Winters To Return As State Employer In Charge Of Labor Relations

LANSING – It will be back to the future for Jan Winters, who will return as state employer in charge of labor relations with state employees for Gov. Rick Snyder after once holding the post for former Governor John Engler, Gongwer News Service has learned.

Winters replaces Sharon Bommarito, who was an appointee of former Gov. Jennifer Granholm. With Snyder expected to pursue major changes to public employee compensation, Winters will hold a pivotal role.

Since the end of the Engler administration, Winters has been a deputy director for the Civil Service Commission.

Winters was state employer in the Engler administration from 1995 until Engler left office in 2003. Previously, she was personnel management specialist in the Department of Corrections and a bargaining unit coordinator/compensation specialist for the Michigan State Employees Association.

During her previous time in office, Winters oversaw three state employee contract negotiations, seeing wage increases drop from 7 percent in 1995 to a three-year agreement in 2001 that provided 2 percent that fiscal year and rising to 4 percent in 2003-04.

Winters lost a first battle in office, to eliminate abortion coverage from state health coverage (a point she eventually won). And she rejected union attempts to bargain as a group rather than each union individually.

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