General Membership Meeting-AFSCME 404
June 17, 2021
430 PM Video Conference
Present:
Adam Castle, Ryan Cates, Annie Jakacki, Eric Manriquez, Judy Ehrman, Antonino Guerrero, Eric Hesse, Karla Herzberg, Jamie Schwartz
1.Secretary Report:
Motion to approve May meeting minutes by Adam Castle. 2nd by Eric Hesse. Motion passes.
2. Treasurer-Antonino Guerrero:
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FOR MONTH ENDING: May 2021
CASH BALANCE BEGINNING OF MONTH: $ 131918.54
INCOME FOR THE MONTH: $ 7782.61
EXPENSES FOR THE MONTH: $ 8184.82
Officer Allowances and Stewards: 3033.20
Picketing Supplies including food: 4571.85
NEO/Negotiations/Retirement Gifts: 579.77
CASH BALANCE ENDING OF MONTH: $ 131516.33
SAVINGS: $ 125548.24
SUBMITTED BY: Antonino Guerrero
Motion to accept May Statement subject to audit by Eric Hesse, 2nd by Adam Castle. Motion Passes
3. Correspondence:
4. New Business: Convention will be September 30, October 1st and 2nd in Duluth. This will be in person unless the COVID situation changes. Email Eric Hesse if you are interested by July 15th if you would like to be a delegate. Must have the time off.
2 Trustee positions need to be filled. Eboard will decide at next months meeting. Email Eric Hesse if you are interested. One is a 1 year and one is a 3 year. Responsible for auditing the books. Term will be to fill in until January.
Steward Training on Monday. Motion for perdiems by Eric Hesse, 2nd by Eric Manriquez. Motion Passes.
July Meeting will be in St. Peter at the Redman Club at 1030pm. Plan is to rotate every other month at Jakes Pizza Mankato and Redman Club. 1030 Meeting will have to be at the Redman Club due to time. 1030 Meetings will be planned for one every 4 weeks.
Antonino needs ink and office supplies. Motion to approve up to 100 for ink by Eric Hesse, 2nd by Eric Manriquez. Motion passes.
Motion to approve up to 500 dollars for 2 office chairs for the union office by Judy Ehrman. 2nd by Eric Manriquez. Motion Passes.
5. Old Business: MMB policy change for investigations was grieved by council 5 and was overturned. This will also be placed into the contract so it will no longer be reinterpreted. We will go back to how it has always been done on state time.
6. Items from the membership:
7. Good and Welfare: One person reached out to me about Tom Wolfe retiring. Just waiting on more information.
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.
Talked to Legislators about issues at MSH.
Filed a complaint with the Department of Labor and Industry in an attempt to get management to address the escalation of violence in the Forensics program.
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-
VP: Eric Hesse- We are still in the middle of contract negotiations with the State of Minnesota for the 2021-2023 master language contract. Usually we’d have it wrapped up in the middle of June, but since the State Legislature was unable to come to an agreement on the budget before the end of the regular legislative session, negotiations were stalled until a budget was agreed to, in which it finally was at the end of the special session that ended on June 30th. We will return to the negotiations table to wrap up this round of negotiations on Monday, July 19th and hope to be done by the end of that week. Stay tuned for updates.
We’ve had some questions come in regarding if the new contract is put into place since the 2019-2021 agreement expired on June 30th. Per state statute, if we are actively still negotiating a new contract and if we come to an agreement but have not went to the legislative Subcommittee of Employee Relations (SER) for temporarily approval (usually happens in the late fall or early winter, we still fall under the provisions of the old contract. So the new contract, once successfully negotiated and ratified by the members, will not be implemented until the SER hears it and recommends an approval or is split on it’s recommendation. At that point, the contract will be temporarily implemented and we would receive any back pay for any cost of living wage adjustments negotiated from the point of implementation back to July 1st. If they do not recommend approval, the new contract will not be implemented until final approval from the full body of the State Legislature, which would be at some point during their regular session in 2022. If you have step increases upcoming, those will still be honored even without a new contract since the old contract had step increases negotiated into it.
Also, just wanted to give you all an update on some of the changes that Local 404 and Administration were able to negotiate during our supplemental bargaining. I will go over some of the major highlights and the full list will be provided once the master language contract is fully negotiated.
