HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Negotiating teams for the two largest state government unions in Pennsylvania took turns meeting with administration officials Tuesday in a concentrated effort to reach agreements on contracts that expire next week.
No breakthroughs were reported on the second of three days of scheduled talks affecting about 60,000 state employees at a time Gov. Tom Corbett is asking for contract concessions that include pay cuts and rollbacks in health coverage.
The first round of Tuesday's talks at an undisclosed location focused on Council 13 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, whose contract covering about 45,000 employees traditionally sets the pattern for contracts covering 16 smaller unions. Talks with the second-largest union, Local 668 of the Service Employees International Union, were in progress in the afternoon.
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AFSCME director David Fillman said the two sides had agreed to continue negotiating into Tuesday night, but he said "the heavy stuff" such as wages and benefits had yet to be discussed.
At midday, outside the fenced-in governor's residence, about 40 SEIU demonstrators staged a rally demanding a fair contract and raising taxes on certain businesses. Similar rallies were planned Tuesday in several other Pennsylvania cities.
"We understand that we're in a crisis. We're willing to do our share, but we've had layoffs every year," Kathy Jellison, president of the SEIU local, which represents about 10,000 people. "We've had cuts to our services. We just want to get a fair and decent contract."
The current contracts expire June 30.
Earlier this year, the Republican governor proposed a 4 percent pay cut followed by 2 percent increases in the second and third years of the contract, as well as rollbacks in health insurance coverage and five unpaid furlough days for each state employee.
Corbett is taking a similarly austere approach to balancing the state budget for the year that starts July 1, standing firm on his campaign promise of no new taxes and advocating deep spending cuts in education to help offset a projected multibillion-dollar shortfall.
Demonstrators were clad in purple shirts, with some also wearing green armbands to show solidarity with AFSCME. In interviews, several were hesitant to specify what they would consider a fair contract, but they agreed it was more than what the governor proposed.
"This administration is attempting to take back what the workers in our union have spent four decades trying to achieve," said Tom Herman, an SEIU staff representative who participated in the rally.
Steven Jarrell, a case worker for the Department of Public Welfare who has 12 years of state service, echoed other protesters in saying Corbett should support closing a loophole that allows many companies to escape paying Pennsylvania's corporate net income tax and a new tax on natural-gas drilling instead of relying so heavily on spending cuts.
"We've been paying our fair share. What we're asking is for big business to pay its fair share," the Chambersburg resident said.
AFSCME chief David Fillman has said Corbett's proposal would cost the typical union member about $2,000. He puts the average annual wage for AFSMCE members at $34,000, but the Corbett administration says it is more than $39,000.
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