General Membership Meeting-AFSCME 404
November 21, 2019
430PM Jakes Pizza-Mankato
Present:
Adam Castle, Emilio Florez, Ryan Cates, Jamie Sheppard, Kurt Crosby, Matt Stenger, Steve Wilking, Crystal Kreklow, Hans Paulson, Antonino Guerrero, Stacy Mueller, Jake Schoeneker, Julie Miller, Rick Pitts, Alex Flores, Tammy Rausch, Ashley Templin, Caroline Ravits, Nicole Kueker, Katarina Hanson, Sydney Shelton, Lynn Bielke, Brittany Ellis, Randilee Dauk, Margie Arroyo, Kasy Fredericksen, Amber Hernades, Kim Kellogg, Josephine Gbadamosi, Lounnu Minor, Alison Lamm, MJ Braun, Rachel Ruiz, April Neal, Angela Shanty, Molly Luskey, Teresa Peterson, Latifatu Alhassan, Nitar White
1.Secretary Report:
Motion to approve October meeting minutes by Adam Castle, 2nd by Stenger. Motion passes.
2. Treasurer-Antonino Guerrero:
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FOR MONTH ENDING: October 2019
CASH BALANCE BEGINNING OF MONTH: $ 81880.82
INCOME FOR THE MONTH: $ 6805.76
EXPENSES FOR THE MONTH: $ 31786.78 *Large amount due to the Fall Council 5 convention costs. If you have any questions, please email Antonino Guerrero for specifics.
CASH BALANCE ENDING OF MONTH: $ 56899.80
SAVINGS: $ 80084.81
SUBMITTED BY: Antonino Guerrero
Motion to approve Treasurer Report subject to audit by Kurt. 2nd by Jake. Motion passes.
3. Correspondence:
MSH Meeting Minutes: https://www.union404.com/news/november-2019-msh-meeting-minutes
MSOP Meeting Minutes: https://www.union404.com/news/november-2019-msop-meeting-minutes
4. New Business: Cates-health summit at council 5. Motion by Steve for mileage and per diem. 2nd by Kurt. Motion passes.
The local needs a new ballot box. Eboard recommends up to 100 for ballot boxes for 2. Motion by Stenger, 2nd by Stacy. Motion passes. MOU for HSSS in transitions and nursing home propose 50 dollar bonus when they work overtime on days off and weekends. Excludes inverses. In case of splitting a shift, only the first staff to pick it up, gets it. Good until July 2021. 30 day blow up language in it. Any time management doesn’t want it or the union doesn’t, it can be ended up to 30 days.
Motion by Stenger to vote on MOU, 2nd by Emilio. Motion passes. Vote passes unanimously.
Starting January 8th. Signing up for overtime on Atlas will change. There will be a button to check for advance and subsequent will be separate. An announcement will be made shortly. Remember to sign up as soon as possible if you want in advance. If you want subsequent, sign up when you get to work. If you are unable to sign up, call the OD or scheduler to have them sign up. Only when necessary.
Mayo Work Action: Crystal-Mayo said its SEGIP. SEGIP has responded and said it is up the insurance companies and clinics. Mayo has until March to change their Tier level. Stenger-you are allowed to change your healthcare provider every 30 days. (Clinic only) Mankato Clinic is Tier 2 across all insurance companies.
5. Old Business:
6. Items from the membership: Nursing Home-Inversing hasn’t been too bad due to losing the 2 to 1. Management hasn’t changed. More investigations and losing step raises. Cates-13 staff have been denied step raises. Anyone at 4 and 5 were dropped to 2 and 3. MMB changed all staff who did not meet expectations by 1. Class action grievance is in process and when that is done, we are hoping all of those staff will get their levels back. If you were dropped to 1. Your next 3 steps will all be at 6 months. Management can only delay a step progression, not drop you down. When this is figured out, the step increases will be corrected and retropaid.
Any new cases with the Nursing Home supervisor needs to be documented. Send any issues to Emilio Florez. You can also file hostile work environment through Human Resources. The local Eboard can help guide you but it needs to be filed through HR.
