Hi, it’s Monday, April 19, and it has been quite a while since all of you have seen me so you have to be thinking something must be up. That of course is the reason for this message. You should recall on April 8 we sent out an eBulletin explaining what the six public sector unions were attempting to do in resolving the EUTF premium split for the new plan year that starts on July 1. In that short email blast we told everybody that we were all working together to try to come up with a uniform solution with the employers to achieve that. Right up through last week that was the plan the six unions were discussing — it wasn’t a joint proposal — but we were each submitting a proposal to maintain the same 60/40 employer/employee split, which is based on the HMSA 80/20 option. That was the plan to try to resolve that issue while bargaining on other issues would continue.
Out of the blue last Thursday, the employers then responded to some of the unions, not all, with a counter-proposal that all of a sudden sought to wrap up the entire contract. Wages and all other items along with the EUTF and they called it a total package settlement. We initially consulted with our negotiators and the initial reaction to that package was not so favorable but the employers have persisted. The purpose for my message today is to tell you that you are going to hear, maybe as early as this evening in the news, that UPW and the UHPA have both reached an agreement with the employer.
At this point in time there is no agreement that has been reached with police (SHOPO), fire (HFFA), HSTA and HGEA. We are having a meeting with your respective unit negotiating teams tomorrow to discuss the very latest proposal the employers have put forward. Please keep in mind, whether we come to an understanding on EUTF alone in some kind of memorandum of agreement form or if there is an agreement on the entire contract, that is subject to your ratification. Most certainly one of the big concerns that I have is the amount of time we have to give you to make an informed decision on either issue. The reality is that this is the final business week of the legislature with conference committees meeting and Friday is the decking deadline meaning any bill that is up for final vote next week must be decked by sometime Friday evening. We are on a very short time frame for sure. There is some concern about rushing out to you with nothing more than a 48-hour period forcing a vote which likely results in a lot of you folks being disappointed and upset. So we will keep you informed but I just wanted to make sure and let you know that you will probably begin hearing from the media now that the employees of those unions, UHPA and UPW, will be conducting ratification votes over the next 48-hours. Our teams meet tomorrow. We will get a report out to you tomorrow once the teams have met so you folks know up to date what is happening.
Please keep in mind, negotiations haven’t been going on behind the scenes. There hasn’t been discussions with the employers. It came out of the blue on Thursday and we were somewhat taken by surprise by how the employers chose to present it and we feel kind of under the gun because of that. At any rate, we will do our very best for all of you.
Stay tuned, more information to come. Thanks.
*For Randy’s full message, please watch the video.
(HGEA member login required to watch video. Thank you for your patience, closed captioning will be available 1-2 hours after this eBulletin is sent.)
