KOSE April Newsletter

On March 8th dozens of members of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) from around the country arrived in Wichita.  Attendees from as far away as Alaska and Connecticut came to help strengthen and energize KOSE and its members through a training and mobilization program AFT conducts annually.
 
During the week long program participants received morning training sessions on how to engage, organize, and activate workers.  Then, in the afternoons and evenings, they developed those skills as they traveled across south-central Kansas conducting worksite visits, knocking on doors and making calls to talk to KOSE members.  You may have seen or heard from them yourself.
 
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Remember that 1.5% Pay Raise The Governor Promised You? It Just Vanished

The pay raise the Governor announced for classified state workers has already begun to disappear from state budgets.  This week budget subcommittees at the state legislature began deleting the pay raise from appropriation bills.  So far employees at  the Department of Corrections and the Department of Health and Environment have seen their pay raises vanish. 

Is there a silver lining here?  Maybe. 

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Want a raise???

Although KOSE bargains for pay raises, those pay raises have to be placed in the budget and approved by the legislature before they can take effect.  Last year for the first time, the Kansas Legislature aproved a two-year budget.  That budget did not include raises for state employees.

The 2014 legislative session begins on Monday, January 13.  Contact your legislators and tell them that pay increases for state employees should be a priority!

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