Business Manager Reports

I want to start off with the Company’s surplus announcement for the first quarter in the Florida region.  We had been hearing numbers of 200-350 employees, throughout many classifications, and that these numbers would be mostly accomplished with voluntary separations.  As you should already know, our number in Florida was 1 General Clerk, within the Verizon Plus stores in Tampa. That is good news for us, but I do not want to make light of even 1 member having to enter the bumping process or being laid off.  Fortunately, there is 1 General Clerk that does want to leave and is taking the ISP so no other member will be affected by this surplus.  That is GREAT news for our members!

As for the 4^th quarter surplus/bumping, it is finally complete.  We were given the information last Thursday to verify all the bumps were correct and after we studied the information, it looks like it was done contractually.  We did have one member inquire as to why she did not get her first choice, and after checking, reported back to the member that her first choice was actually in a higher wage schedule.  So, as I report this month, we have gone through 2 very laborious bumping processes from the 3^rd and 4^th quarter of 2009 where the Company followed the contract.  All the employees involved in the 4^th quarter bump have reported to their new locations this week and to our knowledge, there are no outstanding issues.

We were just advised this afternoon that the Company will be canvassing Eastern, Upper Suncoast and Tampa Core splicers to go to West Virginia on a temporary assignment, until the end of April.  We still do not have enough work for Splicers and this will hopefully keep us off the radar.  The Company will not be asking for volunteers from Southern because they say they have 80 work orders in progress and if they allowed Splicers from Southern to go, they would probably have to utilize contractors and they do not want to do that for this work.

During the last month, I have been speaking with Myles Calvey, who is our TCC II Chairman.  He told me about a conversation between himself and Verizon Labor Relations, that centered on a possible incentive that would be greater than either our ISP or other local’s that have a double ISP.  Myles stated that the Company seemed interested because they would like to have pension eligible employees be able to leave and actually retire so we didn’t have to continue to lay off employees.  Myles also stated that for the Union to seriously talk about an incentive for the membership, they would also have to include a guarantee of no layoffs for a certain period of time.  I have spoken with Rick Carpenter and requested a meeting with the same Labor Relations people from New York.  This evening I was talking to the President of the CWA Local in Texas and he told me that Trinidad is aware of a possible meeting discussing the incentive as well.  The Northeast Locals, including the CWA Locals and IBEW 827 have a tentative meeting next week to discuss the options.  Myles told me he would let me know the details after the meeting is over.  It is possible that we may have a meeting that includes Texas and California, which make up Verizon West.  We don’t know if anything will come of this, but Trinidad started telling techs in Texas about a possibility this afternoon, so even though this will make the Chiefs and the Union Hall’s phones ring off the hook next week, I wanted to let our membership know what we know.

If you haven’t heard, Verizon notified the CWA in New York that they have declared a surplus of 3938 positions within 39 different job titles across the state.  I asked John to get some more information for me to report and what we know right now is that there will be a 15 day volunteer period, but we do not know the dates for that or what the off-property date is going to be.  The Company is trying to reduce headcount without losing the qualified employees to continue business as usual.  I have been keeping in touch with IBEW Business Managers around the country to see what is going on in regards to surplus announcements and the availability for Florida to receive more jobs and more importantly, to keep the jobs we have now.

I have an update on the EVRC Reps that were in the 13-day boot camp to prepare for the FSC test.  39 employees were in the first class and all of them passed the written test at the end of that training segment.  4 out of the 39 were not successful in the structured interview portion, which I just found out about last night.  We will be addressing this with the Company to find out how an employee can be good enough to deal with customers who are on our Copper network, but not be able to deal with customers on the Fiber network.

Now, regarding the new attendance policy that the Company put into effect this week, the Union has filed a grievance regarding the way the Company intends to discipline employees as it relates to their attendance and occasions.  As everyone should know, the Company has the ability under Article II, Section 1, paragraph 1.4 to “administer work standards and performance requirements.”  What the Union is asking for is to not have a standard, automatic step of discipline ready as soon as an employee exceeds the objective.  In addition we are requesting the Company and the Union talk about the issues in certain work locations where attendance is high, to work together to help everyone understand the importance of coming to work when you are able to do so.  We believe that in certain work locations, the manner in which employees are treated correlate to a higher rate of absenteeism.  This applies mainly to the employees who work in Inside Plant.  Hopefully, we can report some progress on this issue at the meeting next month or through our web site if something occurs sooner.

