Statewide DSHS UMCC meetings are scheduled for December 10, 2009 and April 22, 2010.
The following topics are on the agenda for December 10th:
Union Items:
FMLA Forms
Supervision of Social Workers by FSS5
Children’s Administration Ad hoc
Application of Skills & Abilities During Layoff Process
Court Ordered Staffing Plan in Forensic Service Unit at Eastern State Hospital
Improper Use of Job Classifications in Mental Health
Skimming of Bargaining Unit Work
CSD Rollout Schedule
CSD Processing Times for Non-TANF & Non-LEP Applications
CSD Staff Taking Rest Breaks
CSD Call-in Procedure for Unplanned Leave
CSD Ad Hoc
ESA 2% Reduction
DCS of the Future
Management Items:
One Department Framework
Budget
Ad Hoc Committees
All member comments on these topics are invited. Please submit your comments.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Conservative Caucus Update
AFSCME is preparing to send out a questionnaire to Presidents and Executive Directors of Councils to determine interest in having a Conservative Caucus at the International level. We should have information back about the results after the first of the year.
November Policy Committee Meeting Update
Some of you have heard and are very concerned about the impacts of the potential flooding in the Green River Valley. WFSE has about 800 member families living in the area and they work in almost every agency and sub-division that we represent. Should the repairs to the Howard Hansen Dam fail, the flooding could close Highway 167 and portions of I-5. The amount of water flowing is estimated in the tens of thousands of cubic feet per second. They are counting on the ability to predict a "pineapple express" weather event to determine emergency evacuation instructions. I have been very alarmed about the potential impact to our members and the programs citizens depend upon and that we provide. Some of the agencies have moved offices out of the way. Others are considering back up plans for services. As you know sandbagging and other methods are being used to try to mitigate any potential damage. There is a sewage plant, major storage warehouses, farms, and vital traffic routes potentially overwhelmed by the flood waters. Supply routes, drinking water, emergency housing, one can only scratch the surface of the issues our members could face.
DSHS has had an informational meeting on this topic at the statewide level. In addition, Sue Henricksen, Daniel D'Haem, Gordon Ely, and I were allowed to attend a management emergency table top exercise on response to the potential crisis.
As a result of the statewide meeting, Sue Bush has agreed to come to Saturday's Policy Committee meeting to provide information to our members. Sue Bush is working with Emergency Management and DSHS to help prepare for an emergency event related to the dam failure.
Sue Bush is also helping to prepare for the potential impacts of the Swine Flu pandemic in Washington State. The combination of lay offs, cut backs, and the number of workers potentially out sick with this flu may very well create a different kind of crisis. Management in every agency is looking at how to protect their workers, how to identify and accomplish the vital services, and what to do if schools and day cares close due to the pandemic. Management will have to determine what work must get done and what work can be reduced or eliminated. We must learn how to protect ourselves and how to prepare our families.
The presentation will be held in the main room at 9 am prior to the Plenary Session of the Policy Committee Meeting. All members are welcome to attend this portion of the Policy Committee group.
DSHS has had an informational meeting on this topic at the statewide level. In addition, Sue Henricksen, Daniel D'Haem, Gordon Ely, and I were allowed to attend a management emergency table top exercise on response to the potential crisis.
As a result of the statewide meeting, Sue Bush has agreed to come to Saturday's Policy Committee meeting to provide information to our members. Sue Bush is working with Emergency Management and DSHS to help prepare for an emergency event related to the dam failure.
Sue Bush is also helping to prepare for the potential impacts of the Swine Flu pandemic in Washington State. The combination of lay offs, cut backs, and the number of workers potentially out sick with this flu may very well create a different kind of crisis. Management in every agency is looking at how to protect their workers, how to identify and accomplish the vital services, and what to do if schools and day cares close due to the pandemic. Management will have to determine what work must get done and what work can be reduced or eliminated. We must learn how to protect ourselves and how to prepare our families.
The presentation will be held in the main room at 9 am prior to the Plenary Session of the Policy Committee Meeting. All members are welcome to attend this portion of the Policy Committee group.
