(James Hennerty, CSEA Deputy Director of Contract Administration, April 29, 2010)

1. The Governor is withholding payment of the 4% pay raise to Executive Branch State employees, but he is NOT doing so to UCS employees. My understanding is that our members in the courts have received the 4%.
2. The Governor is proposing to furlough Executive Branch State employees one day a week as long as there is no budget. He is NOT proposing to do that for UCS employees.
3. UCS is NOT paying its required contributions to the court employee part of the Employee Benefit Fund. The Governor has not proposed any appropriations to cover the EBF contributions for the Executive Branch nor for the Judiciary. We are filing a grievance with UCS about this. Naturally, UCS is dependent on the dollars the Governor has, until a budget is enacted. We are officially complaining to UCS, but it is really the Governor's actions which are causing this problem for court employees.
4. The NY Law Journal reports on cuts to the proposed UCS budget today. Apparently, the doubling of the expense fund for judges is dead, although Judge Pfau wants to take some money from the reduced budget and use it for that.
5. The most dangerous thing right now for CSEA-represented UCS employees is the refusal to pay the Benefit Fund. If nothing is done to stop that, the EBF will run out of money pretty quickly, and it will have to shut down. Our members will be unable to have the Fund pay for anything.

WHAT CAN WE DO???
Please get every one of your members to contact their State Assembly Member and State Senator and urge them to get a budget done, which will include full funding for the EBF. The more voters they hear from, the more likely it is that they will settle this whole mess without hurting us.