General Membership Meeting-AFSCME 404
July 15, 2021
1030 PM Redman Club/Zoom
Present:
Adam Castle, Ryan Cates, Annie Jakacki, Judy Ehrman, Antonino Guerrero, Kurt Crosby, Judy Ehrman, Jake Schoenecker, Alex Flores
1.Secretary Report:
Motion to approve June meeting minutes by Adam Castle. 2nd by Alex Flores. Motion passes.
2. Treasurer-Antonino Guerrero:
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FOR MONTH ENDING: June 2021
CASH BALANCE BEGINNING OF MONTH: $ 131516.33
INCOME FOR THE MONTH: $ 7287.94
EXPENSES FOR THE MONTH: $ 8001.72
Officer Allowances, Stewards, and Negotiations: $ 7282.51
CASH BALANCE ENDING OF MONTH: $ 130802.55
SAVINGS: $ 125591.37
SUBMITTED BY: Antonino Guerrero
Motion to accept June Statement subject to audit by Kurt Crosby, 2nd by Adam Castle. Motion Passes
Please direct any treasury inquiries to Antonino Guerrero via email.
3. Correspondence:
FMHP Meeting Minutes: https://www.union404.com/news/july-2021-fmhp-meeting-minutes
MSOP Meeting Minutes: https://www.union404.com/news/july-2021-fmhp-meeting-minutes
4. New Business: We began in person meetings this month. The Redman will not stay open passed 11pm. For November we will either get rid of 1030 meetings or only use Zoom due to limited location availability for the 1030 meetings.
2 open trustee positions were voted on by the eboard. 5 were interested. New trustees are Hans Paulson and Rick Pitts.
HR has asked for MOU for hiring pool for transition for HSSS. It allows them to hire for PCNs that aren’t available yet. The eboard voted to approve the MOU. Asking the members to support this. Any questions or concerns? Hearing none, Kurt Crosby motion to accept MOU, 2nd by Alex Flores. The MOU will allow hiring pool for transition services to hire staff that there aren’t open PCNs for. They will hire when the bidding starts so it doesn’t take so long to hire. There are 4 other MOUs that are the same in other programs. Motion Passes.
There have been rumors about changing schedules to 6/2 and 7/3. Management claims they are not bringing it up and that staff are asking them. Management agreed they cannot change this without labors approval. There are no changes at this time for FMHP.
Push week starts next week where they negotiate the money. They ask we wear AFSCME gear to support the union during the most important week. Starting the 19th. There was an update sent out earlier this week also. Check memberlink for updates.
5. Old Business:
6. Items from the membership: Kurt-We talked at meet and confer that there are no active conversations about schedule changes. If you are interested in discussion, please come to the union leadership and/or meetings with any ideas. We are open to any ideas about schedule changes, etc.
7. Good and Welfare:
8. Officer Reports:
President: Ryan Cates- Attended Forensic Meet and Confer- Notes are attached to the meeting minutes.
Attended MSOP Meet and Confer- Notes are attached to the meeting minutes.
Filed multiple grievances and sat investigations.
Talked with members in multiple work areas and listened to their concerns.
Presented and argued grievances.
Communicated information to E-Board members about issues facing the Local.
Chaired the Executive Board Meeting.
Chaired the General Membership Meeting. It was in person at the Redman and on Zoom. In the future we are going to look at doing 10:30PM meeting only on Zoom due to no facility being open past 11PM where we can hold a meeting.
Talked to Legislators about issues at MSH.
Talked with the Department of Labor and Industry about the safety issues in Forensics and the failure of management to address the issues.
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.
Ryan Cates
Security Counselor Lead
REDWOOD Unit 507-985-2850
AFSCME Local 404 President
507-382-2975
VP: Steve Wilking-
VP: Eric Hesse-
Executive Board: Jake Schoenecker- Over the past month I have been sitting investigations and attending union meetings.
Executive Board: Chief Steward: Judy Ehrman- I have not had investigations or Grievances this month
There has been a recent staff meeting with the CBHH leadership.
