A&R held its second and third contract mediation sessions last week. While there was tremendous progress on Alternative Work Schedules at meeting number 2, meeting number 3 took a step backwards. Meeting 2 identified problems with the "appeal" process and the parties agreed to write up language that would resolve the issue. At meeting 3, there was no agreement on the language presentations and we couldn't find an acceptable resolution. We are scheduled to meet again on Wednesday 5/9.
AWS remains the most difficult issue to address in our contract negotiations (aside from wages). We were dealt some very hurtful news recently as the State revenue numbers came in $500m lower than expectations which sends the budget down a total of $1.5billion over the next 3 years. Make no mistake, this hurts our ability to achieve a decent wage package through the negotiations/mediation/arbitration process. The 2 year budget now appears to be $5.2 billion out of balance.