2009 a Public Workers year in Review
In February, Governor Manchin promised to share the budget surplus with state employees. According to the state tax office public workers earned the 2009 budget surplus because of massive statewide staffing shortages.
Senators Helmick, McCabe, Foster and Wells sponsored SB 519, the bill to furlough state employees with no due process, with no accountability on the Governor who would be authorized to implement layoffs at will and with no recognition of seniority for employees to be furloughed. Public workers gathered 1,500 signatures on a petition to stop SB 519 before the bill could even leave the Senate. Thanks to Senator Randy White who agreed to receive the petitions and was the only Senator to vote against this draconian excuse for public policy. Before the bill could reach the House of Delegates the Public Workers Union gathered over 2,000 signatures on the petition to defeat SB 519. With your letters, emails and phone calls SB 519 was dead on arrival in the House of Delegates.
Lou Dobbs and CNN covered the Governor’s $55,000 pay raise in a story called West Virginia the Welfare State. This aftermath of our 2009 Presidents Day Rally focused on the Public Workers Union push for a living wage for all state workers compared to the Governors $55,000 pay raise. CNN interviewed several employees who qualify for welfare while working full time at Mildred Mitchell Batemen State Hospital in Huntington. The report ended with the comment from the Governor’s office that if there would be a budget surplus it would be shared with the state workers. The reporters joked with each other at the end of the segment that if there would be a budget surplus, it was unlikely the Governor would share it with the state workforce. It is rumored that the Governor was so mad about this news story that he kicked the furniture in the Governor’s mansion and broke his foot.
Mildred Mitchell Batemen Hospital and other DHHR programs received scrutiny in the courts over inadequate staffing levels, compromised patient care and other citations related to failed management. In response the Public Workers Union is calling for the adoption and implementation of caseload standards for DHHR and state hospital workers.
West Virginia did end fiscal year 2009 with a $168 Million Dollar Budget Surplus. Governor Manchin then called a special session of the legislature and proposed a meager $500 bonus for public workers. The Public Workers Union opposed this bonus proposal because a bonus system is ripe for abuse and favoritism, a bonus this year is a pay cut next year and the lowest paid state workforce in the nation deserve a minimum of a $1,000 cost of living raise, a measure fully funded by the budget surplus. The House of Delegates at least attempted to make the bonus fair by funding the bonus proposal from the budget surplus and applying the bonus to public employees and retirees. Instead the Governor called the Senate to kill the bill; he killed the very bonus he had promised to state employees.
PEIA also worked hard in 2009 to prove that the state personnel management system is being destroyed by our so called state leaders. PEIA first proposed to eliminate retiree health benefits for all employees hired after a date certain. At the public hearings required to be conducted by the PEIA Finance Board, the outrage across the state was universal. PEIA voted to implement the plan regardless of the unanimous opposition to the plan.
PEIA then proposed to cut benefits, increase premiums, and double the out of pocket expenses and deductibles for covered employees and retirees. Again the outrage across the state was universal. Public workers called this plan a company store imposed pay cut. Even though required to conduct public hearings, a majority of the PEIA Finance Board members did not attend a single one of the public hearings in November. According to witnesses PEIA almost never has a quorum of Finance Board members at any public hearing. PEIA then voted in December to implement many of these measures regardless of the nearly universal opposition to the plan.
West Virginias Public Workers Union also exposed the toxic work environment in several DHHR offices in 2009. Perpetuated by a lack of implementation, compliance and enforcement of the 22 year old WV OSHA law for public employees, these sick buildings represent another serious problem of failing personnel management in state government.
For 2010, the Public Workers Union calls for all state workers to take charge of our places of employment through enhanced professionalism and union organization. Take pride in your work serving the communities in our state. Through our professionalism and union strength, public workers are changing the way the state does business by standing up to bad management and demanding accountability of our public employers. By making a positive difference in our work place we are improving the quality of life for all West Virginians.
We thank you, your union thanks you and the people of West Virginia Thank You for your public service.
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