Our 2009 bargaining team has grown to 43, with more elections to come!
We all deserve a fair retirement. That's why, as members of the member-elected bargaining team at CHW, we proposed a new pension plan at our last session bargaining session (June 26 in Sacramento). Our goal has always been to improve the current plan by making it fairer and linking our retirement to our final salary. Here's what we propose:
- Base our pension on our final year's salary, instead of our pay as of January 1, 2005.
- Replace the current "tiers" in the GDP with a percentage of our final salary. This is a much fairer system. It allows our retirement income to grow in proportion to our salary.
- Use accrued extended sick leave to boost our retirement income.
After presenting our proposed plan to management, they agreed that the plan needed to be changed. Our actuaries will be meeting with management's actuaries in the next few weeks to see if we can agree on how our plan changes cost--we are bound by an agreement made by former UHW leadership to only increasing the annual actuarial cost of the pension plan by $2 million. We are united and will continue to push toward our goals of a more fair retirement system for all members.
Collateral Pay Push Continues
"The issues of retirement and collateral pay affect each and every one of us. We are honored to have been elected by our peers, whom we admire and respect, to see them through this process." --Stan Dea and Ginina Bassi
The former leadership agreed that we had only $2.3 million left to spend. A couple of sessions ago, we demanded an accounting how much our total wage package costs. Management provided some information on these costs, but the information provided raised more questions than it answered. At the last session, we submitted an information request seeking additional information about the remaining $2.3 million. Management will provide the information at or before the next session. Once we figure out exactly how much money is left, we will submit another proposal to improve collateral pay.
Our Next Bargaining Dates:
July 9th - Los Angeles
July 23rd - Sacramento
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