General Membership Meeting-AFSCME 404
February 20, 2020
330PM Redman Club
Present:
Adam Castle, Ryan Cates, Steve Wilking, Annie Jukacki, Antonino Guerrero, Alex Flores, Jake Schoenecker, Jamie Sheppard, Hans Paulson, Marvin Sullivan, Justin Jones, Lisa Spurr
1.Secretary Report:
Motion to approve January meeting minutes by Adam Castle, 2nd by Flores. Motion passes.
2. Treasurer-Antonino Guerrero:
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FOR MONTH ENDING: January 2020
CASH BALANCE BEGINNING OF MONTH: $78863.29
INCOME FOR THE MONTH: $ 7125.37
EXPENSES FOR THE MONTH: $ 12473.02 *$11043.95 for Holiday Party *Voting $731.73
CASH BALANCE ENDING OF MONTH: $ 73515.64
SAVINGS: $ 80133.26
SUBMITTED BY: Antonino Guerrero
Motion to approve Treasurer Report subject to audit by Alex. 2nd by Steve. Motion passes.
3. Correspondence: Motion to approve Badges and lanyards up to $1200 by Alex, 2nd by Marvin. Motion Passes.
Per diem from January for Emilio in Rochester on day off. Motion by Castle, 2nd by Justin. Motion Passes
Vice president coming in on days off for investigations. Motion for per diem by Jake, 2nd by Alex. Motion Passes.
Constitution Changes: changes to local constitution Article 5 Section 3 shall now read “The quorum for meeting of this Local shall be set by the International Constitution.”
Article 6 section 1 shall now read “The officers of this local shall be a president, a vice-president administration, a vice-president steward coordinator, a secretary-treasurer, a recording secretary,
Seven chief stewards and three executive board members and these fifteen shall constitute the local union executive board…. Last time was amended in 2007 when we had 500 members. Today we have 900 members. We need more representation.
Article 8, section 6. Add chief steward shall coordinate all other duties assigned.
Lobby week march 9th and may 4th. Talking to legislators to make changes. Monday through Thursday. Email Eric Hesse if interested and you need the days off. Alex makes motion for per diem and mileage. 2nd by Castle. Motion passes.
4. New Business: MSOP Meet and Confer Minutes https://www.union404.com/news/february-2020-msop-meet-and-confer
Forensics Meet and Confer https://www.union404.com/news/forensics-february-2020-meet-and-confer-minutes
5. Old Business: Day on the hill march 31st. bus will pick up in St. Peter. Leaves at 730 at the latest. Put in vacation request even if it is taken. Scott said he will try to make arrangements for more staff to have vacation for this. Email Hesse or Steve if the program will not let you in.
Special convention February 29th.
6. Items from the membership: Jamie-UVBS can now be done with female staff behind a door or other partition as long as there is a male staff. Goes into effect beginning of March.
Rumor about cutting overtime. It is at 6 percent and Scott wants to cut to 2 percent. Shorting every unit 1 staff for sick calls. When addressed today, Scott said it has been talked about but it is not happening at this time. It was announced at the lead meeting. We want the ability to leave our posts if need be. Concern that why do we need a post if we don’t get staff for it. Talking about absorbing a 1 to 1.
MNA rep reached out to us to be part of the OSHA citation. They want to know if they can take one of our 5 seats. We had someone back out, so we would like to allow one of them to attend in open spot.
Hans-Read in notes that there was a conversation about officers attending meetings. Is there anything in the constitution about attendance? Cates-no. Hans-I think there should be. Cates-idea at last meeting was to post on the meeting minutes who attended, who was excused, and who wasn’t. Annie-expectation is all officers expected to attend unless there is a good reason. If appointed to attend a specific meeting, you are expected to attend, if not you are expected to notify the president. Hans-I get union business. Jake-they break expectations, there are not penalizations. Cates-they are elected and cannot be fired. The eboard can vote and request the person to resign. Annie-they usually do a role call. Members have the right to see who goes. If you look at the meeting minutes and see someone isn’t going. You can not vote for them the next time. Hans-I believe the membership needs to manage themselves too. Its two years until the point of voting. I’m not sure how I feel about someone being paid not attending. Obviously, we can’t solve it today but I need to bring it up. Annie-locals get into discussion about not paying. This will not get passed at the international level. If you are an elected official, the mindset is you won’t be reelected. Passing something here has to be run by international. Hans-I just think it needs to be policed more. Steve-I am monitoring stewards and holding them accountable. Hans-I just want to bring it up for discussion.
Justin-Security Services being used to backfill concerns. They have been testing the waters with rovers. Steve-they had a sick call for rover and were going to have utility do it. They ended up calling in someone to come in for rover spot. If it happens where the force us to residential, let me know. It is a break in contract.