The CBHH Rochester has lost several staff in the last 30 days and there are more staff actively looking for other employment.
There are several new people in the process of hiring.
Staff are still very discouraged, and the meeting has not improved moral.
The other issue that is happening is an AFSCME staff person is having a conduct issue.
This person’s peers have expressed their concerns to the nursing supervisor and feel it has not been heard.
What is the unions role in performance issues when it effects the milieu safety?
Judy Ehrman- Haight
Rochester CBHH
Executive Board: Chief Steward Alex Flores-
Executive Board: Chief Steward Nick Weerts-
Executive Board: Chief Steward Marvin Sullivan-
Executive Board: Jamie Schwartz- Attended MSOP Meet and Confer.
Been answering a lot of questions about OCEANS and the hunger strike at Moose Lake.
Congratulations to Lori Jones on her retirement! Card has been forwarded to Treasure 7/20 to send out.
Otherwise nothing new at this time.
CS Facility Support: Judy Ehrman-
Chief Steward MSH / CRP / Nursing Nights: Kurt Crosby- I have attended the meet and confer and general membership meeting this past month.
I am also asking for input from our members so I can better address the plethora of call ins that were taken on the 4th of July holiday. I am sure no one would abuse the sick leave policy, because we are amazing humans and we understand that if we do not come to work, the ones that are here have to stay. But it was brought to my attention that if you call in sick for the holiday, you still get paid via holiday pay and do not have to use sick time.
That apparently has been the accepted practice, so I am reaching out to the members to see if they want me to make a resolution to be brought forth at the state convention addressing this current practice. As I said previously, I am sure that no one abuses that practice, but it also forces the staff who are not sick and come into work into an unwanted double on a holiday. They do not get paid for the forced shift the same as the one that was scheduled for that day (double time and a half) they only get time and a half for the forced shift. I want to put forth a resolution that addresses the overwhelming responsibility that is put on the staff, that thankfully is not ill, and makes them miss an entire day with family, friends and loved ones.
My opinion, our schedules are not 9-5, and time away from here with loved ones is very important. If we are forced to stay for a second shift on a holiday, we should be compensated at LEAST with double pay for the entire time, and if the state insists that the staff whom is regrettably ill uses sick time to help offset the additional compensation for the forced staff, I do not see an issue. If you call any other day you are responsible to have those hours available to use, I cannot imagine that the intent was to allow a ‘free sick day’. Contract requires us to be paid for the holiday, so I am not proposing that is removed, contrary, pay the holiday and remove the hours from the sick bank. This job requires us to work Holidays and weekends that were agreed upon in our contract, but it is an 8 hour shift. We still can get some time with family and friends. If your forced to work 16 hours, it erodes the foundation of relationships and family time. Especially during Holidays which are traditionally spent with friend and family’s.
Stand as one…respect each person as you wish to be respected. Union means we are all one. Not just one.
Annie Jakacki- 825 members out of 888 in bargaining unit. 92.9 percent membership. At labor/management today, it was talked about that legislature has appointed 250 million for front line workers. They didn’t want to hold up the budget. They will go forward with a committee to determine how this will be distributed. Please don’t expect a huge bonus but they will focus on people who worked during pandemic and had absolutely no relief. Such as grocery workers, long term care workers, nursing assistants, food service workers, etc. State employees had the COVID relief policy. So we don’t know if this group is included. This is a starting point. There is a lot of other money from the relief plan. If the determine this isnt enough money, they can go into the other money next spring during the legislative session. Our legislative department is going to keep an eye on this and we will be reaching out to the legislators on the committee to push for our members. If everyone that had to work got some of the money, it would be around 2 dollars for each person, so if we don’t fall into that first group, we are still advocating to get something in the spring in that legislative session for the other money. They will be looking at people who were extremely high risk but had no relief first.
Motion to adjourn by Adam Castle. 2nd by Alex Flores. Motion Passes.
Adjourned at 11pm