I want to start by giving an update of the 3rd 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 4th 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 1st 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 3rd step and is waiting on a decision to be arbitrated. 2005 we have 290 grievances pending 3rd step, 2006 we have 238 grievances pending 3rd step, 2007 we have 620 grievances pending 3rd step and 2008 we have 835 grievances pending 3rd 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 3rd step. So, the total of all outstanding grievances pending 3rd step, excluding 2009 equals 3296. We also have 5 pre-arb meetings set up for this month.
This week we had our 11th 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 22nd, 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 2nd 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
