Dear Ms. Dion,
We received a very similar email yesterday from Carol Carrier. I note that you omitted the paragraph that asserts that "
the average AFSCME employee makes $35,444 per year or $17.04 per hour." I assume this must be because you know that's not true and didn't want to insult our intelligence by recycling that lie, since our bargaining unit members know how much they make.
The fact is, the "University of Minnesota general fund operating appropriations (excluding the Mayo
Partnership funds) were increased by $151,626,000 for the biennium. Your operating budget is $1,497,559,929. Each 1% salary increase for our bargaining unit members costs the approximately $1 million. We can see in the President's recommended budget, which is available in its entirety at http://www.budget.umn.edu/bud08/BOR_Ops-Budget-FY08_Materials-rev.pdf, that millions of dollars are set aside to "recruit, retain and support world class faculty and staff." (See page 13 of the report.) Apparently we are not included in that plan.
No one will get a 4.25% annual wage increase under the University's proposal. You all need to drop that argument. We can do arithmetic and we know that our step increases are prorated depending on our anniversary date. Our step increases do not cost the University anything and never have been claimed to be a cost item until 4 years ago when you began your campaign to eliminate step increases altogether and move to merit pay. We know the turnover rate in the clerical union alone is close to 40%, so in any given year there are far more that 6% of our member who don't receive a step increase.
Our health insurance premiums are going up an average of just over 9% if we are in the base plan or Health Partners. Inflation is projected at an annual rate of 3.5% for the next two years. The Consumer Price Index figures routinely exclude "volatile" sectors such as food and energy. Unfortunately, we cannot exclude these items in our budgets.
I don't agree that "no one won" after the strike of clerical workers in 2003. We may have lost 11 days of pay, but we gained respect for ourselves and confidence in our capacity to stand together. We gained the unity of all of our AFSCME locals who now sit together at one bargaining table and will take action together.
What we have left to win is the University central administration's respect for us, our work, and our union. We have been asking for that since day 1. The ball is in your court.
Sincerely,
Sandi Sherman
AFSCME Local 3800