Furloughs - Union Responds To DSHS Plan To Add Days

Today, Wednesday, the union bargaining team met at 8:30am to continue bargaining over the additional furlough days that DSHS management is proposing to address a serious budget shortfall that would otherwise result in 160 job losses in addition to the already stated 380 positions they have identified for lay off. The lay offs will still have to be negotiated and lay offs are not a part of this bargaining.

It is now 8:00pm and our union team is still at it. We've had good discussions with management so far. DSHS Secretary Dreyfus is on the management team in person. The quality of the discussion is much better than the last time the parties met to negotiate. We are very hopeful that we will reach a tenable agreement some time tonight that we can publish. The rumors and endless e-mails from various sources have bedeviled the DSHS membership long enough. It's time we have answers and agreements that both sides understand and support.