
{"id":5717,"date":"2009-04-30T11:35:48","date_gmt":"2009-04-30T19:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5717"},"modified":"2009-04-30T11:35:57","modified_gmt":"2009-04-30T19:35:57","slug":"state-workers-riled-over-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/04\/30\/state-workers-riled-over-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"State workers riled over cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>State workers plan to rally at the Legislature Tuesday to try to convince legislators that recent pay cuts and health insurance hikes are hurting their ranks.<\/p>\n<p>UNC Employee Forum chair Tommy Griffin said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heard a steady stream of feedback after Gov. Beverley Perdue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions Tuesday exacerbated what was already shaping up as a tough year for state employees.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Citing lower than projected revenues, the governor instituted a 0.5 percent annual pay cut for workers, which will be deducted out of their remaining paychecks for the fiscal year ending June 30. Perdue also is requiring workers to take a 10-hour unpaid furlough.<\/p>\n<p>Griffin said state workers were braced for cuts and expecting the furloughs, but that the pay cuts caught many by surprise. State workers had been working to ease the pain of the furloughs by setting up voluntary ways to spread the burden around. But workers were not consulted about the pay cut.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a big hit,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Griffin said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and the less pay you make the more it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to hurt. I wish they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have looked at it a little longer.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Griffin said higher-paid employees are probably going to weather the cut OK, but that bunching the half-percent cut into the last couple of months will have a big impact on those making less than $30,000 a year.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Many of the lower-paid workers are already working two jobs just to make ends meet,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Griffin said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make up the difference.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Griffin said he hopes that 10,000 or more state employees turn out for lobby day, scheduled for Tuesday at the General Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have to say to [legislators], \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYou can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always just put it on state employees,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Griffin said. <\/p>\n<p>State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird said she also doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like the way the cut was set up.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was very unfair to lower-income workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you make in the $20,000 to $30,000 range, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a significant chunk out of your paycheck.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nThe only upside, Kinnaird said, was that there weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t job cuts, but that once you factor in higher health care deductibles and higher costs for family coverage, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little doubt about the impact on state workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kirk Ross Staff Writer State workers plan to rally at the Legislature Tuesday to try to convince legislators that recent pay cuts and health insurance hikes are hurting their ranks. UNC Employee Forum chair Tommy Griffin said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heard a steady stream of feedback after Gov. Beverley Perdue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions Tuesday exacerbated what was already&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5717"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5719,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5717\/revisions\/5719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}