Dear AEU Members,

Your AEU Bargaining Committee met today for our third day of negotiations. On February 21, 2025, CSEA sent a Request for Information (RFI) regarding our initial proposal. The RFI was 11 pages and contained many questions that we previously discussed during our previous negotiation sessions. Prior to beginning negotiations today, the AEU team met to formulate our response to the RFI. Both the RFI and AEU’s response are attached to this email.

We began negotiations today at 11:00 AM. When the session started, AEU notified CSEA that we were waiting for updates on the LRR/MESD MOU and the Operating Procedure 4 effects. AEU also shared that the response to the RFI was almost completed and would be provided to CSEA when we returned from lunch. CSEA said they would work on the responses to the LRR/MESD and Operating Procedure 4 effects. CSEA informed the AEU team that they had accepted our initial proposal language for Article 26: Duration for a three-year term. AEU shared that when we proposed the duration language, we were looking for a three-year salary stability. CSEA’s initial proposal to AEU only included salaries and benefits for one year, then reopeners for Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed contract term. AEU advised CSEA that we could not accept the three-year term at this point since we have not seen any proposals on salary and health and welfare from CSEA. CSEA expressed concern that AEU was bargaining in bad faith and being regressive by not signing off on the proposal for Article 26. AEU does not believe that our position was regressive considering CSEA has not provided a counter proposal to AEU’s initial proposal. We broke to caucus at 11:16 AM.

During this caucus, the AEU team continued to formulate a response to the RFI- AEU Initial Proposal.

We returned to the table at 1:09 PM. CSEA provided AEU with a “Tentative Agreement” for the LRR/MESD position and a letter from December 16, 2024, clarifying the intent of Operating Procedure 4. CSEA believed that the response letter to Operating Procedure 4 concluded the matter. CSEA provided AEU with the requested legal authority governing FLSA Compensatory Time and asked clarifying questions on AEU’s RFI for the cost of health benefit plans. CSEA shared that CVT does price modeling differently than they have in the past and needed additional information to better determine pricing information. Finally, AEU provided CSEA with our response to the February 21, 2025, RFI on the Initial Proposal. CSEA asked for time to review AEU’s responses and the parties broke to caucus at 1:17 PM. CSEA notified AEU at 2:08 PM that they would not be back for the rest of the day and that the parties would resume bargaining at 10:00 AM on Wednesday.

AEU spent the remainder of the day researching to support our bargaining proposals and drafted a counter proposal to the LRR/MESD position.

Attached to this message, you will find all the documents we reviewed today: (1) CSEA Request for Information- AEU Initial Proposal, (2) AEU Response to (1), (3) CSEA counterproposal for the MESD/LRR position, (4) Clarifications Regarding AEU’s Proposals on Operating Procedure #4, (5) AEU counterproposal for the MESD/LRR position, (6) CSEA clarification on FLSA Compensatory Time.

Your AEU Bargaining Committee looks forward to continuing negotiations with CSEA. We appreciate any feedback on this update and the attached information.

In Solidarity,

AEU Bargaining Team

Valerie Hollins, Kurt Benfield, Maxx Cabello, Aleks Hewitt, Denesa Moore, and Grayling Eation