We are close to 1000 members signed up to receive updates from our website and I want to report that we have begun to send emails to specific work groups and classifications that talk about issues specific to that work group.  If you are in the SRC or the CSSC, or you are an FNFT or a CZT II, you have received an update within the past 2 weeks.  When one of the Reps or myself attends a meeting that deals solely with a particular work group, we are advising all members what was discussed during the meeting, through these emails.  Since we began this, we have had numerous members email or call us to tell us they think that is a great thing.  We know that we cannot personally talk to every member after every meeting, whether you’re a steward or a Business Manager, but we can communicate with any member that is signed up to receive updates.  I’m really happy with the responses we have been receiving and I hope it continues, especially once we enter bargaining.  If there is any Chief that wants to make sure an important message gets to all the members in their work groups, let us know and we will send it to them.

I have a brief report on the arbitrations that have been scheduled in 2010.  We were to hear a termination on February 24^th, but the Company made an offer to the grievant that was accepted by her.  Our next arbitration will be on April 21^st, which involves a language issue and then we have another termination on April 29^th.  We are currently reviewing termination grievances from 2009 and will be submitting several for arbitration shortly.  As for grievances, we are reviewing them from the oldest to the most current, that have been through 3^rd step and are just sitting in a file waiting on a decision to arbitrate or withdraw.  I reported several months ago, there are quite a few outstanding and we are reviewing the grievances and beginning to talk to the Chiefs that filed them, if they haven’t retired, and will use some of these outstanding issues to form proposals in bargaining.  I do not foresee any other language issues being arbitrated before we begin bargaining.  As I said, we will see what issues are recurring over and over again and try to resolve those issues at the table, if possible.

As for the Safety policy the Company wants to implement, we have met a couple more times in the last month and will continue to talk this month.  I want to thank all of the Chief Stewards who provided us with information regarding workplace safety meetings and who was the Company or Union safety person in their areas.  We continue to tell the Company that we believe wholeheartedly in safety and want to work with the Company to ensure that every member has the tools and/or knowledge to perform their job safely.  We do not need the threat of some form of discipline to work safely.  We will also keep you informed as these talks progress.

I reported a little on the Verizon/Frontier sale last month and I do not have much more to report this evening.  I did attend a meeting with the IBEW local unions that are going to become Frontier to discuss the differences in wages and benefits and general working conditions.  Fortunately, every local union has a successorship clause, which means, among other things, that simply changing names of the Company cannot change their benefits.  These local unions were meeting with representatives from Verizon and Frontier this week in Baltimore and I do not know the results of that meeting right now.  Our local will continue to be involved in this sale process and hopefully we can help our brothers and sisters around the country in the future if the need us to help.  As for the calls we have received over the last month in regards to Frontier moving into the City Center or work orders with Frontier’s name on them, we are NOT currently being sold to Frontier.  I have spoken with upper level management and to the IBEW Telecommunications Department and there is no proposed sale.  As we can see with the sale that is going on now, it takes well over a year to go through this process.  If I ever hear that we are being sold, or that there are serious talks about selling Florida to another company, you will be advised.  There is nothing to hide if in fact this was to occur. 

Our Bargaining Committee did meet last month to review the surveys that were returned and to start some preliminary work on issues that may become proposals.  During the month of March and beyond, sub-committees will be meeting to do a lot of research work on many different issues that are important to our membership. I do want to say that if you have NOT returned your survey yet, please do so.  We have a lot of very smart members and even though we have a very competent and experienced Committee, we still want every idea or suggestion that you may have.

Our Solidarity Committee is meeting again next week to work on our next event and we will report on that next month or start reporting on the website if we have an event planned before the next General Meeting.

Our Overtime Committee has met several times in the last month and will be meeting again next week.  We still have some issues out there regarding mainly how refused overtime is recorded, if at all, and also some jurisdictional issues in several Tampa yards.  Chiefs will be a part of this process and we will report through the website as well.

Finally, I want to talk about some opportunities that we have not had in Florida for quite a while.  I started this report with information about the surplus conditions we’ve had over the last 6 months.  I want to end the report with good news for our members.  We are the only local that is increasing headcount in our next to highest wage schedule.  We were notified during the last month that we would be taking on the Circuit Provisioning work from California in our BRPC downtown Tampa.  This placed 10 wage schedule A positions up for bid last week.  We also received 5 Business Response Representatives, wage schedule E in the same center.  The 5 E positions will not be up for bid because they became available during this last bump and that saved 5 employees from bumping someone else.  Then we were notified that the MCO in Tampa would be getting the work now being performed in California, which would add an additional 14 wage schedule A positions for our members.  The 14 positions in the MCO will be filled by the seven Generalist who currently work in that department, upon completing the necessary tests and the other 7 will be posted for bid by our membership.  When I look around the country and talk with other local unions, for IBEW Local 824 to increase headcount in wage schedule A, that means something.  I believe we are working hard to ensure our members have jobs and have an opportunity to advance into a higher wage schedule and learn something new that can keep them valuable in the workplace.  We will continue to seek out any work and bring it to Florida.  The number one issue to our members, based on the responses from the surveys we received so far was job security.  The more work we can bring in, the more security our members have.