Members receiving holiday gift from union: Can we do a gift card or turkeys? Appreciation to the members. Holiday party in January. Stenger-Ended up donating 75 turkeys to food shelter because people didn’t pick them up. Complaints about not being vegan. Thinking about doing pizzas to the workplace for those not able to attend. Any suggestions are welcome to involve as many people as possible. Stenger-870 members at 25 dollars each. Member-have an amount of money and at next month’s meeting, draw names out of a hat. Hans-the wow zone is a good idea because it gets families involved for generations to come. It’s an experience that people remember.
Member-can we look at getting sweatshirts again? Cates-we will look into it but there was a lot of backlash with the high cost.
Weather related call ins: You will use vacation to cover an inability to make it to work due to weather. No 2 hour call in procedure anymore. Call the OD as soon as you know you are unable to make it in to work due to weather.
7. Good and Welfare:
8. Officer Reports:
President: Ryan Cates- Attended Forensic Meet and Confer-
-Management informed us that the hazardous materials, for meds, waiver form has been done away with
-Asked for an update on the Atlas app and pointed out the fact that our members need to allow access to their contacts and photos is absurd- Management will look into this.
Asked why LPN's are being inversed outside their class- Management will look into
-Asked why HR is still confused about grievance timelines and what we agreed on 2 months ago- HR wants further discussions with 404 bit agreed our interpretation was correct. St Peter HR rep was visibly unhappy.
-Management told Labor that Aspen unit is temporarily being split up and spread out throughout FMHP because of issues with construction.
-We brought up that coachings should not be done by email and that supervisors should meet with members and tell them that the meeting is a coaching- Management agreed.
-Asked about FSSS shifts at FMHP- Management bowed to Labor and agreed that all shifts will be 9pm-7am, 6:30am-2:30pm and 1:30- 9:30pm.
-Brought up further concerns about radios and the console in master control= Management is looking at this.
-Asked about the proposed transport team in FMHP- This is on hold indefinitely.
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.
Became frustrated with management.
Communicated information to E-Board members about issues facing the Local.
Chaired the Executive Board Meeting
Chaired the General Membership Meeting.
Attended Forensic Interest Based Problem Solving. Agreed on a process where known in advance overtime and subsequent shift overtime are signed up for separately.
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: Matt Stenger- This month I have sat a couple of investigations and laudermill hearings. I have also attended MSOP and MSH meet and confer along with our weekly check in meeting with Scott and Carol. We have been raising the issues of management changing our start and end times in MSH and CRP. Thank you to everyone that sent emails to administration on how the change will affect their lives. Management took notice and seemed to have paid off. Today they announced that they will be moving everyone in MSH and CRP to 6:30 am-2:30pm, 1:30pm-9:30pm, 9:00 pm-7:00am. They said they wanted to wait until after the holidays to implement so it doesn’t and a negative effect on peoples schedules around the holidays.
VP: Eric Hesse- This past month we met with MSOP Administration on a possible reduction of staff to help create other positons that Administration wants to create. The reasoning is that they don’t have the budget to make new positions without eliminating positons. While these additional positions may be of importance, we as a union stood firm on saying that we will not agree to any more security counselor positons to be eliminated. We understand that MSOP has the right to do what they want with these positions, but we encouraged them to be more creative in find areas to reduce than always pulling from direct care / line staff. We have yet to hear what their final decision on this is.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out.
Executive Board: Jake Schoenecker- Supporting members with investigations and attending meetings. Traveled to South St. Paul for an union work shop
Executive Board: Chief Steward Emilio Florez- As we continue to strive for a better and safer workplace there have been many obstacles we have overcome by working and communicating with each other. Elections are coming up, it is hard to believe that our two year term is already coming to an end. I hope everyone who is interested in running for an officer position will have a chance to step up and make a difference. We are approaching the end of our term, and we are making future plans to be able to continue to use our resources to help educate ourselves to better help our co-workers and future Union Representatives.
There have been a few investigations and grievances but seems to have slightly slowed for me. A lot of changes still on Forensics we are working to help make these transitions as smooth as possible. If any issues come up in your area please contact and Steward.
