City of Dallas Employees Steelworkers September 10, 2004 Newsletter

North Texas Association of Public Employees

Steel Workers Local 9479

Printable PDF Format of entire September 2004 Newsletter

Printable .DOC Format of entire September 2004 Newsletter

Meetings Times Have Changed

Join us on the 2 nd Tuesday of each month at 6:00 p.m.

500 South Ervay Suite 112A.

Don’t forget Parking is free in the attached garage after 5 p.m.

Now is the time to Act!

Please tell your friends and family that now is the time to contact the Mayor and Council to keep our health benefits from being further reduced.

In a budget as large as Dallas ' surely the city can find this money to assist us so that we will not have another year of decreased take home pay. But we need to contact them now! They will take a straw poll vote about our benefits on the 15^th and vote on it during the September 22^nd council meeting.

I am sure by now that you have all heard the very generous offer that the uniformed employees have made to city council. They proposed delaying their five percent raise by three months for a savings to the city of 6 million dollars if the city would match the amount and put it all towards the health benefit package. If the city accepted this proposal, it would mean than benefit costs would not be raised this year.

I urge all city employees to encourage the council and mayor to accept this offer. It really makes no sense to grant us our first cost of living raise in four years, delay that until January and then take it away by raising the health benefits yet again. We will never catch up at this rate.

While we also have a limited merit increase due to start in May, that money will be consumed by the increase to our pension contributions scheduled to start in October 2005. If council does not accept the uniformed employees offer, many employees will once again see their take home pay decrease, despite being granted this delayed COLA and merit raise. Ed. Note - Addresses and phone numbers at city and association web site or call 214-760-7422 for info.

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Benefits Cost Shifting

It is no surprise that our Health Benefits are bad, but even Dave Cook, Chief Financial Officer for the City of Dallas seemed caught by surprise at just how bad they are compared to other cities.

As you know, the cost for employees with children is just plain unaffordable for many of our employees. Struck by the staggeringly high cost to insure children some in council asked to see what could be done for these employees by shifting the percentage the city pays. What this means, is instead of contributing a fixed amount to all employees, the new plan would take money from the employees who only cover themselves and apply it to the employees with children.

Why? Our heath care benefits are so costly that the only way that employees with children can afford coverage is if money is taken from other employees? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the city to come to grips with the fact that their subsidy is far too low and increase it?

Of course, they are planning to offer us the option of a $3,000.00 per person deductible and a 70/30 co-pay. That does make the plan more affordable. Of course, it also makes it pretty useless for most of us as well.

Dallas contributes $3,470.00 per employee for health care. Compare this with the other cities contributions, Austin $6,653.00, Ft. Worth $6,725.00, Houston $8,086.00, Garland $5752.00 and Plano $7,349.00.

Pitiful isn’t it. This is not the way to make amends for what we have endured over the last four years. We need to urge Council to accept and match the plan put forth by the uniformed employees, and we need to do it now.

Are you ready to Vote??

Are your friends and family members? The Texas Voter Registration Deadline is Saturday October 2^nd. If you have not registered and need a form we have many more at the office. You can call and make arrangements to pick up as many copies as you need, or we can mail them to you. Our phone number is 214-760-7422 or fax your request to 214-760-7423. Remember, your pension fund and civil service rights may depend on you voting this November and next May.

Injured Worker gets no Help

One of our fellow employees is currently suffering due to the changes to the catastrophic leave policy. That program was very quietly discontinued last year. There were no discussion of ways to keep it going and no safety nets were put into place for the employees it had previously assisted.

This employee is currently unable to get any workers comp payments supposedly due to the fact that he was returned to work with an impairment rating several years ago after an on the job injury.

He has now exhausted his sick and vacation time and is currently (when not
in the hospital) living with his parents. He has no income coming in. But he does have several co-workers who would like to assist him by donating vacation time. Unfortunately they cannot, due to the catastrophic leave program being discontinued.

Why this program was cut is a mystery. It should have been a most cost efficient way for the city to assist it's
desperately ill, since the funds dispersed came from other employees donating
their earned vacation time.

I doubt that having some one forced into poverty due to an old on the job injury is something that the city intended when it changed this rule. Yet inquiries as to what can be done to assist employees in this situation go unanswered.

Not getting a Newsletter??

If you have a fax you can be the first to know what is happening. Simply fax your department name and fax number to 214-760-7423 to be put on the fax info list. Want to be notified at home when a new newsletter is published? Email your home email address to newsletter@cityofdallasemployees.com or fax it to 214-760-7423. Or you can always just check on our website.

Christmas in October Update

If we are going to make it in time for Christmas, we need to start gathering up the donations for our Troop in Iraq. They have to be ready to go by the end of the month. If you have any items ready, you can drop them off, or call and we can make arrangements to pick them up.