Monday, November 16, 2009
DSHS Travel Policy Demand To Bargain
Back in September, both the old and new DSHS Travel Policy were posted on this site and comments were requested. On November 12, 2009, the Federation met with LRO/Management to discuss the recent changes in the policy. DSHS made changes to Administrative Policy 19.10.06 without proper notification to the union per Article 38 of the General Government Contract.
Specific changes that will effect membership are found in travel advance limitations and requirements, #6a. Travel advances are limited to 75% of the estimated travel expenses. This is a change from the 90% advance offered to employees in the past.
Management acknowledged that they failed to notify the union prior to implementation of this change and stated that this mistake will not be repeated. Managment will now notify the union of any change in agency policy that will impact WFSE members working conditions prior to implementation.
The Federation argued that the new TEMS system is difficult to understand. Many members are frustrated with the system and consistently have reimbursement requests returned. The Federation asked that management provide members with in depth training. Feedback from members indicate that the current video training for TEMS has not helped them navigate the system and many are not receiving full reimbursement for travel expenses.
Management agreed that the new TEMS system is complex and difficult to navigate. Management stated that the TEMS system has a help desk and are hoping members will call this help desk and the help desk will walk a member through their reimbursement request. OFM currently offers indepth training on the TEMS system. This training can be found on the OFM website. Training is held in Olympia and employees will need to travel to Olympia to receive the training thus having to complete another TEMS request. (humor intended)
The Federation asked if management could offer an indepth training via a GO TO Meeting so members in Eastern Washington or remote locations could also receive appropriate training. Management will look into this and report back to the Federation.
Article by Sue Henricksen, Vice-President
Read the new travel policy below:
Specific changes that will effect membership are found in travel advance limitations and requirements, #6a. Travel advances are limited to 75% of the estimated travel expenses. This is a change from the 90% advance offered to employees in the past.
Management acknowledged that they failed to notify the union prior to implementation of this change and stated that this mistake will not be repeated. Managment will now notify the union of any change in agency policy that will impact WFSE members working conditions prior to implementation.
The Federation argued that the new TEMS system is difficult to understand. Many members are frustrated with the system and consistently have reimbursement requests returned. The Federation asked that management provide members with in depth training. Feedback from members indicate that the current video training for TEMS has not helped them navigate the system and many are not receiving full reimbursement for travel expenses.
Management agreed that the new TEMS system is complex and difficult to navigate. Management stated that the TEMS system has a help desk and are hoping members will call this help desk and the help desk will walk a member through their reimbursement request. OFM currently offers indepth training on the TEMS system. This training can be found on the OFM website. Training is held in Olympia and employees will need to travel to Olympia to receive the training thus having to complete another TEMS request. (humor intended)
The Federation asked if management could offer an indepth training via a GO TO Meeting so members in Eastern Washington or remote locations could also receive appropriate training. Management will look into this and report back to the Federation.
Article by Sue Henricksen, Vice-President
Read the new travel policy below:
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Longtime State Employee and Union Activist Laid Off
Last week I attended an exit interview with a member who has 24 years seniority and has been a day shift shop steward lead for many years. This member asked me to go with her to meet with the Secretary of HRSA.
She wanted an opportunity to talk about her experience as a state employee and to take to the highest level ongoing concerns about the kind of management she had witnessed through these years up to and including current events.
This member is forced to leave state employment because management is eliminating her job class as well as others in an attempt to meet the budget reductions. She suspects the decision to eliminate the job classes is based in part on her union activities and in part to reach senior state employees. The job option offered her would require her to sell her home and small farm and move to the other side of the state away from her significant other and her friends. Everything she has worked for is here.
She spoke passionately about the events she has witnessed and the work she has done to try to right the wrongs she had seen - both for patients and for union members. She talked about the low morale, the stress, the failure to provide a safe work environment, the seemingly preferential treatment provided to some who have had jobs created for them in order to prevent the consequences of reduction in force while our bargaining unit members face the dire consequences of the budget shortfall. She spoke about the dollars spent to provide salary upgrades to a handful of folks while others lose their jobs. She talked about the heavy handed way local management is dealing with the union stewards and leadership. She asked that these issues be examined.
She spoke frankly because she felt she had nothing more to lose and the members have something to gain. Going out the door, not knowing what will happen to her, she still stood strong for the membership she had served all these years. She did it with class and she did it with integrity - asking nothing for herself and her situation. I'm proud of her. I hope you are too. She's a WFSE steward through and through. Please remember to thank your own stewards for the hard work they do and the risks they take as they fight for justice and enforce the contract.