In Solidarity,

Robert

I want to start off by giving a brief update on the 14 state sale from Verizon to Frontier.  It looks like every state except Illinois and West Virginia has gone pretty smoothly.  Illinois is still a lock to be approved and the big fight still remains in West Virginia.  Verizon and Frontier are trying to bargain with the IBEW and the CWA to make the transition a little smoother.  I will continue to report on any progress as we find out. 

Surplus and bumping – we are still in the process of bumping from the announced 4^th quarter surplus, I believe we are in the 5^th round of bumping now.  The only surplus we have been notified of for the 1^st quarter of 2010 involves the closing of another Verizon Plus store in Tampa.  All of the Retail Sales Clerks will be moved, by seniority, to other stores located in Tampa.  The General Clerk title in Tampa has been offered the ISP.  We will make sure that any bumping that occurs from this offer is properly conducted by our Collective Bargaining Agreement.  FIOS orders in Tampa and Southern are still keeping the FNFT’s working overtime, and as I said last month, this is a good thing for many classifications, and as long as it continues we’re hopeful Florida will stay quiet when talks of surplus arise across the country. I will report more on this over the next couple of months.

The implementation of the joint union-company overtime committee seems to be working so far.  I know it is only the first week of February, and I’m sure we are going to have some issues over the next month or two, but we will work on those to continue to have an overtime roster that is maintained as our contract states.  Like I said last month, if we can ensure the overtime rosters are properly and contractually maintained and posted, it will be the first time that has happened since I began working for GTE in 1985.  We are hopeful this works and then we will begin to make sure rosters within the Inside Plant world have this plan incorporated as well.

The Safety Policy changes that the Company wants to implement for 2010 are still being worked on.  We have met with the Company on 2 occasions so far and the discussions have been mainly about the Union and Company working together to ensure that all employees work safely.  This means that all employees are properly notified of safety policies on a monthly basis.  We used to have monthly safety meetings, which lasted about 10 minutes, where a supervisor would go over whatever safety topic was chosen for that month.  We advised the Company that the union feels safety has been on the back burner and they have been very reactive to safety issues instead of proactive.   For several years now, employees are not receiving valuable safety information until after an employee had been hurt or injured.  The bottom line is the IBEW will always promote safety within the membership and will participate in communicating safety to the members.  We will be meeting again about the safety policy and I will report on this again next month.

We had a meeting here at the Hall this week with Anthony Corteese, the Workers’ Comp attorney we refer our members to when they get injured on the job and we’re happy to report that our members are being taken care of promptly.  As Tony stated, it is imperative that a member contact him immediately after they have been injured on the job.  The staff at the Union Hall, and the Chief Stewards has been instrumental in making sure our members know what to do in the event they are injured on the job.

There have been several contractual issues within the BZT classification over the last couple of years and it looks like a big one has been resolved.  Due to what the Company said was a lack of manpower, they were utilizing management employees to do the staging work, which had always been performed by the BZT’s.  After meeting with the Company, this work will be performed by the BZT’s.  Of course, we need to remain vigilant to ensure that our members are always performing this work.  Another meeting will take place shortly to discuss how the Company is moving work from one classification to another. 

As far as the outstanding grievances and arbitrations, we currently have 3 arbitrations scheduled and this week requested a panel for the 4^th arbitration for this year.  We should be getting our 1^st 2009 termination requested for arbitration before summer.  As I stated last month, our goal is to be within 12-14 months from the day of termination to the day of the arbitration hearing and we are moving very well in that direction.  Next week the staff here at the hall will be going through grievance reviews on the outstanding contractual issues, dating back to 2002.  We do not see any language arbitrations being scheduled until after we complete bargaining this summer. 

Everyone knows what happened last year with Christmas Eve.  Some work groups were allowed to take a ½ day off, but most work groups were not afforded the same opportunity.  This has happened for several years, and after being notified by the Company they would not let every employee have the same benefit, we filed an Unfair Labor Practice with the NLRB.  We feel that this benefit should be offered to every employee or to no employee.  This benefit should be bargained for every member and that is our goal.  As this issue progresses, we will report to the membership.

Your Bargaining Committee met last month and the main focus was to get a survey completed and sent to the membership.  The survey was mailed to every members’ home and it is also on our website, where you can fill it out online and submit it to the committee so you don’t have to waste a stamp.  Your committee will meet again on the 16^th to begin reading and reviewing your concerns and suggestions in order to formulate proposals.  If you have not done so yet, please get your surveys returned and encourage your brothers and sisters to do the same.

