House Vote a Positive Sign for Trial Court Contract
March 25, 2010
The House of Representatives voted unanimously on March 24, 2010 to approve contracts with pay increases for thousands of Executive Branch state workers represented by NAGE. This is the first time in about 20 months that a legislative branch has voted to approve any positive pay adjustments for state workers.
The 155-0 vote is the clearest sign yet that the state legislature has the will to stand up for the workers who serve the people of the Commonwealth. We hope that their unanimous vote will send a strong and positive message to CJAM Robert Mulligan that there will be the same support for our contract proposal, which contains the same financial package as the state contracts just approved in the House. (Our union proposal also includes the 3% for FY08 retroactive that state employees received, but we have not.)
This news is also particularly good for us as NAGE members. NAGE was the union paving the way for the Executive Branch unions to negotiate and settle contracts with the administration, and the NAGE legislative team led the effort to build such strong legislative support for the contracts. The union’s leadership and power made the difference.
The supplemental budget bill containing the pay raises will now go to the Senate for a vote.
We hope that this is another positive development that will set the tone for our meeting with Chief Justice Mulligan on Tuesday, April 6.