7. Good and Welfare: Combined charities basket was voted on last month. Need people to assist in putting together a basket.
8. Officer Reports:
President: Ryan Cates/Present- Attended Forensic Meet and Confer-
-Once again brought up 2 supervisors talking to our members- Management said they made their supervisors aware of Labor’s views about this issue.
-Asked for updates on the Aspen unit dissolution- Management gave some general thoughts on when Oak would open.
- Reiterated that hospital coverage requires 2 staff- Management agrees.
-Asked about Atlas app and permissions- Management is looking at this.
-Management will be changing the working title for HSSS’s
-Asked about COTA’s being able to change their shifts to 10 hours- Management will look into this.
-Brought up issues with members catching influenza at work on units that were quarantined- Management/HR said they can use sick time or ETL if they do not have sick time. HR also stated we cannot prove they caught it at work- We will deal with this through the grievance process.
-Brought up our concerns with management's use of emergency language to violate our contract- Management disagrees with us.
-Brought up the BS grievance responses we are getting- Management/HR argued with us.
-Presented our concerns about safe staffing levels- Management demurred.
-Raised concerns about staff not being able to sign up for OT on the Atlas app.
-Brought up concerns about Sprint phones not being able to call state voip phones.
-Asked about the DCT announcement about members not talking to legislators- Management said this was not done by them.
-Stated the AFSCME demands that MNA nurses be inversed before AFSCME nurses.
Attended Weekly check-ins.
Attended MSOP Meet and Confer.
Filed multiple grievances and sat investigations.
Talked with members in multiple work areas and listened to their concerns.
Presented and argued grievances.
Discussed the situation with OSHA and the citation that FMHP received with members and officers in Local 404.
Became even more frustrated with management.
Communicated information to E-Board members about issues facing the Local.
Chaired the Executive Board Meeting
Chaired the General Membership Meeting.
Presented at New Employee Orientation.
Attended meetings with management about the OSHA citation. We are pushing for changes in FMHP that will improve staff safety.
Attended Meet and Confer for CBHH/CARE.
If any member of Local 404 feels they are not being represented by our Union, please let me know. We cannot fix problems if we do not know there is a problem.
We ask that all members who are interviewed as non-subjects in an investigation, request Union representation. If management refuses, then members should refuse to answer questions. Participation in investigations is completely voluntary and they cannot coerce you to answer their questions. We need to do this to compel management to discontinue their practice of refusing to allow Union representatives into investigations.
VP: Steve Wilking/Present- This last month has been very busy for me. As always…. I’ve attended the Weekly Check-ins, Safety Meetings, Interest Based Problem solving workgroup, Meet and Confer, E-board and the General Membership meetings. I continue to file grievances, send cases to arbitration, sit investigations, coordinate investigations and trainings and field many emails and phone calls regarding union questions. Please feel free to contact me via phone, email or skype if you need that instant question answered.
As I noted last month that my report will begin to look differently. You will see a more organized and consistent delivery. My first heading will begin with Communication. What’s going on!
Communication
On 2.20.20 OSHA arrived regarding a complaint that was filed. The complaint was regarding Radios relating to an incident that happened at FMHP. Please see the AFSCME local 404 page for more information. Also in regards to OSHA. Management and the Local Union have continued meetings regarding the Citation of Workplace violence. As we get deeper into the meetings I’ll provide more specific details on what is being abated. Also, as I noted last month that I have been working with Jamie Sheppard regarding compiling data for the members to see. You will see that data in Jamie’s report. The information is still being compiled and the information is still coming in. So….apologies as the information is coming in it is not 100% accurate as the numbers will increase. The purpose of rolling it out is for you the members to see. I am currently taking names of individuals who are interested in a Steward Training. If you are interested please send me your name via email and I’ll send you an invite once I select the day for training. The training will cover the contract and various other union activities. It is an all-day training.
Contract
Here I will attempt to inform you (The Members) on our contract. I’ll tell you the Article the page # and what part of the contract we typically deal with most regarding this contract. NOTE: the entire contract is important in all its wording. I’m just referencing pieces of the contract. If you wish to know more. Each work area has a contract. Please feel free to read that at your leisure. As always if you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to reach out to any elected officer. That list can be found at
ARTICLE 1 – PREAMBLE
This first article discusses when the agreement was made and some background information. So for the purpose of this month I will be skipping this Article.
ARTICLE 2 – RECOGNITION (page 1)
This month I will talk about this article. The first paragraph recognizes the union. The second paragraph gives the specifics as to what it takes to be in our bargaining unit. This is where I would like to take some time to explain here. Who does this typically affect? The answer, part time and intermittent employees. I’m sure we could come up with others. I will copy and paste the contract below and highlight the areas to pay special attention to. Although section 2 and section 3 are important. Section 2 covers Disputes and Section 3 convers Union Exclusivity. Please feel free to read those at your leisure.
