AEE Updates October 13, 2025

AEE Bargaining Unit,

Bargaining: Mediation is planned for November 10th for the 25-27 Contract bargaining. This date was the soonest a mediator was available. The economic package has not been agreed to yet, and will be included in the mediation. While the package that is still left to be agreed to contains COLA’s and step increases, the topic that led to mediation is how pay equity is incorporated into the contract and what precedence that sets for the future. How the State has proposed the pay equity process in the contract is complicated and took 6 months to fully understand. We will attempt to explain the issue at the upcoming member meeting (see link below). Remember bargaining isn’t just negotiating what is needed today, but years into the future as well. Sometimes bargaining is as much about not going backwards as it is going forwards.

AEE will host a member meeting Tuesday October 21st from Noon – 12:45pm. We will be discussing and answering questions regarding bargaining.

Layoffs: AEE had a quarterly Director's Labor Management Committee meeting last Thursday. Unfortunately Director Strickler was unable to attend, but Travis Brouwer was able to provide information. We discussed layoffs, the HB3991 going to referendum, and preparing for the next year. I know I’ve heard concerns about the new taxes being referred to the voters. Mr. Brouwer explained how the bill gets referred, needing 100,000 signatures (to ensure there are enough valid signatures) in just a short period of time – less than two months. While it is an uphill challenge for those considering the referendum, nothing is impossible. Based on the date the HB was voted on, the referendum would need signatures by December 31, 2025. We will continue to watch the progress of the referendum. Also, HR is putting together an “after action” (aka lessons learned) from the layoffs. AEE will be meeting with HR to give our input on how things could have been better. Much of that was outlined in our grievance. If you have input you would like us to share with HR, please send that to Karen.Scott@aeeo.org.

In Unity,

AEE