YOUR CHOICE FOR AN INDEPENDENT VOICE!

Clerical, Technical & Specialized Staff

VSEA- the independent union for staff at UVM

THIS WEEK

We urge you all to consider attending the

UBAC meeting on Thursday, Feb 20th from 8:00-10:00am

in the Sugar Maple Ballroom in the Davis Center

Show up and let them know you are listening!

LISTEN, GET INFORMATION...THEN TAKE ACTION!

Read on...

WHAT IS COST-SHARING?

The rooms were filled to capacity for both of the UBAC Town Hall meetings last week. Many of your colleagues spoke from the floor expressing everything from dismay to outrage. Here are some of the voices from those meetings:

"Myself and my colleagues in our small department all have second jobs because we are paid so little at UVM and now you want to ask us how we can handle a pay cut?"

"It is shameful that some full-time UVM staff are paid so little they are eligible for public assistance."

Cost sharing is... "balancing the budget on the backs of the staff."

"Without a real voice and without any input, you are implementing changes that will have a serious negative effect on my household."

Read the Burlington Free Press article about the Thursday Feb. 13th UBAC Town Forum.

And a recent letter to the editor from a UVM student captures a theme that was clearly shared amongst the audience last Thursday- cut from the top!

From the www.uvm.edu/costshare website:

"What exactly is meant by the term "cost share" in this context?

In this context, "cost share" refers to the way that the cost of a benefit is divided between an individual and the University. For instance:

The University pays 100% of the cost of dependent tuition for eligible faculty and staff
The University contributes 10% of salary/wages to an eligible employee's retirement savings plan
The University pays between 64 and 97% of the cost of healthcare premiums for eligible, active faculty and staff, based on their salary or wages

UVM is considering adjusting future costs so that the University pays a somewhat smaller percentage of costs and individual faculty and staff pay a somewhat larger percentage."

Source: www.uvm.edu/costshare/?Page=questions.php

The conclusion:

"cost share" = PAY CUT

TAKING ACTION-

MAKING CHANGE

Come to one of the two upcoming VSEA lunchtime info sessions to

find out more about joining your colleagues in forming a union with VSEA:

Friday, February 21st -

Noon-1:15PM Jeffords Rm 326

VSEA informational session

-bring good questions, sign a card!

Wednesday, March 12th -

Noon-1:15PM John Dewey Lounge, Old Mill

VT State College members come to UVM to talk about their union!

Contact a friend/colleague that is a union supporter, ask good questions, and sign a card joining VSEA in support of having a union.

Join your colleagues- sign a card today- talk with your co-workers and make a positive change in your workplace!

If you can't make the above meeting times - call: 802-338-6052 - we can provide more info and find a time to meet.

"cost share" = PAY CUT!

THE ANALYSIS:

The most important benefit for us is that, with a union, we gain the legal right to participate in the decisions that affect our jobs.

With a union, we, the clerical, technical, and specialized staff would have a real say in the decisions that impact our professions, our salary and benefits, and be granted the legal right to bargain as equals with the administration of UVM. By contrast, this is exactly what the UVM faculty are doing now through their union.

Without a union, staff at UVM are at the mercy of the administration, which currently has all of the power to make the significant choices at their own discretion. By forming a union, staff will win the legally-binding right to participate in every major decision that affects our working conditions, wages and benefits.

These recent rounds of budget decisions highlight the economic disparity that exists between the top-ranking administration and the staff that are essential to making the University run.

Without a voice in the process, we can be sure of one thing- either we're at the table or we are what's for lunch!

Even the UBAC, University Benefits Advisory Council, which is "facilitating a conversation", doesn't have a voice in the matter. According to their website: "The Council will do research and serve as a sounding board, but it will not make a recommendation for any specific changes."

Source: http://www.uvm.edu/costshare/

For more information

VSEA- the independent union for UVM staff

Vermont State

Employees' Association

EMAIL for more info

or call:

802-338-6052

Big decisions being made without YOU-

Want to change the power dynamic?

Find out how to get engaged
Sign a card to join VSEA
Talk with your colleagues - it is LEGAL to talk about salary and benefits and having representation
Move forward with other UVM staff to make positive change - sign cards, have a successful election, form a union and get a contract to secure the good parts of your workplace and work to change the things that matter to you

We will always be stronger when we work together as a group than when we stand alone. Join your colleagues in moving forward to make key improvements and to protect the things that we want to keep the same -

sign a card to join the Vermont State Employees' Association today!

Good things come to

those who negotiate!

EMAIL for more info

More about VSEA

What Is the Vermont State Employees' Association?

The Vermont State Employees' Association is a union of over 5,100 Vermont workers that

have joined together to gain a voice in the decisions that affect our jobs.

In addition to the clerical and technical staff at the Vermont State Colleges, our union consists of state employees.

At the core of the union's program is the work that members and staff do together to bargain contracts with management and ensure that these agreements are upheld in each of our workplaces.

VSEA has a team of professional staff to support members in enforcing

the contracts, training workplace stewards, carrying out direct action on key issues, lobbying, communications and legal support.

United Staff wholeheartedly endorses the Vermont State Employees' Association in forming a strong, independent union of UVM staff. As a longtime independent organization at UVM, United Staff supports

VSEA, a union of Vermonters that will keep the focus of our efforts and our resources here in Vermont.

Join hundreds of our co-workers in supporting VSEA -- your choice for an independent voice in our workplace!