To Defend our Pay Increase, Shift Differential and Health Care, We Must Act NOW!

A conference committee of the Missouri House and Senate is deciding right now whether we will receive increases in our pay, a real shift differential, and adequate health insurance cost sharing. It's urgent that all of us take a moment right now to send a message that we want all of our contract funded.

On the line is our $1200 pay increase, 83% for the family plan for healthcare costsharing and the full 75 cent shift differential. (They're talking about only giving 30 cents!) Don't let the legislators make these decisions without hearing from the workers that their decisions affect! Click on the blue button to send an electronic message to House Speaker Hanaway and the Budget Conference Committee.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Fully fund the shift differential at 75 cents!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am a state employee and I work hard. I take pride in what I do, and I take pride in Missouri. Workers across the state have gone three years without a pay raise. Our health insurance costs are skyrocketing. We are pinching pennies and can barely make ends meet.

State employees deserve the full 75 cent shift differential that we negotiated. We deserve lower health care costs. We deserve a pay increase. We demand to be treated with the same fairness and respect we bring to our jobs every day.

Missouri ranks 49th when it comes to state employees' salaries. It's time we fully fund out contract. My vote depends on the fair and just treatment of Missouri state employees.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
April 28, 2004

Background Information

Legislators near accord on raises for state workers

ROBERT SANDLER

Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - House and Senate budget negotiators tentatively agreed Tuesday to fund a $1,200 raise for state employees next year.

Money for the across-the-board raise - which applies to most workers but not elected officials - was included in the Senate's version of the $18.8 billion operating budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The House had previously approved a flat 2 percent raise for all 61,000 state workers.

But House Budget Committee Chairman Carl Bearden said Tuesday he thought the flat raise was more appropriate for many workers who have not received raises in several years. The $1,200 raise would cost the state about $23 million more than the percentage increase, said Bearden, R-St. Charles.

A separate Senate proposal to increase state contributions to the health insurance of state employees' families received a cooler reception from House negotiators.

Under the Senate's version of the budget, the state would pay 83 percent of the cost of health insurance for employees' spouses and children - an amount also recommended by Democratic Gov. Bob Holden. The state currently pays between 73 percent and 78 percent of those costs.

Bearden said he didn't think the state needed to shoulder that extra burden.

"We can never be in a position to chase health care premiums," Bearden said in an interview.

The negotiating committee - five members from each the House and Senate - also met Tuesday to pursue compromise over state spending on public schools.

The chambers differed most starkly over basic state aid to public school districts and funding for the Career Ladder system of teacher salary incentives. The House approved $16 million more in direct aid to schools and $3 million more in Career Ladder payments than the Senate approved.

Negotiators are trying to reconcile their different versions of the 12 bills that make up the operating budget. The first bill, which pays public debt, contained no differences. The second bill is the one that funds the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Some senators were angry Tuesday that the House was refusing to send the rest of the budget bills to a conference committee until after the elementary and secondary education bill was resolved. Senators want to consider all areas of state spending at the same time, including prisons, social services and others.

"It's an affront to the Senate not to put all the bills in conference. ... It's not good-faith negotiation," said Sen. Wayne Goode, D-St. Louis, a longtime member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

House leaders say they want to emphasize their commitment to public schools before settling any other area of the budget.