Finally, I want to thank, once again, every member that came out last Sunday to our Solidarity Family Fun Day here at the Union Hall.  We had approximately 350 members and their families attend and the event was very well received.  It was an excellent way to kick off our Bargaining year and we need to continue to build our unity in the months ahead.  I thanked the Solidarity Committee last month and I want to thank them again.  They are responsible for putting everything together.  I also want to thank Bobby Bellot, Jeff Lane, Scott Craddock, Noah Kaaa and Bob Dixon for getting here between 3 and 5 am to begin cooking all the great food we had.  The Solidarity Committee will be getting together again soon to plan some more events throughout our operating area.

As we get closer to meeting with Verizon to negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, we need every member to work safely and remember to do a quality UNION job everyday.

In Solidarity,

Robert

I hope that everyone had a Happy and Safe Holiday Season and now we can turn our attention as a membership to the New Year with all the challenges we will face together.

I would like to start off with a brief review from the last 6 months of 2009.  After taking office in July, we were faced with the Company challenging our Article XI language, which was decided by an Arbitrator.  Everyone knows about that decision.  Since that time, with the 3^rd and 4^th quarter surplus announcements by the Company, no member has been involuntarily separated.  Several members decided to accept layoff instead of bumping or accepted the ISP and retired.  Our local, along with local 89 in Washington State, local 723 in Indiana, and local 986 in Ohio did not face involuntary separations in the 4^th quarter, and there were some staggering numbers reported across the country, mainly in Outside Plant.  We have not been notified of a surplus for the first quarter of 2010 and hopefully we don’t, but there has been a surplus announced within different classifications every quarter since 2007.  In 2009, the Telecommunication branch of the IBEW declined by approximately 5000 members.  This is not only Verizon, but all areas of telecommunications.

The work group that concerns me the most right now is the APC.  As we all know, the company stated last year that this work would be moving up north sometime during 2010.  As of this week, we were told that the Company will be providing IVAPP training to these members and we are hopeful we will have very little issues when that center closes.

We have been told that FIOS orders have increased slightly over the past month and that is good news for ALL of our members.  6 months ago, the dreaded Door-to-Door program was averaging 25 or so FIOS orders being placed each day with a very high cancellation rate before the install date.  Last month, we were told that 100-125 orders were being placed per day with less than a 20% cancellation rate.  If this trend continues and even grows, the less chance a surplus will be declared for the FNFT’s.  With an increase of FIOS orders, not only is it better for the FNFT’s, but also for the CSSC members, the dispatchers, the SRC, and the FSC.  All of these classifications rely on FIOS work.  Yesterday we were notified that the FNFT’s in Tampa were going to be required to work a 6^th day for the next 2 weeks.  In Southern, they will be asking for volunteers to work their laydays. 

The surplus that was declared within the Cable Splicer classification in the 3^rd quarter, which was 51 employees, was called off after the Union and the Company discussed all the contractors performing Splicing work.  Most of the contractors, not all of them, are off the property and our Splicers are performing these job functions now.  The Company says we still do not have enough work right now to keep all of the Splicers busy company-wide and have canvassed for volunteers to go back to West Virginia.  The first group of 22, from Eastern Division, will be leaving Monday for approximately 2-3 months.

6 months ago, we started collecting email addresses from the membership to be able to communicate easier and we are approaching 1000 members signed up.  It is really amazing how many members communicate either with me or my staff or a Board member by email.  We need to continue to collect email addresses as we approach Contract Negotiations this year.

Starting in September, we heard 1 grievance at arbitration per month and we have 3 additional grievances that will be heard before March of this year.  We had 7 Pre-Arbs in the month of December, all for terminations.  As I have reported for a while now, we had termination grievances dating back to 2001.  All termination grievances have been reviewed through the end of 2008 and we are currently working on 1^st quarter 2009.  We hope to have the scenario of a termination grievance go through the entire process and if it will be arbitrated, to have that done within 12-14 months before the end of this year.  Our goal is to be no further than 2 years out on any grievance and that will take a lot of time and hard work, but I think it can be done.

In the CSSC, a grievance was filed last month when a member was denied a steward when the supervisor met to review some of the calls received by that rep.  Management stated that since the “review” did not result in discipline, no steward was required.  As the reps in the CSSC know, those discussions lead to discipline quite a bit.  The union’s position is that anytime a member is being asked questions about their job, they are legally entitled to have union representation.  We met with the NLRB yesterday and will keep you informed of the progress.

