There have been quite a few changes during the past month here at the Union Hall. The trees have been trimmed in the front and the back, so hopefully branches don’t scrape your car out back and you can actually see our sign out front before you get to the driveway. We also painted out front and did a lot of landscaping, with a little more to come. I want to thank the following members for their help: Wendell Greenhaugh, Noah Kaaa, Keith LaPlant, Bobby Bellott, Todd Bolick, and Lee Richardson. We have also been organizing inside the office and I would like to thank Traci Hatton and Melissa Braswell and Laura Beck as well.
I would also like to thank the Executive Board and Officers who spent some time this afternoon talking with the members at Supply. The Board talked about visiting different work locations every month either before the Board meeting or after. I’m not sure what locations they will be at next month, but advance notice will be given to those workgroups.
I would like to announce that Michelle Agne, Danny Alfonso, John Glye and Dan Wagner have all agreed to continue serving the membership after a 30-day trial and are now Full-time Business Reps here at the Hall.
If you have been looking at our new website over the last month, you will see that a lot has changed. Visit ibew824.org and click on “update contact info” so you will be registered to receive updates. I was able to get the email server working last weekend and now we will be able to email a particular work group with information that is pertinent to that work group. Also on our website, a tab has been added to provide information on members who need assistance. What I mean is, when we have a member that has had some type of tragedy in their life, we can put information on the site for other members to help out if they can. There is information about a member on there now, where a bank account has been set up to collect donations. You can also get a COPE deduction card or a grievance form and you can print out Metlife and FMLA forms. Also, all the contracts we currently service are online as well.
For those of you that are not aware, we have an organization within our Local called the Electrical Workers Minority Caucus. Grace Smith is the President of our chapter. During the last EWMC meeting a couple of weeks ago, we discussed some of the projects that are being worked on and that information is on our website. We believe that through the EWMC, we will be able to get our Local’s name out in the communities we live in in a positive light. I urge each and every member here tonight to learn more about the EWMC and more importantly, get involved. We need to do everything possible to have the public see our Local in a positive way, especially heading into a negotiations year.
On July 6th, IO Rep Danny Johnson conducted Officer Training for the new Board and Officers and he was going to conduct Steward Training on September 1st but unfortunately he is having surgery on Tuesday and will be sidelined for approximately 6 weeks. Once the training has been rescheduled, we will notify the members that were to attend. I believe we have 31 members that have said they want to step up and become stewards over the last month and I think that is a great thing. Besides the steward training, we are in the final stages of putting together our membership-training program. My staff, along with Tina Tyler, Chief Steward in the Offline Center will be conducting this training and we will start this training the first week of September. When we finalize the details, information will be posted on the website.
The first week of July, Erik and myself met with the Company to discuss the pending force adjustment/layoff of the FNFT’s in Tampa, which was to occur on July 18th. As you may know, the most senior FNFT of the affected group in Tampa was notified that he would not be able to take his first option, which was to “bump” into the FSC, in wage schedule C1, due to the training being more than 5 weeks. He would, however, be allowed to “bump” into the Care Center, also wage schedule C1, because training was only 2 weeks.
Article XI, which contains our Layoff and bumping language states, in part, that the employee must be able to perform the job to which they are bumping into, with minimal additional training. To the Union, this has always meant that an employee exercising their bumping rights should get the same training as an employee that was hired or promoted into that position. No more, no less. The Company is trying to place a time limit on the training.
During this meeting, the Union and the Company agreed to “suspend” the force adjustment/layoff for 60 days, so we could proceed to arbitration on this issue. We did get this in writing. That arbitration is set for August 21st, 2 weeks from today. This arbitration is going to be the most important one our local has ever done, up to this point. We have researched every bumping/force adjustment grievance back to 1991, which was the first time we can remember the Company trying to do a Layoff. We have also received and reviewed Force Adjustment/Layoff language from 14 other Locals around the country, as well as bringing Doug Sellars and Gary Nelson back to assist for this hearing. We met yesterday and will meet Monday and Tuesday to continue preparing. We are going to take advantage of every resource we can to be successful in this arbitration. The members of the TCC II have also volunteered their services as well, through the Telecommunications Department.
