 200-member Service Employees International Union Local 1199, the 25-member SEIU Local 721, the 150-member Sheriff’s Benevolent Association and a smaller unit of correction officers. The county’s work force numbers approximately 1,800. Gardner said a top issue is health care. “We’ve been through most of the health care issues. The unions have been responsible and responsive,” he said. He refused to discuss other issues, saying the county and unions have imposed a news blackout.
Gardner said the county is appealing Reilly’s ruling with the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court. At the same time, he said, the county is attempting to address issues that led to the defi - ciency through negotiations with the CSEA. The state Department of Health in 2005 cited the Glendale Home for failing to provide planned activities for residents on weekends. At the time the deficiency was issued, the county was providing part-time activities for residents. The state said the county had to provide full-time weekend activities or else face fines, possible closure or both. In response, the county changed or eliminated shifts, benefits and overtime, and also required exempt employees to work weekends. The union filed a grievance against the “unilateral violation of the agreement,” said CSEA spokeswoman Therese Assalian. An arbitrator sided with the CSEA. However, the county refused to comply with the arbitrator’s decision and the union brought the matter to court.
THIS is why national health care would not be any better......the mandates set forth by the NYS attorney general (Mr. Steamroller Spitzer) are expensive and basically rediculous in the scope of true healthcare.....the paperwork to 'fullfill' these mandates, increases overtime, takes away from patient care and de-moralizes and de-humanizes the nursing care being delivered to patients/residents in nursinghome/rehab facilities.....
nursing is not a science but an art/craft.....
I am taking care of Mr/Mrs. XYZ....they need to go to the bathroom, I am just finishing up with another of my residents/patients....I go to help Mr/Mrs.XYZ to the bathroom and they have a bowel movement all down their pants and legs as I am in the process of helping them to stand and sit onto the toilet(dont think this will never happen to you)..... Mr/Mrs. XYZ is totally embarassed and apologizing, and basically on the verge of tears..... it is up to me(or whom ever that caregiver is) to "do what is right" in this situation(and certainly at this point in time, your time constraints and 'required paperwork' are pressing in and the inadaquacy felt for not helping the patient/resident 'better' is eating at your resolve)......and this is what the 'required paperwork' fails to prove........ THAT IS WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD, MR. SPITZER....AND ANYONE ELSE WHO THINKS IT IS GOOD TO HAVE GOVERNMENT RULE THE 'health-CARE' system.......we used to call it medicine---practicing medicine, at that........when did we start calling it 'heathcare'(marketing/advertising?)
As for the greed in the system....put more bite in the bark.....dont put up more red tape.......
Oh there will be lines....and lines....and lines.....and those folks with the $$ means to hire their own personal experts will still exist.....THERE IS NO LEVEL PLAYING FIELD IN LIFE---ESPECIALLY WITH THE GOVERNMENT......just look at the politics at hand......
And while we wait in line some of use WILL crap our pants......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
UAW pointing to non-labor expenses in contract dispute Detroit automakers aim to bridge cost gap with Japan firms BY TOM KRISHER The Associated Press
DETROIT — As bargainers for the United Auto Workers and domestic automakers try to reach a new contract, Kenneth Cooksey is one of many workers who doesn’t understand why the companies are so focused on the cost of labor. By most accounts, labor expenses for General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC amount to about 10 percent of the price of a new vehicle, including wages, benefits and “legacy” costs for retiree pensions and health care. So Cooksey, a 37-year Ford worker from Detroit, doesn’t buy the companies’ logic that they have to erase a roughly $25-per-hour labor cost gap with their Japanese competitors — Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. “We can’t help it [that] the foreigners don’t have the legacy costs because they just came over,” said Cooksey, who works at a plant just west of Detroit that assembles the Focus small car. Nissan, Honda and Toyota all pay about the same wages as the Detroit Three. The companies say the cost gap comes in other areas such as health care for active and retired workers, absenteeism, paid days off, and the jobs bank, in which workers get most of their pay when laid off. By some accounts, the biggest chunk of that $25 the companies want to shave is in retiree health care. But the union likely will focus the contract talks on the nonlabor costs of building cars and trucks, much of which is controlled by the companies. The current pacts with the Detroit Three expire Sept. 14. “The vast majority of the costs of producing a vehicle and transporting it to a dealership and preparing it for sale — including design, engineering, marketing, raw materials, executive compensation and other costs — are not related to direct or