Present:
Adam Castle, Tim Headlee, Krystal Kreklow, Matt Stenger, James Hemshrot, Kurt Crosby, Eric Cates, Antonino Guerrero, Marvin Sullivan, Stacy Mueller, Luke Frederick, Justin Racek, Cassy Rydell, Karla Herzberg, Jeff Brunz
1. Secretary’s Report:
2. Treasurer-Antonino Guerrero:
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FOR MONTH ENDING April 2017
CASH BALANCE BEGINNING OF MONTH: $ 49036.77
INCOME FOR THE MONTH: $ 6349.77
EXPENSES FOR THE MONTH: $ 7849.62
CASH BALANCE ENDING OF MONTH: $ 47536.92
SUBMITTED BY: Antonino Guerrero.
Motion to accept by Crosby. 2nd by Frederick. Motion Passes
3. Correspondence: Council 5 Convention motion to donate $200 to hospitality room by Hemshrot. 2nd by Frederick. Motion passes.
Stenger: Motion for lost time for supplemental negotiations. 2nd by Sullivan. Motion passes.
May 22nd Local 404 will be going to the capitol. Wearing green from 4pm to 12pm to support the governor. Sorry for the short notice. Get your name to Tim Headlee if you are interested.
Motion by Hemshrot for per diem and mileage. Carpooling is encouraged. If you only want to stay for half, it will be pro-rated. 2nd by Sullivan. Motion passes.
Jane George retired after 35 years. Motion for retirement check to be voted on next month.
Motion by Stenger to donate $300 to Bike trails 2nd by Sullivan. Motion passes
4. New Business:
MSOP Report
MSH Report
Refer to meeting minutes
5. Old Business:
6. Items from the membership:
7. Officer Reports
President’s Report-Tim Headlee: Issues in kitchen about choice days off. Operations is not good right now. Talking with legislators about BMS process. Attending meetings. Get vacation time if attending Duluth October 5th to 8th. We need a list of names as soon as possible. Get those to Antonino or Tim.
VP-Matt Stenger: Incentive package doesn’t address what we want so we will be modifying and presenting it at negotiations. We contacted legislators after what happened at negotiations and they went to the governor who went back to HR.
VP- Eric Hesse: Master negotiations. They are not agreeing to anything. 107 million increase in insurance costs. They want to shift 70 million of that to us. This would go to $126 for single and $326 for families and increase our copay as well. I have also been appointed to the hiring committee. The moral of my report is disrespect. Disrespect to each and every one of you that does a service for the state. A service that at times can be hard and not many would want to take on themselves. Contract negotiations for the state master contract has been stagnant. So far after five days of bargaining, the state has not agreed to any major language proposals that the union has proposed.
The next dates for bargaining is May 31 through June 2, so hopefully we can make some progress. For insurance bargaining, the state is saying that the insurance premiums for the next two years will be increased by $104 million and wants to shift $72 million of that onto the backs of the employees. They would like to increase our premiums. Singles would get their premium doubled from $33.24 a month to $66.48 a month. Families would see a near $100 increase per month. They would also like employees to pay $39.4 million dollars more for an increase in out-of-pocket costs and copays for prescription drugs and office visits. Rest assured, we will not let this stand. The next round of insurance bargaining will be on May 24 – 25. We have not begun talking about wages yet, with those talks slated for the week of June 18th. At the legislature, we are hoping to beat back a state shutdown, a deep cut to the Health and Human Services budget, and layoffs. We are not sure how this would affect anyone within Local 404 if any of these would occur at this time but will keep the membership informed. We are also discouraged at the passing of the pension bill at the Pension Commission level as it will drastically decrease the cost of living adjustments of retirees and shift more of the burden of making the pension system fully funded on the backs of the employees, with a proposed increase in the percentage of what we pay into the pension, while the state sees a small increase. All this with a $1.65 billion budget surplus. The end of session is Monday, May 22nd at midnight (unless a special session gets called) and AFSCME will be there in force to watch what harmful bills make it through.
I have also heard some rumors that are going around that the 24 in 48 hour rule for inversing is going away. That is absolutely not the case. They tried to bargain to get it taken out of our supplementals but our local was able to fight it off. The only thing that would be changing is the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was agreed upon by the local and management to expand on this language for the 10 hour shifts to have it where you can’t be mandated (inversed) for more than 26 hours in a 48 hour period. The MoU had an expiration date of June 30th and we tried to bargain it into our supplemental contract, but management would not agree to it. So to clear the air, the 24 in 48 hour overtime rule is not going away.
As always, feel free to contact me with any issues, questions or concerns you may have.
In solidarity,
Eric Hesse
Executive Board: Ryan Cates-
Executive Board: Luke Frederick: It has been quiet. One employee investigated 3 times but no determination on any of them.
Executive Board: James Hemshrot: Working on ETL. Nursing home lack of safety and response times. Workman’s comp. We would like more areas to choose from. See how the work relates to doctors order. If you have any ideas, email James.
Executive Board: Molly Kennedy:
Executive Board: Kurt Crosby: Investigations. One to define IOD for management. Referred back to HR and each is its own situation. No one knows what IOD is.
CS FACILITY SUPPORT: Homer: Nothing new to report
CS MSH / CRP / Nursing Nights: Stacy Mueller: investigations.
Council 5 Krystal Kreklow: Need people to go to the capitol. Legislators are looking for increases in insurance costs. Get you MOM cards signed.
Motion to adjourn by Frederick. 2nd by Hemshrot. Adjourned at 533pm.