The next arbitration on the books is set for September 17th and is for the required 6th day (forced) overtime. Not the “scheduled” 6th day, but for example, when the Company tells you on a Friday evening that you are required on Saturday, which is your layday. Doug has been preparing for this arbitration with the assistance of Dan Wagner.
The next arbitration will be for a termination and is scheduled on October 7th. Gary Nelson will be doing that arbitration for us. After that, the next arbitration is for a grievance that was filed due to the BSW techs performing FNFT work by doing the fiber drop cutovers. This arbitration will be held on November 18th, and Doug will be doing this one. As you can see, we already have an aggressive arbitration schedule set for the rest of the year and we are going to continue this trend until the Company realizes that we are not going to sit idly by watching our contractual language being violated on a daily basis. We met with the Labor Relations staff and we advised them that if we cannot resolve the equalization of overtime grievances, which we have hundreds and hundreds of, going back quite a few years, before the end of the year, we would be arbitrating that issue as well.
On July 21st, Dan Wagner and myself met with the management of the Offline Center in St Pete, in regards to the Sell One More work that was transferred from Wentzville. There was a lot of confusion about what was expected of the members and hopefully it has been all cleared up now. Dan spent the day in the Offline Center last week to see what the members go through on a daily basis and he received a lot of positive feedback from the members.
We still have over 150 termination grievances pending arbitration, dating back several years. We have been reviewing these grievances in the evenings and on weekends, to try to get caught up. I’ve had several members call me to see if we are going to arbitrate their grievance over the last month, so we’re trying to get caught up as soon as possible.
A couple of weeks ago, we were notified that the Company plans to close some reporting locations for the Buried Service Wire techs. As usual, members were being told different stories as to how this process was going to work and what locations would be available to them. After speaking with Joe Lombrana, the moves were put on hold until we can get together to discuss this issue, and that meeting will take place next week.
If you remember, a couple of months ago, the Company was set to put in place a new workplace attire guideline that wasn’t well received by the membership. Correspondence went back and forth from the Union to the Company with the Union finally demanding bargaining on the issue. Since July 22nd, John and I have met with the Company 2 times so far to listen to the Company and the reasons they feel they need to have new workplace attire guidelines. We still don’t understand why we need new guidelines when we have language in our contract now that addresses workplace attire. Several work groups have their own guidelines as well, that’s not in the contract. This is something that Verizon is doing all across the country. I will keep you informed on this issue as it unfolds. If you want to make sure you are receiving updates on this issue and others, please sign up on our Local’s website.
On July 23rd, we had a conference call with all the TCC II locals, where we were told the new gas cards for the company vehicles contained no personal employee information. Myles Calvey, the TCC II Chairman assured us of this fact. The agreement with the gas companies is with a company named Voyager. Voyager in return bills Verizon. Again, no personal information is attached to that card.
This past Wednesday, the staff and the Chiefs under Kwami Trotman had a meeting in Temple Terrace and the main topic was the newly formed T&P workgroup. We also discussed the starting times of the tours for CZT II’s and the issue with employees being on-loan or THC’n to management or THC’n to another classification for more than 180 days. We are going to have another meeting next week and information will be put on the website after that.
Finally, on a much sadder note, we had a member from the FSC commit suicide and another member in the CSSC had a stroke, for reasons I believe were brought on by the stress of an unknown future. We have language in our contract, which allows a joint union-company stress committee, and I have asked the Company to form one for Inside and Outside Plant. I believe the committee is going to meet in the next week or so and if you have any suggestions, please email or call the Hall to give them your input.
In Solidarity,
Robert