We’ve had additional work brought into the BSC, BCC and the CSSC, we did not get a 24 hour copper repair center, but did take on some work from New Jersey and long-distance offline.  The most work that was brought in came to the SRC in St. Pete.  We have had training issues there from day one and we still have many members who are not properly trained to do some of these new functions.  It’s an ongoing process to get everyone trained and I think we will continue to have training issues with work that is slated to come in there this year as well.  A lot of the problems have been a lack of communication from the managers to the members.  This was addressed this week and we are hopeful we will see improvements.

We started the Membership Training last September and after a suspension due to the Holidays, will continue again next week.  We are really happy with the results so far and the feedback that we have received.

The Solidarity Committee that was formed last month, met to discuss ways to get more members involved and to create a sense of unity within all of us.  The first event they are planning is a Family Fun Day on Sunday, January 31^st, here at the Hall.  There will be door prizes, arts and crafts and other activities and food for the entire family and we urge every member and their family to attend.  I would like to thank the committee – April O’Neal and Ben Navarre, from the CSSC who are Co-Chairs of the committee, Mike Strehl, Zaida Menedez, Patrice Canty and Frank Leonetti also from the CSSC; Jody Irish from the FSC; Harry Kooshak from the Ybor yard; Fred Lauper from Sarasota; Melissa Vivian and Lynette Ettouati from the ECOM Center; Pam Elleby and Tina Tyler from the SRC; and Jason Delph from Tarpon. 

December is usually a quieter month and this was no exception this year.  We are in the middle of the 4^th quarter surplus, which started with the members in Pubcom.  So far, we have not had any issues raised about the bumps but are paying close attention as we did through the last bump.  Out of the 12 employees in Pubcom, 6 elected the ISP and 6 entered into the world of bumping.  More information will come as we receive it. 

I spoke last month about the Equalization of Overtime and we hopefully have come up with a system of making the OT rosters as close to being correct as possible.  Of course, only time will tell and we will report in the upcoming months of the progress.  The Outside Plant Chief Stewards will be attending a meeting later this month to explain the entire process.

I also reported last month about the Company’s intent to implement a new Safety Policy this year.  After speaking with Business Managers from around the country, we have all written the Company with the purpose of requesting Bargaining on this issue since it is a change in working conditions.  This will be addressed by each local with their respective Labor Relations people the same all across the country.  As we get more information, it will be relayed to the members.

The Company also wants to implement a new Attendance Policy, which will involve more discipline when you are over the objective.  We are still in the process of reviewing this policy and I will be speaking with Labor about this next week.  Information to the members will follow.

Right now, we are in the process of gathering information that we will review as we move closer to Negotiations.  After a brief conversation with Labor, there has been no start date for Bargaining and as soon as a date is set, the membership will be informed.  Erik and I have discussed and selected your Bargaining Committee for 2010.  I will have Dan Wagner, off my staff who served on the Union’s committee in 2005 and of course Erik Jones, who also was on the 2005 and 2002 committees will be on the committee as the President.  Brent Chapman, a 36+-year member, prior Officer and Executive Board member and a Chief Steward for many years, who is a Cable Splicer from St Pete will be on the Committee.  Doug Blackburn, a 22+-year member, steward for many years and recently appointed Chief Steward, who is a Fiber Network Field Technician from Sarasota will be on the committee.  Zaida Menendez, a 12+-year member, Chief Steward in the CSSC in Tampa will be on the committee.   Todd Bolick, a 12-year member, steward or chief for most of those years, who is a CO Technician in Eastern Division will be on the committee.  Melissa Braswell, a 15-year member and a steward in the BCC in Tampa will be on the committee.  And lastly, Frank Franzen, a 36 year member, steward and Chief Steward for many years, prior Executive Board member and prior Assistant Business Manager of our local and a member of the Union’s Bargaining committee in 2002 and 2005, who currently works as a Specialist in the Tampa MCO will be on the committee.  We will have our first meeting as a committee this month and begin working on behalf of the membership.  As I stated last month, I plan on involving more members through sub-committees and will be seeking volunteers once they are established.

I hope to see you on the 31^st for the Solidarity Fun Day.

In Solidarity,

Robert

I want to start by giving an update of the 3^rd quarter bumping that was completed last week.  This all starts with 15 employees being declared surplus, in several different locations.  A couple of weeks ago, the Company notified us that the bumps were complete.  After looking at the spreadsheet, we noticed that several members did not get the choice that they should have received.  Of course, they were senior members, which affected all the choices of the junior employees below them.  We had members receiving letters stating they were moving to a new location, then the next day receive another letter stating they were no longer affected, then finally getting another letter telling them they were affected again.  We started collecting the checklists of the affected employees so we could verify the classification and location that the employee wanted to bump to.  With the exception of one employee, to our knowledge, everyone received the first choice they were eligible for, based on their seniority.  We are reviewing that one employee’s training record and may be filing a grievance.  The 15 employees originally declared surplus affected 53 employees before the mistakes and eventually only affected 39 members.  2 members elected to take a layoff and leave the company in lieu of exercising their bumping rights.  I believe that by staying on top of this entire process for days on end, we were able to ensure that the right thing was being done for everyone affected.