*CDPAs, MHPAs, HSSSs, and CNA Leads (RPLs) will be included into the weekend/day off OT bonus
*Vacation requests may be submitted up to twelve months in advance
*Vacation requests can only be requested 14 days past the twelve months mark
*Mutualling to doubles will increase to 2 times a pay period (excluding FNH, CBHH, and CARE)
*Bid movement language at FMHP for days off has been removed
*You cannot be inversed between your last scheduled shift before your days or day off and your next scheduled shift, unless there’s an emergency (excluding CBHH & CARE)
*Pilot program for 2 years of Achievement Awards
*Floating Holidays will not be assigned or paid out if unused
*There will be no more offering period for bidding. If you are the most senior bidder on a position, you will be awarded the bid
*If you are bumped to overnights, you will no longer be able to bump the least senior eligible person at 3 months
*If you have successfully executed a bid and then get bumped to overnights before your bidding rights are reinstated, you will get your bidding rights back
As always, if you have any questions on any of this, or anything else, please feel free to reach out to me or any other officer of the Local.
In solidarity,
Eric Hesse
Vice President – Administrative
AFSCME Local 404
Executive Board: Jake Schoenecker- Sitting investigations and attending union meetings.
Executive Board: Chief Steward: Judy Ehrman- No investigation
No new grievances
No answer on existing grievances (2)
New
- Increase acuity, Inversing up
- Change in duties with MHPH’s and HST’s, not adequate training for responsibities
- Underutilizing of supportive staff,BA for assistance on the floor for coverage with multiple 1:1.
- Schedule being posted with open shifts. An email sent out to roster adjust when there is no extra staffing to adjust.
- Nursing supervisors are not available in the building to ask questions.
Executive Board: Chief Steward Alex Flores-
Executive Board: Chief Steward Nick Weerts- There continues to be plenty of activity in MSOP, and Campus as a whole, the last month. I attended our Labor Management & E-board meetings. As well as New Employee Orientation, where we had a large class of 18 new hires, across many different work areas within our campus.
I also attended a joint Health Services meeting with MNA & Admin, as we continue to stay abreast of staffing struggles for that department. We did a lot of brainstorming about possible staffing alternatives, but it continues to be difficult to fill positions in health services across all programs within the State system, MSOP is one of many struggling with this.
I have sat a couple of investigations recently… After a recent agreement with MMB, Stewards are again sitting investigations during working hours. Always remember your right to Union Representation during any investigation!
Remember July 1st is the beginning of the new Fiscal Year, so you have a Floating Holiday again, don’t forget to use it. Eventually, Floating Holidays will expire at the end of the fiscal year, without any Administration oversight/scheduling. Plan to Use It or Lose It.
Reminder that contact for HR is [email protected]
Leave Management requests (FMLA) should go to [email protected]
Communication continues to be key to our success & strength, so Members are encouraged to reach out with concerns/observations. Please see www.union404.com for all meeting minutes.
Executive Board: Chief Steward Marvin Sullivan-
Executive Board: Jamie Sheppard- I attended MSOP Meet and Confer, Emergency E-board meeting, regular scheduled E-board meeting and the general membership meeting. Also, got a member who was bumped to 3rd watch start date extended due to not giving the member a 28 day notice. Good and Welfare: Tom Wolfe-retired with 14 years, 2 months, I’m just waiting for the check so I can send out the card. ***Please include the following info when notifying me of your or someone elses retirement: Name, Title/Work Area, Start Date, Retirement Date, Mailing Address and # of years with AFSCME. I cannot do anything without the proper info and if the member is already done, I have no way of tracking them down.
In Solidarity,
Jamie Schwartz, E-Board
CS Facility Support: Eric Manriquez-
Chief Steward MSH / CRP / Nursing Nights: Kurt Crosby- This past month has been I have been doing a lot of research asking C5 questions about things that several members has asked about. These individuals will be contacted soon. Thanks for reaching out and asking questions, it can be a daunting task to try and juggle 900 members with only 7 officers…but it is something we choose to do. I have been away from work for a while, but my personal email is [email protected]. If anyone has concerns please feel free to reach out to that email as If I am away from work I have no access to my email. Be safe and stay involved.
Annie Jakacki- Give legislators a call to support our contract. 817 members out of 879. 92.9 percent. These numbers don’t include new hires.
Motion to adjourn by Adam Castle. 2nd by Eric Manriquez. Motion Passes.
Adjourned at 456pm