No Rolling Furloughs (For Now)

Yesterday's news was that the unions and the governor's people came to an agreement over the rolling furloughs that were threatened recently (those were the ones where we would be forced to take off two unpaid days each month, or very roughly a 10% pay cut).

Here's how it is explained in an email that some of us got from our union:

SEIU 668, AFSCME and UFCW have reached a TENATIVE agreement with the Commonwealth that STOPS the Governor’s threats to impose rolling furloughs. This tentative agreement is dependent on a ratification vote of the unions’ members. The entire tentative agreement will be mailed to each member.

The tentative agreement includes the following:

1. NO rolling furloughs for the remainder of this budget year ending June 30, 2009 and the next budget year ending June 30, 2010. If any other furloughs need to occur, they will be done contractually.

2. A TEMPORARY 20% reduction in the Commonwealth contribution to the PEBTF effective April 2009 up to and including June 2010, to be repaid by the Commonwealth commencing in September 2010 in addition to the contractual obligation. Reserves in the PEBTF will be kept at a 1 month minimum.
If necessary, the Commonwealth will provide sufficient funds to ensure that this minimum. (There are currently 2 months of reserve funds)

3. There will be NO reduction in the level of benefits provided by the PEBTF.

4. There will be ongoing discussions to discuss any and all cost saving ideas, suggestions, and recommendations by the unions.

5. Includes an accelerated dispute resolution that includes arbitration in regards to this agreement.

The governor's press release pats himself on the back for the savings this generates:

Governor Edward G. Rendell today said his administration has reached a tentative agreement with some of the state’s largest employees’ unions that eliminates the immediate need for rolling furloughs of employees in those unions to help close the state’s budget gap.

The agreement to temporarily reduce the commonwealth’s health care benefit contribution rate by 20 percent will generate up to $200 million in savings over the next 15 months. The agreement also assures no changes in health care benefits for employees that are members of participating unions.

“This agreement is truly a win-win for employees and the state,” said Governor Rendell. “The temporary reduction in our health care contribution rate will provide us with enough savings to eliminate the immediate need to consider rolling furloughs for participating unions. This ensures that state government will keep running at the same pace for the people of Pennsylvania.”

The same release ends with these words about our managers (and others throughout state government) whose households are being hit by the state's budget situation:

The Governor has issued a pay freeze for all managers and non-represented employees, including the elimination of two step increments and a general pay increase scheduled to take effect between January 2009 and January 2010, a measure projected to save nearly $140 million through fiscal year 2010/11.

“I sincerely appreciate the incredible sacrifice by the commonwealth’s management and non-union employees and their daily dedication to serving the citizens of Pennsylvania without any increase in their pay,” said Governor Rendell. “These public servants often go unrecognized, but because of their hard work and efforts to continue to do more with less, Pennsylvania is in better shape than many other states.”

Surely, more to follow on all this. Some of us are pretty certain that the 'rolling furlough' ball is going to roll back onto the table before this is all over.