The Douglas administration and the Vermont State Employees Association spent seven hours in talks Monday in a last ditch effort to avert layoffs, but failed.
As a result, the administration will start the layoff process Tuesday. Two hundred or more workers may lose their jobs.
The irony is that the two sides agreed on how to find $7.4 million in labor savings this year and that was supposed to be the subject of the talks. They had compromised on four furlough days and three fewer paid holidays and tapping savings from a medical plan.
The dispute was over some other strings each wanted to attach to this deal. The administration wanted the union to agreed to permanent future savings -- because the state's financial problems are long-term. First the administration asked for about $38 million in savings over two years -- with details of how to be negotiated later. Monday night, the administration was willing to settle for $20 million over two years.
The union wanted to talk about that stuff out later, but made an offer Monday of $10 million over two years. In return, the union wanted a guarantee of no more layoffs this year, next year or the year after.
The gap was too big and no deal could be reached. The two sides walked away from the table with little hope of returning.
Lawmakers will be miffed. The Joint Fiscal Committee urged the two sides to find the $7.4 million in savings without resorting to layoffs. Lawmakers even told the administration they thought it was making a mistake to push for future concessions as part of these talks.
Lawmakers couldn't, however, get in the midst of contract talks that didn't involve them -- much as they would have liked to.
Anyone see any chance this can have a different ending?
-- Nancy Remsen
Labels: Douglas administration, layoffs, VSEA
My brother, who works for the company that makes film in little yellow boxes that you don’t buy anymore, says that after 18 or so rounds you get used to the threat of layoffs hanging over your head.
I have trouble believing that. I have just been through my third round of layoffs in less than a year. I don’t see getting used to it.
I have watched co-workers walk out the door — good people whose work and friendship I’ve enjoyed over the years — laden down with the news that they no longer have a job, a career, a livelihood. My mind flips through what I know about that person and what it will be like for them. It breaks my heart.
Just the specter of layoffs hanging overhead changes a lot of things, casting a shadow on virtually every thought and decision you make.
When the eye doctor told me recently that I have encroaching cataracts (yeah, I know I’m too young – he thought so too), my first thought was whether I would have health insurance when the time comes for surgery.
At a recent family gathering, we were asked if we had any trips planned. It depends, we replied. Everything suddenly depends.
Wednesday, on the eve of our latest layoffs, I was reporting a story on the lottery and bought my first-ever lottery ticket. Sadly, I didn’t win, but I had a new understanding of why people put their hopes in that basket.
I survived this round of layoffs, nicked but still standing. I feel no cause for celebration, though. I am watching as my profession of 23 years is dismantled, employee by employee. I am haunted by the image of the backs of my co-workers who walked out the door for the last time.
I don’t see myself ever getting used to it.
- Terri Hallenbeck
Labels: layoffs, newspapers