indirect manufacturing labor,” the UAW said in a fact book written for reporters covering the talks. However, the domestic automakers pay $1,200 to $1,500 per car just for health care, a huge competitive difference that has to be addressed, said Laurie Harbour-Felax, managing director at Stout Risius Ross Inc., a financial and strategic advisory company. “We’ll never be able to compete in the same situation with the Japanese because they don’t have the same issues,” said Harbour-Felax, who wrote a study that found a $2,400 profit gap per vehicle between the Detroit Three and the Japanese automakers. About half the gap can be attributed to the labor cost difference, she said. Retiree costs are one reason Ford, Chrysler and GM lost a combined $15 billion last year. Although Ford and GM recently turned profits, they’re still losing money in North America. The Detroit Three have a combined unfunded retiree health care obligation of about $90.5 billion, a staggering number that must be carried on their books and paid over the life of their employees. With far fewer retirees, the Japanese companies have much lower payments. On the bargaining table is the domestic companies’ desire to reduce or get rid of that giant obligation, perhaps by funding a UAW-run trust that would pay retiree health care bills. Still, the domestic automakers have a lot they can do to become more efficient to reduce costs and close the profit gap with the Japanese automakers, Harbour-Felax said. Among the inefficiencies, which all three say they are working to reduce, is the lack of standardized parts globally. Ford, GM and Chrysler have multiple parts that are unique to one model, while Toyota and Honda have standardized parts for nearly all models. The Detroit Three also are less efficient because they don’t build as many cars on shared underpinnings, nor do they design and engineer as many models for sale globally, she said.
Sure we are in a global economic environment now, and we are competing against other countries. So instead of laying off hourly workers and trying to lower our pay scale to stay competitive....HOW ABOUT...the CEO's and upper management take a cut in pay?
Like we tell our government....'cut spending'. The upper crust of corporations should well do the same. We could still be competitive and keep jobs! Then they could say, 'screw the union'!! It would be a win/win situation all the way around.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
State, unions holding contract talks CSEA, PEF among negotiating units at the bargaining table BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 462-2499 or bconner@dailygazette.net.
The Civil Service Employees Association resumed contract negotiations with the state this week after walking away from them in late June. CSEA spokesman Steve Madarasz said the union is hoping the resumed talks will prove more fruitful than the negotiations that started in April and were interrupted on June 29 because “we just weren’t getting much in the way of feedback” from the state. CSEA’s previous contract expired at the end of March. Craig Dickinson, spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations, declined to comment on the union’s claims. The state is currently engaged in negotiations with most of its unionized employees, almost all of whom are working under the terms of expired contracts. Dickinson said negotiations are under way with CSEA, the Public Employees Federation, and unions representing police officers and correction officers. Negotiations with unions representing college teachers are on hold until the start of the school year, and a union jurisdictional dispute is delaying the start of talks between the state and representatives of state police investigators. Darcy Wells, spokeswoman for PEF, said that in addition to contract issues, it is also concerned about the proposed moves of state data-processing employees and food lab workers from the Capital Region to the Utica and Geneva areas, respectively. The union opposes the moves, which were announced in the waning days of Gov. George Pataki’s administration. The moves are supported by political leaders from the Utica and Geneva areas and opposed by some from the Capital Region. The Spitzer administration has yet to make its position clear. On Wednesday, Spitzer s p o k e s w o m a n C h r i s t i n e Pritchard said the state does intend to establish a new data center, and the possibility of doing so in the Utica area remains “under review.” She could not provide information about the possible food lab move. Wells said PEF is also hoping that the Senate will pass and the governor sign a bill passed by the Assembly that would ban employers from forcing nurses to work overtime. Both CSEA and PEF provide information about the status of contract negotiations on their Web sites. Dickinson said the state’s policy is not to comment on those matters.
Dickinson said negotiations are under way with CSEA, the Public Employees Federation, and unions representing police officers and correction officers.
So this must mean that the negotiations for the RPD are in progress now...right? Will w be privie to this information or will we and can we FOIL for it?
Quoted Text
Both CSEA and PEF provide information about the status of contract negotiations on their Web sites. Dickinson said the state’s policy is not to comment on those matters.
