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Open Letter to the AMHS Bargaining Unit |
| Posted by Darryl (darryl) on Aug 22 2008 |
In 2007, unlicensed ferry workers, on average, earned only 79% of the typical Alaskan wage in 2005. The cost of living has increased a tremendous amount over the last year and the value of the US Dollar has gone down approximately 10%.
If you take the 5% for 2009 and the 4% for 2010 that only comes out to a 3% raise for each of the years, but no compounding on the first year.
A NO Vote on the upcoming ballot would mean WE LOSE NOTHING! A YES Vote would mean we would lose the following:
*Any Split Wages you may get if someone gets off the ship and you have to fill their position. The state is promising that they will do their best to find replacements, although there is no Penalty in place if they don’t. So we need to ask ourselves why this is an issue with the state if they are being truthful about filling these positions????
*Our rights to Wages until the end of the voyage. Think about this, if you get sick while on the boat the Captain or your Supervisor can make you get off the ship. So if you have no sick leave or vacation how will you pay your bills????
*Why would you be willing to eat your young so to speak by taking away a weeks worth of vacation from the new hires. Our new hires have already taken a big loss with their retirement, why would we want to add to their misery????
So in the end can we live with this contract? I DON”T THINK SO!! Not in a time when the state has such an enormous surplus of funds. It is up to the membership to tell the negotiating committee how we feel AGAIN and a NO VOTE for this TA will tell them that WE ARE NOT WILLING TO GIVE UP ANYTHING!!!! LET’S SEND THEM BACK TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE!
Diane Charrier and Joanne Smitchko / Stewards Department
Last changed: Aug 22 2008 at 4:20 PM
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