She wanted an opportunity to talk about her experience as a state employee and to take to the highest level ongoing concerns about the kind of management she had witnessed through these years up to and including current events.
This member is forced to leave state employment because management is eliminating her job class as well as others in an attempt to meet the budget reductions. She suspects the decision to eliminate the job classes is based in part on her union activities and in part to reach senior state employees. The job option offered her would require her to sell her home and small farm and move to the other side of the state away from her significant other and her friends. Everything she has worked for is here.
She spoke passionately about the events she has witnessed and the work she has done to try to right the wrongs she had seen - both for patients and for union members. She talked about the low morale, the stress, the failure to provide a safe work environment, the seemingly preferential treatment provided to some who have had jobs created for them in order to prevent the consequences of reduction in force while our bargaining unit members face the dire consequences of the budget shortfall. She spoke about the dollars spent to provide salary upgrades to a handful of folks while others lose their jobs. She talked about the heavy handed way local management is dealing with the union stewards and leadership. She asked that these issues be examined.
She spoke frankly because she felt she had nothing more to lose and the members have something to gain. Going out the door, not knowing what will happen to her, she still stood strong for the membership she had served all these years. She did it with class and she did it with integrity - asking nothing for herself and her situation. I'm proud of her. I hope you are too. She's a WFSE steward through and through. Please remember to thank your own stewards for the hard work they do and the risks they take as they fight for justice and enforce the contract.
Representative Chris Hurst Statement About DD Institutions
Proposed Rainier School Closure Ill-Informed, Ill-Advised
By State Representative Christopher Hurst
Once again in Washington State, there is another move to reduce or eliminate capacity of our state’s facilities for the developmentally disabled. These are our Residential Habilitation Centers (RHC’s) and there are five, strategically located in Buckley, Bremerton, Shoreline, Spokane and Yakima. They are home to some of our state’s most fragile and vulnerable citizens.
Attempts to close our RHC’s are always presented as a way to save the state money and provide more services to those thousands in our state so desperately in need of the very services our RHC’s provide. The facts, however, overwhelmingly support keeping existing capacity at our RHC’s. Existing needs actually support increasing our RHC’s ability to provide respite for those families at the very verge of collapse because of the pressures at home with a loved one, who demands everything from everyone. As an aging population with loved ones at home becomes desperate for loving care for their family members, demands for long term care increase and RHC’s offer an ideal setting for those who need the kind of loving sheltered environment offered at facilities like Rainier School in Pierce County.
Many still refer to our state’s RHC’s as institutions. That is simply not the case. Institutions for the developmentally disabled were deinstitutionalized in the early 1980’s and current facilities now offer secure campus like settings with individual cottages. Rainier School, in our own community, is typical of the state’s RHC’s with cottage homes, secure streets, a snack bar with easy access to those who are barely ambulatory, a recreation hall available to all, a gym, a swimming pool for therapeutic swimming, a dental clinic (many dentists in the community simply are not able to deal with this population) a medical clinic, and there is even a chapel for those who choose to attend worship services. Employment is available through various opportunities on site and off site.
The options for those residents who reside at Rainier, should it close, are pretty dismal. Most would be virtual prisoners in their apartments. The need for 24 hour care would severely restrict the ability of the resident to come and go. Many other services now available like dental care and a place to go to work just do not exist in most community settings. The Court decided years ago in the landmark Olmstead decision that residents should be given the choice of where they live so long as the professionals and the individual or their guardian agreed and that there is a suitable alternative place to go. The most desirable living arrangements should be those that are the least restrictive and the most integrated. In their zeal, advocates for closure of the RHC’s have dropped “least restrictive” and are only concerned with “most integrated.” The cost of providing the quality of life for the residents of our RHC’s in a setting without benefit of economies of scale would be so prohibitive that the state would be forced to cut services. In some cases those reductions in services would seriously impact not only the quality of life, but would impose serious safety and health threats as well. Many of these residents would be easy targets for victimization if they were forced to move from the Rainer School.
