Editor’s note: This story was updated with new information on Oct. 15.
The union for state employees and the Shumlin administration broke off negotiations over wages on Tuesday and now the two parties are arguing over the cause of the dispute.
Gov. Peter Shumlin says the union “refused to budge” from its original proposal of a 13.4 percent salary increase over two years.
The governor issued a statement Wednesday afternoon accusing the non-management bargaining unit of the Vermont State Employees Association of walking away from the bargaining table and declaring impasse prematurely.
“At a time when many Vermonters are not seeing their wages rise, it would be unconscionable to agree to pay increases that are more than quadruple the rate of inflation and would add substantial pressure to an already tight budget,” Shumlin said in a statement. “I will not ask Vermonters to pay higher taxes to fund a 13.4 percent raise for state employees.”
The state faces a looming budget gap that could crest at $100 million in the coming fiscal year, and the Shumlin administration is scrambling to find ways to cut costs.
Steve Howard, the executive director of the Vermont State Employees Association, says the governor’s assertions are inaccurate.
The union offered a compromise position of a 2 percent cost of living increase each year for two years, plus step increases of 1.4 percent, Howard says, but that proposal was rejected by the Shumlin administration. The union originally wanted a 5 percent COLA increase a year, plus a 1.7 percent step increase each year. The total cost of that proposal would be about $70 million in additional wage spending.
Negotiators for the governor started out with wage cuts and on Wednesday, Howard says, and after five meetings with the bargaining team, the Shumlin administration for the first time “got to zero [percent increase]” on Tuesday. “That’s not going to pass muster,” Howard said.
State employees are facing a 5.5 percent rate increase for premiums, he said, and the 2 percent pay raise would “just keep people’s heads above water.”
The state pays 80 percent of the cost of premiums for state workers. An employee’s share of the premium increase would be $5 per pay period for an individual plan, according to Tom Cheney, deputy commissioner of the Department of Human Resources.
Shumlin administration officials refused to move any further on wage increases in a daylong meeting with union members on Tuesday, Howard says, and afterward members of the bargaining team unit voted to go to impasse.
“There were no serious substantive proposals that would have brought us to an agreement,” Howard said. “They were just wasting our time.”
Maribeth Spellman, the commissioner of the Department of Human Resources, said on Thursday that Howard’s assertion that VSEA had moved its salary proposal from 5 percent per year to 2 percent per year “is simply untrue.”
“At no time did the VSEA bargaining team present a 2 percent number during negotiations,” Spellman wrote in an email to VTDigger. “I was surprised to see Steve’s statement in the press – there seems to be a disconnect between the executive director and the bargaining team, which we hope will be rectified. If the VSEA has truly changed their official position, this is a welcome development and an indication that the parties clearly have not reached genuine impasse and should return to the bargaining table.”
Howard admits that the number he cited on Wednesday was incorrect. “The point I was trying to make was that there were several attempts to get to a common place,” he said. “There were several proposals made by members of VSEA and that makes the point accurate.”
Howard declined to say what the percentage increases were because “he doesn’t want to negotiate in the press.”
Joe McNeil, the state’s chief negotiator, said in a letter to the union that the call for a mediator was premature.
“[The state] disagrees that a genuine impasse has been reached,” McNeil wrote. “The state is fully prepared to bargain further and is prepared to modify its current positions in order to secure agreement or narrow the range of outstanding issues.”
Spellman said the Shumlin administration believes a compromise could be reached without a federal mediator.
“Negotiation is a two-way street, requires collaboration and compromise,” Spellman said. “We feel there’s more room for that.”
A federal mediator would analyze proposals from both sides and come to a determination about what a negotiated compromise should look like.
Howard says it’s not “a big surprise” that the union is asking for mediation, “given how far apart we are.” He described the impasse as a “normal” step in negotiations.
Shumlin’s statement, Howard said, was on a par with rhetoric from the Republican presidential campaign, not something you’d hear from a Democratic governor.
“The governor’s volley was unfortunate, and it’s more about politics than it is about substance,” Howard said.
Robert Stone, the head of the bargaining unit, which represents 3,600 state workers, said VSEA does not want to bargain contracts through the press, but Shumlin has “now forced our hand with his ill-advised press release.”
“VSEA believes the governor’s actions are prompted less by his desire to reach a good-faith agreement with thousands of hard-working NMU state employees and more by his desire to score political points,” Stone said. “That’s not good for Vermont public services or the people who deliver them or who depend on them. VSEA’s NMU Bargaining Team remains committed to achieving a fair agreement with the State.”
The state workers’ contract expires on June 30, 2016.