Don’t forget, some of the stuff we are looking for Coffee, cream, sugar (small), Foot Powder, Disposable Cameras, Single bag chips, Shaving Lotion, DVD movies/music CD (Pre Viewed is okay), Candy (non-melting), Disposable Razors, Footballs / Frisbees, Microwave Popcorn, Deodorant, Batteries (AA, or AAA), Packaged Nuts, Sun Block, Card Games, Granola Bars, Lip Balm, Pop Tarts, Military T-shirts –Olive color only,

Or you can just donate cash which will be used to buy what is lacking and/or pay postage.

Please ask around at your department and drum up a little support for this squad who will be a long way from home this Christmas.

After all, no matter how bad we may be doing right now, at least we will not be in a foreign country being shot at during the holidays.

Glasses Found

Did you loose a pair of gold toned glasses? We have a pair that were left at the union hall that need to be re-united with their owner. If these are yours, please call 214-760-7422.

Excerpts - Dallas Retired Employees Letter to Mayor & Council

Re: Proposed 2005 City Medical Insurance

Dallas City Retired Employees Association (DCREA) has joined with active and retired uniform and non-uniform employee associations in support of the proposal by the Dallas Police Association (DPA) and the Dallas Firefighters Association (DFA) to delay their promised pay raises by up to three months to provide funds needed to reduce premiums for employee and retired employee health insurance plans being proposed for 2005.

The health plan premium increases being proposed for 2005 are devastating to active employees, virtually wiping out proposed pay raises in many cases. For example, an active employee making $45,000 annual salary can count on a proposed pay raise of 2% (a $900 annual increase) but her premiums will go up an astounding 152% ($420 annual rate increase) leaving her with a net increase of only $480. If she insures her spouse, her rate increase will total $1,860 leaving her with a net decrease in spendable annual income of $960. If she’s insuring her family her increase in annual premiums will be $2,340 leaving her with a net decrease in spendable annual income of $1,440. This is on top of years of no raises and last year’s huge increase in health insurance deductibles. (All examples assume $1,000 deductible and 80/20 coinsurance.)

For retired employees it is much worse. The annual increase in city health insurance premiums for an under 65 retired employee is proposed at $1,392. If he insures his under 65 spouse, the annual premium increase will be $4,104. Similarly, an over 65 retiree will see her premium for the city health plan (supplement to Medicare) increase by $1,380 annually. If she insures her over 65 spouse, the annual premium increase will be $3,444.

It is important to keep in mind that the average annual non-uniform pension at the end of 2003 was only $22,751 but many receive less. If health insurance premiums continue to go up at anything like the rate of the last few years, they will soon exceed the average non-uniform city pension.

Active employees now realize what is in store for them when they retire from the city. (Unfortunately, many current retirees did not see this coming and are truly unprepared financially.) It is clear to them that they are not valued by the City Council. We all know that again the city budget is being balanced on our backs. What message does this send to prospective employees? How do you propose to attract and retain skilled and competent employees? Do you not believe that you get what you pay for? Is Dallas turning into the WalMart of public employers? Ultimately, this shameful approach to human resources is a disservice to the taxpayers of Dallas . All of the other governmental entities in this area know this and consequently treat their employees better.

The proposal by the DPA and DFA is at least an attempt to redress to some extent the impact of current City Council indifference to the plight of its employees and retirees. Please do not let this opportunity pass. Engage them in a meaningful dialogue to at least try to reach a workable reduction in the cost of health plan premiums to both employees and retirees for the 2005 plan year.

Sincerely,

Charles Griffith - President

Dallas Retired Employees Assoc

Reinstated Code Agents

Two of first thirty two code enforcement agents who have appealed their firing have been reinstated. Thanks to the able assistance of Association Councilors Scott Newland and Mark Hanna.

So as not to make their job harder, no comments on the particulars of any of the cases will be made until all the agents have finished their appeals. But we welcome back our fellow workers and hope to see the rest soon.

Water Plant Safety Problems

Word is that OSHA did a courtesy visit to one of the water treatment plants the week of August 23^rd.

I was particularly amused to hear that the first words out of several people’s mouths were…”We aren’t bound by OSHA.” This despite the fact that the mayor, council and the city manager have numerous times loudly proclaimed how we will follow all OSHA rules, regulations and suggestions.

But…. Technically they are right and indeed we are not. This is another one of those pesky differences between us and the private sector. But not to worry the civil service rules will protect you if you can’t get a problem corrected and have to report it higher up. Errr…. Well, they will protect you unless some of the proposed charter changes make it to the next election. If those items eliminating or stripping away civil service are in next charter change election… then it is bare hineys waving in the wind, since…. Everyone repeat after me…. WE ARE NOT THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND MANY LAWS DO NOT PROTECT PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES.

Happily, at least in this instance, this courtesy visit was enough to galvanize the department into starting repairs to eliminate the hazard. Now all we need is for them to follow through on their repair plans. - M. R. Frey