Now, information for the 4^th quarter surplus – as was stated on the website in November, the only involuntary surplus was going to occur in the Garage Mechanic job title and in Pubcom.  Fortunately, there was a volunteer in a garage in Tampa, so no one will be forced to bump or layoff there.  In Pubcom, as you all know, Verizon is getting out of that business.  So, the ISP window closed yesterday and we will wait to see how many took the ISP and how many are left to enter the bumping process.  I will give you an update on that when we find out.

Grievances and Arbitrations – Just to give you an update on where we are with grievances and arbitrations, and I will start with arbitrations first.  We are in the process of reviewing terminations from 2008 and hope to be into 1^st quarter 2009 terminations before the end of the year.  Now, for outstanding grievances – from 2001 through 2004, we have 1313 grievances that are in a write and hold status.  What that means is that the grievance has passed the 3^rd step and is waiting on a decision to be arbitrated.  2005 we have 290 grievances pending 3^rd step, 2006 we have 238 grievances pending 3^rd step, 2007 we have 620 grievances pending 3^rd step and 2008 we have 835 grievances pending 3^rd step.  So, from 2005 through 2008 there are 1983 grievances pending.  Now we have not reviewed most of these older grievances to see what the issues are, but will be doing so soon.  2009, as of yesterday, we have 1879 grievances that have been filed.  33 have been terminations and 24 of those are pending 3^rd step.  So, the total of all outstanding grievances pending 3^rd step, excluding 2009 equals 3296.  We also have 5 pre-arb meetings set up for this month.

This week we had our 11^th Membership Training class and to date have had approximately 400 members come through the class.  All the members are saying that the class was very beneficial and some of our junior members have stated that the class has opened their eyes to what unions are all about.  Our senior members have said that it has given them an awakening of sorts to hopefully get back involved again.  We are through with the classes for this year because of the Holiday season and will start in back up again in January.

We have been gathering information on what we believe are FMLA violations by the Company to see how we are going to address some of the big issues.  We found out that the CWA has filed a lawsuit against Verizon in 3 of their districts and after I inquired to the Telephone Department in Washington, the IBEW legal department is reviewing to see if we can follow suit or possibly join with the CWA.  As I get more information on this, it will be passed on to the membership.

The Merit Increase committee has been reinstated and we recently approved of several merit increases in the month on November.

The American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE, is conducting a nation-wide organizing campaign for all the TSA workers at the airports.  If you are traveling by air, please take a luggage tag or 2 and place them on your bags in support of this campaign.  I believe the tags are on the back table.

One of the major issues that have been outstanding for many, many years is the equalization of overtime. Hundreds of grievances have been filed on this subject over the years.  We met with the Company yesterday and have a follow-up meeting in 2 weeks, and hopefully it looks like we will have a system in place to properly track and keep up to date on all overtime worked and refused.  There is a test going on in Tampa North and we will report on the results then.

In the RCMAC, we lost the work from the Carolina’s, which created a surplus of 9 employees.  In the NDC, we also lost the Carolina’s, but picked up Texas, which created 9 or 10 positions.   Instead of declaring an official surplus in the RCMAC, the Company had 9 employees go on-loan to the NDC.  Even though we lost the Carolina’s in RCMAC, it looks like we will continue to have that group in Florida.  It’s also a good sign that we have the Texas work for the NDC and will continue to keep that work group in Florida as well.

Everyone probably knows that we were trying to get the EVRC to be a 24/7 center, but that didn’t happen.  They did pick up another state, New Jersey, and are going to extend the Center’s hours to midnight.  I believe the 4-12 tour will begin in January.

Effective November 22^nd, the dispatch clerks located in the CPE Center, on 301, were upgraded to wage schedule C-1 from wage schedule D.  This was an increase of $1.37 per hour.  Their job title was changed from Dispatch Clerk to Business Response Generalist.  In addition, the LBSC within the Care Center is being disbanded and absorbed back into the Customer Care Rep and 7 of those employees moved from downtown to the new group at 301.  This upgrade has been in the works since earlier this year and now it’s finally completed.

The Company sent me a new Safety policy that they want to start enforcing in the beginning of 2010.  This policy contains how an employee should be disciplined in the event they do not follow safety procedures.  After we discuss this with the Company, we will get information out to the Officers and Chiefs and also put it on the website.

The Solidarity committee is tentatively scheduled to meet later this month and their report will be posted to the web as well.  I want to say thank you to the members that volunteered to serve on the committee.

