Either today (Friday June 23) or within the next few days, SEBAC leaders are expected to take a vote on the Framework. This means there will be a vote to advance the SEBAC Framework into a SEBAC Tentative Agreement. Accepting the Framework as a SEBAC Tentative Agreement requires 80% of the 15 SEBAC Voters to accept the Tentative Agreement (80% of 15 = 12, so 12 SEBAC voters are needed to accept the Agreement) AND the 12 affirmative votes must represent 80% of the total number of State employee bargaining unit members.
It is this stage that will send the SEBAC Tentative Agreement out to the membership for ratification.
Membership Ratification requires that nine (66.6%) of the 15 SEBAC Voters must come back with a majority of “yes” votes from their membership and the 9 (or more) “yes” votes must represent 66% of State employee bargaining unit members. If those thresholds are not met, the SEBAC Agreement will not be ratified.
Simultaneously, each union member will vote on their own union contract. The threshold for ratification of the A&R contract is a simple majority of voting members.
For A&R, the membership will have 2 votes on one ballot. It will be an electronic ballot and voting credentials will be mailed to active members in mid-July. Only active members can vote, fee payers do not get to vote on union contract issues.
1 Vote To Accept/Reject the SEBAC Tentative Agreement
1 Vote To Accept/Reject the A&R Contract.
If both Agreements are ratified by the membership (SEBAC and the A&R Contract), the Agreements will be presented to the Legislature. The Legislature can accept the Agreements by majority vote or accept the Agreements by allowing them to sit on the calendar for 30 days (expect the Legislature to take an actual vote on these). The Agreements will be implemented upon passage by the Legislature.
If A&R rejects the SEBAC Tentative Agreement, it could still pass and we will be bound by its changes.
If A&R passes the SEBAC Tentative Agreement, it could still fail. In that instance, we would most likely face 4,000 employee layoffs/bumping and other repercussions from the legislature as well. Our contract would not be accepted if the SEBAC Agreement fails.
If we reject our A&R contract, our contract would go to arbitration and the State would (most likely) continue to pursue vast elimination of most contractual rights.
A&R leadership will continue to meet with members via agency meetings and will hold a few member meetings at the A&R Office to ensure that most employees have the opportunity to hear an explanation of how the SEBAC Agreement will impact them.