Challenged to come up with an alternative to Colorado WINS…
I offer this:
The Losers’ Plan
Create a Board of Employees
· This Board is not appointed by the governor nor confirmed by the general assembly. The Board is elected by coworkers to serve a one-year term (limited to 2 terms). Each department has a member who represents that group: Labor & Employment, DPA, DOT, Revenue, Education…etc
· That Board elects a Chairperson who presents our needs to a lobbyist. Yes…a lobbyist who takes our concerns to the General Assembly and the Governor.
· The Board is funded by a $1 Monthly fee paid by ALL employees below appointed positions. (Senior staff is now exempt from WINS representation.) That comes to $384,000 to pay for the Lobbyist and operating cost of the Board: travel, office expenses, and a small staff. A lobbyist can cost from $100k-$150k annually. A savings of many millions of dollars compared to the dues of WINS members which is currently 1% of employee salaries.
· The Chairperson has privileges from his/her job to travel the state to interact with state employees and their Board members to learn their issues and take them to the lobbyist.
Join with me as I prepare to push for this new idea!
A fresh, bold approach
to true representation of state employees.
David Ohmart
The Biggest Loser
Is there a way to have a decertification election? As close as FS was maybe with someone other than WINS talking we can get it to go the other way.
Yes…but we have to wait for two years after the first certification to have a second vote.
Dave