AEU and CSEA will meet on October 17-18th
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AEU and CSEA will meet again at the bargaining table on October 17-18th per the October 4th letter from Keith Pace and October 7th response from President Hendries confirming dates today. (Click here and here for copies of the letters.) Per the October 4th letter from Pace, CSEA has informed AEU that it intends to make a change to its last, best and final package offer that it imposed on October 1st by reducing the pension contribution from 1.25% to 1.0%.
CSEA has widely represented to both AEU and CSEA members that its economic configuration of a 1.75% salary increase off set by the .25% monthly salary for H/W benefits and the 1.25% employee pension contribution will not result in a reduction in pay for AEU members. However, it is very likely that it will since union (ERISA) pension contributions cannot be made on a pre-tax basis. It appears that CSEA has realized this.
We reiterate that CSEA did not present its package proposal implemented on October 1st at any time during bargaining. It came in an email that President Hendries received the evening of September 25th. Dave Low's 1 p.m. statewide conference call was the next day. Because it was never provided at the table, AEU has not received an explanation from CSEA and has not yet been able to ask clarifying questions as is normally done in bargaining.
We will obviously have more information when the parties meet on October 17-18th.
In Solidarity,
Debbie Pichetto,
Val Hollins,
Karen Hartmann,
Scott Hendries,
Carol Koenig,
Chris Platten
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