Historically, we have begun negotiations somewhere around May, and I will be talking to Labor shortly to verify when we will begin.  I will announce the Union’s Bargaining Committee at the January meeting and I plan on having several sub-committees and will be seeking volunteers to serve on those shortly.

Remember, the January General Meeting will be on the 2^nd Friday, due to the Holidays.  Reminders will be sent through email and will also be posted on the website.

I hope everyone has a Happy and Safe Holiday Season and look forward to seeing you next month.

In Solidarity,

Robert

First I would like to say that we have conducted 8 Membership Training classes so far, 1 per week, and 280 members have attended these classes.  The classes have been well received and all the members are saying that they enjoyed the class and have learned more about our local union.  We have also received some good feedback in these classes and also have had members volunteer their time to get more involved.

We posted a request for volunteers to serve on a Solidarity/Membership Involvement Committee Wednesday evening and this committee will be coming up with suggestions on ways we can bring the members together, outside of work or the union hall, to build solidarity amongst us.  If you would like to volunteer for this committee, please call the hall.

With Verizon changing the BCBS administrator from Alabama to Anthem, it looks like there are more doctors and hospitals to choose from.  I was reminded by Sherry Waters, Chief Steward in the E-Center that we had some issues relating to deductibles earlier this year, so we were proactive in talking with the Company to hopefully not have the same issue rise again.  If you do have any issues, please let us know as soon as you can so we can resolve the problem.

A couple of weeks ago, we were notified that the company was going to solicit volunteers from the FNFT workgroups in Eastern and in the Upper Suncoast to go on loan to West Virginia.  They also canvassed the Cable Splicers company-wide to go as well.  The reasons they asked these classifications specifically is due to a lack of work for these members.  By doing so, we were able to avoid having a headcount reduction for these groups in the 4^th quarter.  I’ve had several CZT II’s call me and let me know they were not happy that they were not offered to go and let members from the other classifications backfill for them while they are gone.  Since the Company laid off FNFT’s in Tampa and Southern, FNFT’s in Eastern and the Suncoast would not be able to come into the affected areas should they not have work in their own areas so it made sense to canvass the members in those areas.

November 23^rd is the date that all the members affected by the last surplus are supposed to move to their new locations through the bumping process.  In most cases, the affected members have no idea right now where they will be reporting and what job title they will be holding.  We are meeting with Labor next week to review all the bumps and hopefully resolve any issues before the move date.

It looked like the SOM investigations were finally over, but a couple more members were investigated this week.  We had 2 members terminated about 5 months ago, and several management employees have been terminated as well.  Members who have been under investigation for months, have had their accounts frozen so they could not redeem any points and it looks like their accounts will soon be unlocked.  If you participate in the SOM program and have any questions on the rules and regulations, make sure you get everything in writing up front, before you participate.

I reported several months ago about the backlog in termination grievances that were pending arbitration, dating back several years.  We have almost caught up on the backlog and are now reviewing discharges beginning in 2008.  There are about 12 grievances that are being further reviewed and we are trying to contact the members to make sure they want their jobs back.  We have had a small handful of members tell us that they have moved on and do not want to pursue their case any longer.  Hopefully, by the end of December, we can be totally caught up on all the discharges through the 1^st quarter of 2009.

During a specially called Chief Steward’s meeting in early October, we discussed the surplus conditions we have in several classifications and also the ability to bring work into Florida from the states that may soon become Frontier properties.  The Chief’s and Officers decided that the message to the membership should include:  perform your job as the Company has trained you to do and give a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage.  This is the UNION way!  We have to be the best option for the Company, and by WE, we mean Florida.

Finally, I would like to report that after bringing in quite a bit more job responsibilities to the SRC in St. Petersburg, the Union and Company have agreed to upgrade the Service Representative classification from wage schedule D1 to D1-1.  At the top scale, that amounts to $.85 more per hour.  This is the same wage schedule as the Account Associates and the Consumer Sales Consultant, which is in the CSSC. 

I hope that every member has a SAFE, but HAPPY THANKSGIVING and look forward to seeing you at the next General Meeting on Friday, December 4^th.

In Solidarity,

Robert

In years past, when we had messages to get out to the membership, we were lucky to have a shadowy figure communicate that message to the membership.  His name is Lance London, aka, Larry Burns.  From Lance’s style of communication, an award was named after him to a member that focused on keeping members in their area informed.  We haven’t given out this award in several years, but tonight we have Lance in attendance to hand out this award for 2009, and the recipient of the award this year is Noah Kaaa.

I want thank the Executive Board.  As I mentioned last month, they visited with members in Supply on Adamo, and today they were downtown in the Tampa Main building talking with the members there.  Next month they will be at the EAX building in downtown Tampa and fliers will be posted soon to notify everyone. 