Section 1. Existing Units
To be covered by this Agreement, employees must work fourteen (14) or more hours per week (or thirty-five (35) percent of the normal work week in the employee's bargaining unit) and be employed more than sixty-seven (67) working days in any calendar year. Employees shall be placed in the bargaining unit as soon as the Appointing Authority anticipates that they will work sufficient hours and days to be eligible for bargaining unit inclusion.
Rumors
We ,your elected officers, have sat in many meetings where management has stated that we are currently at 6% overtime and would like to get down to 2%. Rumors have leaked that units will be absorbing their first 1:1 as well as absorbing their first sick call. We have asked management this. Their reply was….. We need to get down to 2% and are evaluating. If your unit has this happen….. We want to know immediately of the date, time and shift it happened. If your unit isn’t being backfilled we want to know date, time and shift. We care about your safety and running the units short is not safe.
Information Center
How to file an OSHA Complaint (Link Below)
https://www.osha.gov/workers/file_complaint.html
What is OSHA RECORDABLE?
https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1904/1904.7
Union Recourses
In Solidarity,
Steve Wilking
Vice President - Steward Coordinator
AFSCME Local 404
VP: Eric Hesse/Excused- Been a relatively slow month for me. Filed a few grievances on improper inversing and other things along with answering membership questions.
Day on the Hill is coming up on March 31st. This is a day when AFSCME members from throughout the state come to the State Capitol and talk to their legislators about issues that are important to union members and issues within their work areas. If you wish to attend, please let me know.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out and contact me or another officer of this union.
In solidarity,
Eric Hesse
Vice President – Administrative
AFSCME Local 404
Executive Board: Jake Schoenecker/Present- Over the past month I have been supporting members during investigations and attending meetings. Please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Executive Board: Chief Steward Emilio Florez/Unexcused- Many grievances this last month. I am using fact sheets for employees wanting to file grievances. This practice helps gather all the necessary information in order to speed up the grievance process. I had a few investigations this last month mainly in the FMHP program. I would like to remind staff to always reach out to a steward if they feel they need one or just want some clarification. As we transition into our new positions I chose to focus on creating my new structure and had other officers fill in for me at our Forensic monthly meetings and weekly check ins. Also I think it is a good idea to have our officers sit in some of these meetings for the experience. I went to CBHH in Rochester for CBHH/CARE Labor management meeting and met with staff thereafter. I also attended the OSHA informal conference in St. Paul on behalf of Local 404. FMHP/FNH: when getting inversed please make sure you are inversable. If not, notify the AODS and give them a chance to make it right and/or if it is early enough contact an officer so they can call the AODS, make sure you get a reason if it is deemed an emergency and ASK if they called the outside of work list. I would like to know about it for tracking and grievance purposes. Thanks, Emilio Florez III LOCAL 404 Chief Steward
Executive Board: Chief Steward Alex Flores/Present-
Executive Board: Chief Steward Nick Weerts/Unexcused- This month I presented a Step 3 grievance regarding pay steps. I did attend MSOP Labor Management, with much discussion around the Count Coordinator reassignment. Please see the meeting minutes that were sent out! They will answer a lot of questions and hopefully help minimize confusion & the rumor mill. Will continue to strive for good communication & transparency. Please see www.union404.com for all meeting minutes.
Executive Board: Chief Steward Marvin Sullivan/Present- In the last month I have sat a few investigations mainly regarding ETL. Please use this as a reminder to be on time for work. I attended Meet and confer and will be attending the ongoing abatement process with MNOSHA.
In Solidarity,
Marvin
Executive Board: Jamie Sheppard/Present- Attended MSOP Meet and Confer, MSH Meet and confer, E-Board Meeting, and General Membership Meeting.
CS Facility Support: Stacey Mueller/Unexcused- Please continue to watch the Local 404 Chat Page on Facebook. Looking for members input for issues you want answers to so feel free to post them. Meet and Confer and membership meetings are 3rd Thursday of each month so look for E-board to post a meetings suggestions/questions to the page before upcoming meetings.
Chief Steward MSH / CRP / Nursing Nights: Kurt Crosby/Excused-
Council 5 Rep: Annie Jukacki- Day on the Hill. Registration is open online also. Julie appointed new director of public affairs. Matt Sald was a lobbyist and has now been appointed. I had someone reach out asking about MSRS vote in the mail. We are not endorsing anyone specifically. The recommendation is to read the bios and make your own decision.
Motion to adjourn by Alex, 2nd by Justin. Motion Passes
Meeting adjourned at 445pm