For Immediate Release
Friday, November 16, 2001
State Workers — from Corrections, Healthcare, and Social and Human Services — tell Governor Patton "We need affordable health insurance now"
Some pay $500 per month for family coverage
About 50 state employees crowded into Governor Paul E. Patton's office today at 3 PM and handed over petitions with thousands of names of state workers, asking him to find ways to make health insurance affordable. The employees represented workers from three major employee groups — Corrections and Law Enforcement; Health Services; and Social and Employment Services. Billy Riggs of the Governor's office accepted the petitions because the governor was not available.
Simon Sharp, an Employment Services Specialist from Elizabethtown said that affordable health insurance would raise the morale of state workers and would help productivity. "The quality of our family life is as important as our work life," Sharp said. He believes that the solution calls for unionizing with AFSCME. "With Human and Social Services and Employment Services workers united in one voice, we'll be heard in the Governor's office. We're here because we want the Governor to know how serious an issue this is." Sharp and his co-workers in the Social and Employment Services group will vote by mail for union representation when ballots go out on November 27. This group is the biggest of the units in the Governor's Executive Order, with 5,000 employees.
"It's not fair that state workers, who are among the lowest paid in the country, also face some of the highest costs for healthcare in this area. Ohio, Illinois and Indiana all have lower health insurance costs than Kentucky," said Ivy Sams, an RN who works at Central State Hospital. Sams is part of the Health Service unit that voted for representation on Oct. 22 with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
State corrections officer Sidney Coulter agrees. "If we are paying $500 a month, that means $6,000 is deducted from our pay each year. That's 25% of our pay." Coulter, who works at Northpoint Training Center, voted with other state employees of the corrections and law enforcement unit for AFSCME on Nov. 6.