And why won't the state comment about 'those matters'? That is our tax dollar that they are negotiating with. We, the ones footing the bill, so be intitled to hear or read every little part of these negotiations. It's certainly not like a private business like GE. We clearly do not foot the bill for their union employees. However, we do for the state, public workers! This should all be out in the open for the people.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Remember the leaders who sign these contracts tend to park facing the wrong way on one way streets....they all have the disease, of "my way, my friends, my relatives, my re-election, etc"....... >
The arbiters just park where there is no standing(bandstanding) allowed anytime......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
CAPITOL Spitzer vetoes union-backed bills Legislation sought to protect retiree health benefits BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 462-2499 or bconner@dailygazette.net.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer vetoed several bills this week that were backed by public employee unions, the most significant of which would have prevented state and local governments from reducing the health benefits of retirees unless a corresponding reduction were made in the benefits of active workers. The two bills protecting retiree health benefits were sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Hugh Farley, R-Niskayuna, who noted Thursday that retired teachers are already protected by a similar law. “Linking health insurance coverage for retirees and active workers is a fair approach,” Farley said in a statement responding to the veto, “and one which has been approved by three governors” — Mario Cuomo, George Pataki and Spitzer — when it comes to teachers. Pataki, however, also had vetoed bills similar to those Spitzer vetoed Wednesday. In his veto message, Spitzer said that while “these bills seek to advance the laudable and important goal of insuring that retiree health care benefits do not become a unique target of budget cuts,” nonetheless “it would be unwise to impose on every public employer in the state” the mandates in the legislation. E.J. McMahon, director of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for New York State Policy, said the vetoes were significant because the bills would have prevented governments from dealing with “the huge looming cost of benefits for retirees.” Farley’s statement said he “will introduce a bill creating an expert task force, with instructions to deliver recommendations to the governor and the Legislature by next spring” as to how to proceed. Spitzer called for an executive branch study and report. “A study is good if it produces the recognition that something needs to be done other than freezing all benefits in place,” McMahon said. Spitzer also vetoed union-backed bills that would have restricted reassignment of public employees and expanded pension benefi ts for “peace and police officers” in the Department of Taxation and Finance. Measures that he signed included one to raise the state police mandatory retirement age from 57 to 60. Darcy Wells, spokeswoman for the Public Employees Federation, and Steve Madarasz, spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association, both said they were disappointed with the vetoes of the retiree health benefi ts bills, but praised Spitzer for prior actions he has taken this year. Wells cited the governor signing a law to combat workplace violence that she said Pataki had vetoed. Madarasz referred to Spitzer’s executive order making it easier to unionize day care workers. McMahon said the day care action, which his organization opposed, had been a big win for the unions. But he praised Spitzer for his previous veto of a bill that would have made it harder for local police departments to discipline officers, as well as for this week’s vetoes.
And these are the issues the government has to deal with when it chooses to be in the 'employment' business and provides more public sector jobs than private. It makes me laugh when they say, "prevent governments from dealing with “the huge looming cost of benefits for retirees.”
These 'dealings' were created by the government, and the unions. And in the end are costing the taxpayers a bundle.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Nobody seems to be worrying about the pension benefits for people who retire in the private sector and every time I read a news bulletin from my old union the company wants to reduce benefits to their retirees to cut costs. It isn't fair that companies can change the rules after you retire that they agreed to to get you to retire early under the guise of cutting cost when their CEO's are retiring with golden parachutes.
I think that it is not legal to change the benefit package of people who have already retired. I do know of some folks that it happened to and they retained an attorney and it was found out to be illegal. But I do think that the government should work on decreasing some of the benefits for all of the public workers for the future. I do not believe that public workers should be able to have a union either. I think that the union would be negotiating with my money that I have worked for. I don't think that is right or fair.
Farley’s statement said he “will introduce a bill creating an expert task force, with instructions to deliver recommendations to the governor and the Legislature by next spring” as to how to proceed. Spitzer called for an executive branch study and report.
Dont you just feel at home???
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
I've said it a gazillion times...the unions have to go. They have saved NOTHING for this country. It is the major union compaies that are downsizing or outsoursing. And for that you can just thank the unions.
Now for the unions in the public sector jobs...they are costing us, the taxpayers, a fortune of money. Unions are clearly not needed in the public section jobs!!! Can we please outsource every public sector job that is represented by a union?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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