So, instead of seeking to restrict the services available to our most vulnerable and fragile neighbors, we should look to expand our ability to fill those voids currently existing in our community settings. RHC’s should be utilized to provide needed, and in many cases, missing services. Most notably these could be medical and dental clinics open to anyone on Medicaid because of developmental disabilities, therapeutic swimming programs, and training sites for students in medical school and other professional services, and outreach classes in self-reliance. Respite care to provide relief for families striving to care for loved ones at home, but unable to rest or recuperate is a desperately unfilled need. And finally, there should be someplace where people can live in safety and fulfillment, secure in the knowledge that their home is safe and will be there for them. Their home would not be lost because of zoning laws change or because their adult boarding home or apartment is placed on the auction block because of change in ownership. It is a moral imperative that the Rainier School remain open.
State Representative Christopher Hurst represents the 31st Legislative District, and worked as a police detective for 25 years.
hurst.christopher@leg.wa.gov
360-786-7866
By State Representative Christopher Hurst
Once again in Washington State, there is another move to reduce or eliminate capacity of our state’s facilities for the developmentally disabled. These are our Residential Habilitation Centers (RHC’s) and there are five, strategically located in Buckley, Bremerton, Shoreline, Spokane and Yakima. They are home to some of our state’s most fragile and vulnerable citizens.
Attempts to close our RHC’s are always presented as a way to save the state money and provide more services to those thousands in our state so desperately in need of the very services our RHC’s provide. The facts, however, overwhelmingly support keeping existing capacity at our RHC’s. Existing needs actually support increasing our RHC’s ability to provide respite for those families at the very verge of collapse because of the pressures at home with a loved one, who demands everything from everyone. As an aging population with loved ones at home becomes desperate for loving care for their family members, demands for long term care increase and RHC’s offer an ideal setting for those who need the kind of loving sheltered environment offered at facilities like Rainier School in Pierce County.
Many still refer to our state’s RHC’s as institutions. That is simply not the case. Institutions for the developmentally disabled were deinstitutionalized in the early 1980’s and current facilities now offer secure campus like settings with individual cottages. Rainier School, in our own community, is typical of the state’s RHC’s with cottage homes, secure streets, a snack bar with easy access to those who are barely ambulatory, a recreation hall available to all, a gym, a swimming pool for therapeutic swimming, a dental clinic (many dentists in the community simply are not able to deal with this population) a medical clinic, and there is even a chapel for those who choose to attend worship services. Employment is available through various opportunities on site and off site.
The options for those residents who reside at Rainier, should it close, are pretty dismal. Most would be virtual prisoners in their apartments. The need for 24 hour care would severely restrict the ability of the resident to come and go. Many other services now available like dental care and a place to go to work just do not exist in most community settings. The Court decided years ago in the landmark Olmstead decision that residents should be given the choice of where they live so long as the professionals and the individual or their guardian agreed and that there is a suitable alternative place to go. The most desirable living arrangements should be those that are the least restrictive and the most integrated. In their zeal, advocates for closure of the RHC’s have dropped “least restrictive” and are only concerned with “most integrated.” The cost of providing the quality of life for the residents of our RHC’s in a setting without benefit of economies of scale would be so prohibitive that the state would be forced to cut services. In some cases those reductions in services would seriously impact not only the quality of life, but would impose serious safety and health threats as well. Many of these residents would be easy targets for victimization if they were forced to move from the Rainer School.
So, instead of seeking to restrict the services available to our most vulnerable and fragile neighbors, we should look to expand our ability to fill those voids currently existing in our community settings. RHC’s should be utilized to provide needed, and in many cases, missing services. Most notably these could be medical and dental clinics open to anyone on Medicaid because of developmental disabilities, therapeutic swimming programs, and training sites for students in medical school and other professional services, and outreach classes in self-reliance. Respite care to provide relief for families striving to care for loved ones at home, but unable to rest or recuperate is a desperately unfilled need. And finally, there should be someplace where people can live in safety and fulfillment, secure in the knowledge that their home is safe and will be there for them. Their home would not be lost because of zoning laws change or because their adult boarding home or apartment is placed on the auction block because of change in ownership. It is a moral imperative that the Rainier School remain open.
State Representative Christopher Hurst represents the 31st Legislative District, and worked as a police detective for 25 years.
hurst.christopher@leg.wa.gov
360-786-7866
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