Tell the Governor: Now It's Time to Negotiate A Union Agreement
Thanks to our activism, we beat back the governor's efforts to cut our Holiday Pay. Now let's let him know we want to start negotiating a union agreement with the state! Send him an email and tell him state workers want a union contract now!
VICTORY! AFSCME State Employees Get Active and Stop Attack on Our Holiday Pay!
Congratulations, AFSCME union members and all State Employees!
AFSCME State Employees stopped a budget proposal aimed at taking away three days and $10.6 million from our holiday pay this year.
"State employees have already sacrificed a lot to keep essential services going during these hard economic times, we don't get a holiday from paying our bills!" was our message to legislators, and our voices and activism paid off!
We got mobilized and took action! In just ten days, legislators received two thousand emails and more than 500 phone calls. We visited more than fifty legislators and held meetings with nine others.
In Frankfort, they heard us loud and clear!
Both the House and Senate dropped the holiday pay cut from the governor's budget, and restored our holiday pay!
Said House Speaker Stumbo, "Our state government employees have done so much for the Commonwealth, especially as we work our way through these difficult economic times, so we in the House felt it was critically important not to ask them to sacrifice any more than they already have."
We should always remember, it's our work, our voice and our union. Together, we can make a difference.
To call and thank your legislators, call 1-800-372-7181 and provide your zip code. Say you want to send a "thank you" message to your legislators for their support of State Employees.
For more info and to stay up to date with what our AFSCME is doing keep visiting our website, or call 1-866-871-0646.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFOR MORE INFORMATION June 10, 2009CONTACT: DAVID PATTERSON/317-339-9036
STATE EMPLOYEES SAY “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” AFTER GOVERNOR’S PROPOSAL TO CUT PAID HOLIDAYS After years of critical cuts leaving departments short staffed, new employees poorly trained and remaining workers on call 24/7, state workers are telling legislators they can’t take any more.
FRANKFORT – In the face of the governor’s proposal last week that calls for state employees earning less than $50,000 a year to take three unpaid holidays, state employees are telling the governor and legislators that they are already facing a crisis with short staffing, poorly-trained new employees, high-turnover and unsafe work conditions
“As a single mom and a state worker, I have to have a second job to make ends meet,” said April Tidwell, a protection & permanency worker for the state. “I don’t get a holiday from paying my bills. The governor needs to look somewhere else.”
“We already have state workers who qualify for public programs even though they put in more than a full days’ work for the Commonwealth,” said Diana Casebolt, a Case Manager from CampbellCounty. “Now we’re being told that we need to sacrifice three critical days of pay to help the state’s budget crisis. Enough is enough!”
“State workers are stretched too thin,” said Dan Ball, a Kentucky state Corrections Officer. “We must be ready to be called in to work at any time. We get no over time pay, only compensation time, which means staffing gets worse on a daily basis when we try to use our earned comp time.
The Beshear Administration, the CFG, and the State Budget Director fail to realize the tremendous sacrifices state employees are already making on a daily basis—just like other Kentuckians. State employees consistently work without overtime pay to make sure needy families receive benefits; work on-call in correctional facilities twenty-four hours-per-day, seven days a week; and travel hundreds of miles to ensure Kentucky’s children are protected from dangerous situations, sacrificing time with their own families.
In fact, during these desperate economic times, state employees are operating with 3,000 less employees than last year. Social service workers have seen their workload skyrocket with state-wide unemployment insurance claims rising from 30, 442 to 47,655, food stamp participation rise 10.8% and Medicaid recipients increase by 6,000.
A Correctional Officer in Kentucky makes on average less than $10,000 than those in surrounding states while the average daily inmate population rises each year. According to a 2009 Pew Charitable Trusts study, Kentucky also has the fastest growing prison population. In 2006, some 20,000 incarcerated adults and 34,000 probationers and parolees populated Kentucky, with a mere staff of 3,822 Correctional Officers to protect Kentucky’s citizens.
“I challenge those who came up with the unpaid holidays plan to do our work for one day and try to make it on our salaries. I don’t think they would be looking to us to sacrifice more,” said Corrections Officer Ball.
Some 8,000 state employees represented by AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), are reaching out with phone calls and emails to the governor and legislators, asking them to find another solution to the budget shortfall.
The union continues to wait for Governor Beshear’s Administration to begin negotiations with state employees to reach a union agreement. Such an agreement can avert budget cuts like these facing the state by working with workers to find common sense solutions.
“If the administration listens to state employees and works with, us we can help find creative ways to bring our commonwealth in to better financial times,” said Keith Jervis, a probation and parole officer.
AFSCME, representing more than 1.6 million members nation wide, is the largest public employees’ union in the U.S. The union represents more than 8,000 Kentucky state employees in social and family services, administrative and corrections & law enforcement.
**Interviews with state employees throughout Kentucky are available upon request**
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Jessica Johnson, a corrections officer and volunteer member organizer from Minnesota, talks about poor working conditions she's witnessed here in Kentucky -- and how organizing with AFSCME can improve pay and safety on the job for COs. "I left my family to volunteer out here because I felt there was such a need to help make COs work life and home life more liveable.