On September 26^th, which is a Saturday, we will be hosting the retirement party for Harrison Thornhill, and that party will start at Noon.  More information is on the website. 

We now have over 300 members signed up to receive email updates from our website, ibew824.org, and we have received a lot of compliments on the amount of information being sent out.  If you are not aware, once you sign up, you will receive an email notifying you that an update has been placed on the site.  I urge each of you that have not signed up yet, to do so as soon as you can.

We were notified this week that the Company is getting out of the pay phone business by the end of this year.  We have 12 employees left in the coin operations and John and myself met with several of them yesterday to answer their questions.  They will be offered the ISP in the 4^th quarter.

I have been talking with other Business Managers around the country and we are all working on retaining the work we have now, and bringing in new work.  This all stems from the proposed sale to Frontier.  When the dust settles, it will be Florida, Texas, and California competing for work in the old GTE footprint.  We were successful last week in obtaining additional work in the BSC, which will be the Business billing calls and billing offline work.  By getting the billing work, it looks like we will have enough work in the BSC to keep the headcount we have there now after the sale. We believe we have a chance to bring in more calls to the Care Center and we’re working on that now.  With all the surplus we have out there, it’s really great that we are bringing in some new work.

After almost 2 weeks straight of preparing for the Article XI arbitration, the hearing was held on August 21^st.  We feel we presented a very strong case to the arbitrator and that we will be successful.  Usually there is about a 70-day time period from the hearing until the decision is received, but we cut out almost a month from that time frame and we should receive the award by the end of this month.  We were told yesterday that the Company is not going to move forward with the force adjustment/layoff until that decision comes in.  Remember, the techs in question were originally scheduled to be bumped on July 18^th, then we received a 60-day suspension and now we have another 2 weeks or so extension.

We have also been preparing for the required 6^th day Arbitration and will have that hearing on September 17^th.  Again, a lot of time and research was done and we feel confident with our case.

It’s come to the Union’s attention that we have members, both outside and inside that think it’s ok to be on a company computer and have private conversations on sametime and also communicating through Facebook, while on company time.  If you or anyone you know is doing this, please ask them to stop.  We do not want to have to represent a member who gets fired for doing this.  Please pass this info along to your brothers and sisters.

As everyone probably knows by now, the company has notified the union that they are going to implement their workplace attire on September 14^th.  Originally we thought we would just file 1 grievance from the Hall on this issue, but after talking to some Chiefs, we think it would be better for any member that wants to file a grievance to do so, so the Company realizes how we feel. In my opinion, as I talked with the company, on several occasions, about their need for the workplace attire, it seemed they were not interested in bargaining on this issue, but instead just imposing their guidelines. This issue isn’t dead and we will continue to look at viable options to proceed. 

Last month I reported on BSWTechs being force adjusted from several locations, but fortunately the techs that moved to different locations did so voluntarily and no one was forced to go somewhere they didn’t want to go.

During the last month, we sent 6 members to the Southern School for Union Women and from what I have been told a lot of good information and education was provided and you will be able to read a report or 2 from those that attended on this site shortly.

We had our first joint Union/Company Stress Committee meeting on August 13^th.  The Union committee consists of Michelle Agne, Noah Kaaa, and Zaida Menendez.  They are looking for volunteers to be on several sub-committees and if you are interested, please contact them.

Parking Lot Meetings and Unit meetings have again been well attended.  The most important message that we are bringing to these meetings is the importance of EVERY member to get involved.  We need to continue to grow the attendance at every meeting so the company knows we are getting stronger as a local.  We’ve talked about providing information to the members and we feel that is going very well.  Next on the agenda to strengthening our membership is EDUCATION.  Membership Training classes are going to start on September 15^th with approximately 40 members and the next 2 scheduled classes will be on September 23^rd and 30^th.  As I stated last month, we will continue to conduct these classes through the end of the year and into 2010 as well.

Finally, after months and months of trying to get the newly formed Circuit Repair group back within the CZT II classification, we had our 4^th meeting on this issue yesterday and received confirmation this morning that is going to happen.  The work will be brought back to the CZT II classification from the Cable Splicer classification, in a new work group.  The CZT II’s will be asked, by seniority, if they want to volunteer.  All the details will be known up front as to the tours, which will include 24 hrs, and the areas that the groups will work in.  If they do not get enough volunteers from the CZT II’s, Cable Splicers will be asked next.  This is something that our local has been trying to resolve for months and we are glad that the Company worked with us to resolve this BIG issue. 

I want to personally say thank you to every member that has been attending meetings and doing more to get involved within our union.  I look forward to working with every member and together we will become united again.

In Solidarity,

Robert