Correction,
Nick said the member meeting was today, when in fact it is next
Tuesday, so we did in fact get more than two days notice.
Just for the record.
From: MSU Network
Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ehren
Benson
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 8:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] APA raise
I love how we get 2 days notice on these big “annual meetings”
as if we don’t have real jobs with real commitments. I feel it is our
right to attend such things and given two days notice is not enough, I am
trying to work it out so I can go but I don’t know if I will be able to due to
some meetings I have today.
“It
also became apparent that 100% of our dues go to the MEA/NEA, which then
provides services back to us. We do not keep any money in our local.”
Tha just gives me the shivers…bad business if you ask me.
For the type of organization MEA is I don’t understand why we send 100% of our
money to them. MEA is about lobbying and putting pressure on K-12
Education, bus drivers etc. If you look in your MEA voice newsletter you
get that’s what its all about. There is nothing in there about Higher ed
health care, salaries etc etc….NOTHING!
So why is it that we pay them 100% of our dues to put that back
toward K-12? If I was a highschool teacher or staff I would be happy to
be affiliated with MEA as they do great things for K-12…for sure.
Aside from that given that APA is its own organization we should
lean less on MEA and work with them instead of them being more like our union
than our union is.
You know what I would really like to see, is what you would get
with any reasonable business decision. A full cost/benefit analysis on
being affiliated with MEA and a couple alternative APA structures also with
UNBIASED cost/benefit analysis reports and actually see where we are. I
am talking serious in depth reports, not just surface scratching info.
EXACTLY what benefits do we get from MEA and at what cost. What amount of
money does being affiliated with MEA actually save us PER YEAR on average in
legal fees so that we can fully understand on average what we would need to be
able to support ourselves.
It is absolutely no secret that other unions are doing just fine
on their own and even have real member benefits like Nick mentioned about
unused CASH BACK! I have heard that APSA also has two annual member
meetings with full lunch and everything provided….yes for under $20 a month in
dues. Personally I would rather pay less and not have two lunches but
hey, we have one meeting with NO LUNCH and still pay over $60 a month…go
figure.
From: Kwiatkowski,
Nicholas [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 7:54 AM
To: Ehren Benson; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: [MSUNAG] APA raise
Ehren et. all,
Yesterday
evening I attended one of the informational sessions that the APA hosted in Com
Arts regarding the increase. There were something like 5 or 6 of us
there. While we didn't really get any straight answers as to the
increase, but we did get the following (this quote is as close as I was able to
short hand it down)
"The
MEA changed our rate structure a few years back, and we've been holding off
increasing the rate for our membership since then. We've been using our
bank accounts to compensate for the massive increase that our group has
sustained. This increase is to compensate for this increase, because we
are unable to continue subsidizing this cost through our bank account for much
longer. It was best to do it during a year where we have a large
raise."
There
was a rep from the MEA that was present, and when asked as to where the money
went, he referred us to the calendar booklet that came with our last union
packet (a few months ago, I think).
It
also became apparent that 100% of our dues go to the MEA/NEA, which then
provides services back to us. We do not keep any money in our
local. Any money that does end up in our accounts is due to accounting
errors, or delayed charges. This one really caught me by surprise as I
would have thought we would have set our selves up to set aside some money,
just in case.
When
I compare how our union is doing to others in my department, the 999,
1585, APSA, CT, it just seems to me that the other unions are getting the
exact same benefits that we are, but our costs are much higher. I don't
believe (some please correct me on this one, as I didn't do the research), that
any of the other groups are affiliated with the MEA/NEA. The closest
group, cost wise that I'm aware of is the 999, but at the end of each year
their union returns the un-used portion of their general fund to their members
as cash (sometimes in the hundreds of dollars).
Now
I will end this message by saying I've been a member of the MEA/NEA in good
standing for just about 10 years (due to some p/t work I did with a MERIT
affiliate in the past). They have provided me some benefits, including a
subsidized rate on my home insurance. There ARE benefits to the group,
but they are very obscure and hard to find. I feel that our union reps
need to quickly find these benefits and let us know what they are, and how to
take advantage of them (other than the MEA housing the APA
offices -- I don't see that as a huge benefit), or they may be faced with
a very troubled base of memebrs.
I
hope Maurice gets a higher attendance for his brown-bag lunch meeting
today. Our leadership needs to hear our issues, or they may think there
are none. If we keep these discussions to lists he is not on, we can't
expect him to know what is on our mind. Those that are deeply troubled by
the increase should show up.
-Nick
Kwiatkowski
MSU
Telecom Systems
From: MSU Network Administrators Group on behalf
of Ehren Benson
Sent: Tue 10/7/2008 6:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] APA raise
How often we
forget that the people whom a portion of our dues we pay goes to work FOR
us. We pay them. I agree with David. If there is going to be
a raise in the amount we pay it should be clearly shown to all of the
membership exactly how much goes to where, WHY the increase is neccesary (aka,
what is falling short...EXACTLY) and we SHOULD have this put in front of us,
without even asking. Instead of just getting a newsletter which says
"by the way its neccesary to increase dues" with no charts figures or
otherwise explaination of what exactly those dues go to.
I also would be very interested in a comparative chart of all labor unions as
David was talking about. The union says we are "on par" with
all others but I know of at least a few that pay under $20/mo and the unions
are just fine.
Ehren J. Benson, MCSE
Windows Systems Administrator
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Michigan State University
1209 A Biomed Phys Sci
[log in to unmask]
517-884-5469
________________________________________
From: MSU Network Administrators Group [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Galbreath
[[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 4:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] APA raise
I'm guessing that this information is contained in the union contracts, which
are all available through the HR website. Opening a PDF and doing a
search for 'dues' would probably give you the information you need instead of
just demanding the information be put in front of you.
Jon Galbreath
MCSE/Security+
Systems Administrator
International Studies and Programs
Ph: 517-884-2144
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of David McFarlane
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 4:57 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] APA raise
At 10/7/2008 04:38 PM Tuesday, Robert Kriegel wrote:
>Many of the answers to the Qs Tim posed earlier on the APA website
>at www.msu.edu/~msuapa.
Perchance could you be more specific? That just gets me to the home
page of the MSU APA web site, I would not know where to navigate from
there to find the answers to said questions.
Thanks,
-- dkm