State Employee Pay Raise Update

March 04, 2010

Breaking News! - The Senate voted and failed to pass the resolution to reject the 3% pay raise. Another vote is possible. Click Read More to follow the story.
878 Letters Sent to Legislators So Far!

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Guest Editorial on State Employee Pay

Read Executive Vice President Phil Thompson's Guest Editorial in the March 12, 2010 edition of the Detroit Free Press.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100312/OPINION05/100311079/1336/OPINION/Politicians-CEOs-need-to-sacrifice-too

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Saginaw City Schools Ratify Contract

The Saginaw City Schools chapter ratified a three year agreement on February 25th after a long six month battle. The school district picked up the 12% health insurance increase and eliminated the members paying the first three months of health care insurance when they first enroll in the plan, something this group has been fighting to get for many years. The bargaining committee negotiated an attendance incentive, 1 added snow day, several non economic regarding position opportunities the members wanted and the lowest paid food service classification would receive a small increase. The rest of the membership agreed to a wage freeze. The Saginaw City Schools bargaining committee is chaired by Chapter President, Mark Clements and includes Rachael Burnell, Cheryl Merrill, Roberta Oldenburg, Carlene Lawson, Sam McGee and Cheryl Harrington. This was Mark's first time as chief spokesperson for the group.

Unemployment Growth in America

View a dynamic map showing the growth of unemployment in each county.

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

House Republicans Take Action to Reject State Employee Pay Raise

Rep. Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham) introduced House Concurrent Resolution 42 on Tuesday. This resolution would reject the unionized state employees negotiated 3% pay increase scheduled to take effect October 1. This 3% wage increase was part of a three year contract negotiated and ratified in 2007. The 3 year contract included a 0% wage increase the 1st year, 1 % the second year and a 3 % for the upcoming final year.

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Senator Proposes Public Employee Pay Cut

Michigan Senator John Pappageorge (R-Troy) has introduced Senate Joint Resolution U Entitled "Public Employee Pay Cut" which, in summary, would:

"Cuts the pay of all public employees in the state by 5 percent. Am. Sec. 10 of Article I, Secs. 12 and 48 of Article IV, Sec. 23 of Article V, Secs. 3 and 18 of Article VI, Sec. 9 of Article VII, Secs. 5, 6 and 7 of Article VIII and Sec. 5 of Article XI of the Michigan Constitution. Adds Sec. 8 to Article XI. "

It has been sent to the Committee on Reforms and Restructuring.

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Additional information on Plan A and Banked Leave Time

An employee can still participate in Plan A or Plan C. The only difference is that according to the IRS, the employee must deplete their BLT hours before recording the unpaid hours as Plan A or Plan C. For example, if an employee is only working 64 hours and taking 16 hours of Plan A per pay period, the first pay period BLT goes into effect, the employee would enter 64 hours of regular work and 16 hours of Plan A time. Two hours of the 64 will be banked and the remaining 62 hours will be paid. The next pay period, since BLT would have to be depleted before recording Plan A hours, the employee who is taking 16 hours of Plan A would record 64 hours of regular, 2 hours of BLT and 14 hours of Plan A leave. The employee would be paid for 62 of the 64 hours (two hours are banked) and the 2 hours of BLT for a total of 64 hours in the pay period.