Tx Dept
of Mental Health &
Mental Retardation Caucus
Mental Retardation Caucus
A
History of Victory Over Privatization at MHMR
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1981
Pay: TSEU wins an emergency pay raise of 5.1% with a $50 minimum. The $50 floor is the first ever flat amount raise. Regular raises of 9.2% for 1981 and 8% for 1982 were also won.
Political Rights: TSEU defeats the “McFarland Amendment”, an attempt to make it illegal for state workers to testify before the Texas legislature
1982
Right of Representation: TSEU established before the Tx Supreme Court the right to have pre-notification of disciplinary action (Thurston letter) and hearings and the right to union representation in grievance proceedings. Prior to this MHMR employees could simply be called in and fired at will with no representation.
1983
Pay: TSEU wins pay raises of 4% for 1984 and 3% for 1985
1984
Worker Rights: TSEU wins a campaign to stop the MHMR policy of unannounced and unregulated polygraph (lie detector) testing of employees.
Quality Care: TSEU joins RAJ state hospital reform lawsuit as representative of the employees. The RAJ settlement that year set strict staff/client ratios for state hospitals.
1985
Pay: TSEU defeats a pay freeze attempt in the Texas Legislature and wins a 3% pay raise for each of the next two years.
Staffing: TSEU defeats the “State Employee Reduction Act” which would have laid off 10,000 state employees.
1987
Health Care: TSEU wins an increase in state contribution to health care.
1988
Worker Rights: TSEU wins final Texas Supreme Court ruling that MHMR cannot force employees to take lie detector tests.
1989
Pay: TSEU campaign wins $60/5% pay raise, the 2nd flat amount pay raise in history.
Health Care: TSEU campaign wins state contribution to dependent health care for first time.
1991
Worker Organizing Rights: After a 10 year effort TSEU wins the right for state employees to have union dues deducted from their paychecks (payroll deduction) when HB 78 is passed. This is a major step in worker’s being able to choose the union as their representative.
Health Care & Pensions: TSEU wins $350 million in new state contributions to healthcare. The funding increases the state share of dependent coverage to 40% in 1992 and 50% in 1993. TSEU defeats an attempt to raid the ERS pension fund and move funds to the “Texas Growth Fund”.
1992
Worker Organizing Rights: New payroll deduction law goes into effect. 1057 new members join TSEU in a 4 month period.
1993
Pay & Benefits: TSEU defeats a plan to cut state worker’s pay by 6% and reduce the state’s contribution to Social Security. TSEU defeats a plan proposed by the Comptroller’s office to prohibit future across the board raises.
1997
Pay: First ever complete across the board “flat amount” pay raise of $1,200 per year for every state worker except university faculty is won.
1998
Organizing: Organizing push results in membership growing at a faster rate than at any time in the union’s history except 1992, the first year of payroll deduction.
1999
Organizing: Continued organizing push results in 291 members/month joining the union. Over 1700 members march on Lobby Day calling for an end to privatization and for a pay raise.
Pay: As a result of union’s organizing and lobbying push state employees win a second $1200 across the board “flat amount” raise.
Health Care: Union wins increased state contribution to employee health care and special children’s health care coveraage for low-income state workers.
2001
Pay: After state wide lobbying push and a lobby day of nearly 2000 workers focused on pay raise, TSEU wins a 3rd consecutive across the board raise raise for all state workers plus a one step upgrade for MHMR direct care series workers with one year of tenure.
2003
Health Care & Pensions: While fighting a defensive battle against privatization, closures and cuts in health care TSEU was still able to stop elimination of the SKIP program and defeat an attempt to switch our retirement plan from a defined benefit to an unstable defined contribution plan.