Association of Classified Employees
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Local 2250 AFL-CIO
(Voice) 301-773-7223 (Fax) 301-773-4548
“At
Last!” the Employees’ and Teachers’ pension systems were both approved by the
State Legislature on April 10, 2006.
The
legislation provides for significant improvements in an employee’s final
pension benefit. The current system
provided a benefit of approximately thirty-eight percent (38%) of an employee’s
average final three (3) year salary. The
new legislation will provide a pension of approximately fifty-four percent
(54%) of the average final three (3) year salary.
Local
2250’s President, Faith I. Jones, testified before the Senate Budget and Tax
Committee urging them to pass legislation that would improve the current
pension system. President Jones stated
that, “the pension currently available simply does not, I repeat,
does not provide an adequate benefit. Some of our members can hardly pay for their
healthcare needs on the monies they will receive from these pensions.”
President
Jones credits many of our members with helping to pass this legislation by
calling and e-mailing their Senators and Delegates. Other AFSCME organizations around the state,
as well as the Maryland State Teachers’ Association, worked diligently to help
pass this most important legislation.
Also noteworthy is the fact that the
Collective Bargaining Update by Richard
L. Putney, Executive Director
Collective
Bargaining is a term used to denote the process whereby a representative of
labor and management work out the wages, hours, and other terms and conditions
of employment to be written in an agreement that is to govern the relations of
the parties for a specific period of time.
Local
2250 has been prepared to negotiate a successor
agreement since December 15, 2005.
“Good
Faith” Negotiations as defined by the Taft-Hartley Act requires that both
parties meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respects to
wages, hours, and other terms and condition of employment. Neither side however, is required to agree to
a proposal.
We
believe and expect that “Good Faith” negotiators will begin in the not too
distant future. Local 2250 was originally prepared to negotiate with Mr. Howard
Burnett, but as you probably know, he is retiring this month. Local 2250’s President, Faith I. Jones, and I
met with the new CEO, Dr. John Deasy, and he
indicated that he would prefer to negotiate a financial package only, without changes
to the current contract language for a one-year period. While this sounds like a reasonable proposal
we are concerned that the school system has not complied with language changes
agreed to in the 2003 negotiation.
In
order to address this issue, we have filed grievances to force management to
fulfill its’ commitment. Dr. Deasy will officially be the CEO on May 1st and
we plan to begin negotiations on a new contract shortly thereafter.
If
you have any questions about our process, please feel free to contact me.
President Executive Director