The MacIver Institute obtained several documents relating to the contract being negotiated by the soon-to-be-departed Doyle administration and AFSCME, which the soon-to-be-departed Democrat leaders in the Legislature want to vote on as they head out the door. The three documents released thus far, language adjustments, overtime changes, and health insurance changes, show that it is more of a extended middle finger than the “no-increase” portrayal by Doyle and the media. I’ll let the MacIver Institute summarize the effects of what’s been released thus far:
A first-blush, cursory look at these documents reveal a few things:
1) These employees maintain their lavish retirement and health benefits with only a modest increase in their share of health care costs.
2) Much of the language here appears to empower employees with greater authority regarding staffing decisions, transfers, etc. Tying the hands of the employer to determine who works where is never beneficial to the employer. As a Wisconsin taxpayer, remember, YOU are the employer.
3) Anticipating cuts and the most senior employees transferring to lower paying jobs to avoid job losses, there is a sick leave conversion that could be costly. Rather than allowing employees to convert their sick leave credits based on their hourly wage at the time of retirement, the conversion will be based on the highest base pay rate earned in state service. So if someone retires at a wage less than what they made years ago, their accrued sick leave will be converted at their highest base pay.
4) The overall costs regarding changes in transfer and layoff procedures in all these contracts is not known. This could limit the cost savings of trimming the state workforce. We hope the Joint Committee on Employment Relations will obtain answers to these questions before voting to approve the tentative agreements.
The amusing response from the Union types (at MacIver) is that ‘most of these terms’ were negotiated during the Thompson era.
Yah, well.
A lot of things were negotiated in the 20th Century.
This is the Twenty-FIRST century.