Executive Board: Chief Steward Steve Wilking- The past month has been pretty busy. I’ve attended the usual meetings. See previous notes for what meetings those were. We have filed many grievances and sat many investigations. We have had staff not have stewards to sit those investigations. Just a friendly reminder that you do have that right to request a union steward. It would be my advisement that you do. I’ve prepped several cases to go to arbitration. We have a meeting scheduled with our Field Rep Crystal Kreklow to argue cases in arbitration.
We will be receiving an OSHA violation. We look forward to seeing this citation and what it may bring. We continue to fight for staff safety.
We have had 13 individuals that have had their raises delayed due to performance concerns. We strongly recommend that you request your supervisory and personnel file from Human Resources. Ali Kuhlman is a great resource for that. Please read the contract and see what you can have pulled from your file after your timelines.
As always if you have any questions comments or concerns please reach out to any elected officers. On a side note.... we will be holding elections in Jan. and nominations are due by December 19th. Please nominate anyone you think would make a good officer.
In Solidarity,
Steve Wilking
Chief Union Steward
AFSCME Local 404
Executive Board: Chief Steward Molly Kennedy- This month has been extremely busy! First we found out that Mayo Clinic was going to change from a tier 2 to a tier 4 with Preferred One which means outrageous out of pocket costs for our members. My coworker Nick Weerts and I put together a script for the members to contact Mayo representatives to try and convince them to change back to a tier 2. We wanted to let them know they would be losing many patients by making this decision. They still have a chance to negotiate to return to a tier 2 through March so stay tuned for that. Please continue to contact Mayo and let them know they will be losing patients with tis increase in costs! Also I’m not sure if many of our members know this but you are allowed to change your primary clinic anytime throughout the year, you just can’t change your insurance provider until open enrollment.
This month I also presented 5 step 3 grievances. 2 were terminations and the other 3 were contract violations. This year, you as members get to vote on who you would like on the executive board. I have had the honor of being involved with local 404 for 15 years. I have been through many contract negotiations, taught many steward classes, sat a trillion investigations and presented many grievances. This year I am going to run for Vice President Steward Coordinator ( a position I previously held for 6 years), I would really appreciate your vote so that I can continue to support members and uphold our contract.
In Solidarity,
Molly Kennedy Security Counselor Lead | Minnesota Sex Offender Program
Executive Board: Stacey Mueller- Officer Notes: Completed NOC survey to see if staff wanted to bid to Units. Survey responses turned back in were as follows: 74% Said No bidding to NOCs Units, 15% Yes to bidding to NOCs Units and 10% did not care. At this time it is recommended to leave the NOC shift as one fluid Unit. Lots of investigations on Lates/NO CALL NO SHOW…Get to work, respect your co-workers who have worked 8 or 10 hours shifts and want to go home.
Executive Board: Jamie Sheppard- This month I attended MSOP Meet and Confer, E-Board Meeting and the General Membership Meeting. I answered questions about paid parental leave, MSOP Shantz Lead days off changing, and trying to recruit more member participation. I am trying to come up with ideas for a better filing system for retaining all of the things that need and should be retained and archived. Will discuss further at the next meeting. On a side note, it was great seeing so many members take time out of their busy schedules and attend this month’s General Membership Meeting. I haven’t seen a member turnout like this in years and I hope you all continue to attend future meetings.
In Solidarity, Jamie Sheppard-E-Board
CS Facility Support: Marvin Sullivan-
Chief Steward MSH / CRP / Nursing Nights: Kurt Crosby-
Council 5 Rep: Crystal Kreklow- Membership is at 96.1 %
If a local or a member has anyone doing holiday giving (toy drive, cash donations etc), send that information to communications and we can run articles on the event/recognize locals charity work.
Presidents Mailer 11/8
The courts continue to rule in our favor in cases where plaintiffs backed by wealthy special interests try to recoup fair share fees paid before such fees were declared unconstitutional in last year’s Janus decision.
HST/LPN bonus confusion- the bonus is $50.00 not $100.00 as printed in the MMB online contract.
Error with the Unit 4 pay grid posted to MMB website. 2 steps were removed from the bottom of the range. They were not added to the top of the salary ranges as printed in MMB website
Crystal Kreklow
AFSCME Council 5 Field Representative
Cell: 612-257-0756
Motion to Adjourn by Stenger, 2nd by Steve. Motion Passes
Meeting adjourned at 545PM