This is the eighteenth FYI to be
released to the membership. As always it is hoped that this,
as well as all other avenues of information, will provide you
with pertinent information on the Local’s activities. If
you have any questions, feel free to convey them to the
Local.
Since the last FYI the Executive Board
has met on 5 occasions. During these meetings, the following
issues were discussed.
a) Local Negotiations
With the exception of the GMF Local
MOU, all Local Memorandums should be available for
distribution to the membership at the various offices. The
GMF Local (which was forced into impasse) has just been
completed and will be going to the printers soon. Copies of
the GMF/AMC/T.A./Warehouse Local will be distributed once
they’re received from the printers.
As a whole, negotiations went well for
the Local. Many of the Locals around the state were in need
of updating and changes to ensure the rights of the members
were addressed. During last years Local Negotiation process
we were successful in adding detail and making sure there is
some consistency between the many Local agreements. Now,
whether you work in Littleton or Longmont, Brighton or at the
BMC, your rights under the various Locals are very similar,
if not identical.
b) Finances
As relayed to you in the last FYI, our
financial outlook hinges greatly on the Associate Members of
our Local. Associate members are members of our health plan
who are not regular members of our Union. (Associate
Membership dues are $42.00 per year, with a portion of this
amount coming to the Local union.) With this year’s new
increase in Associate Membership Dues from $36 to $42 per
year and a substantial increase in health insurance premiums,
there had been grave concern of a loss in Associate members.
Currently, about 95% of the open season applications have
been processed and our Local shows a loss of 82 Associate
Members (less than 1%), out of the approximate 9500 enrollees
in the state. Nationally, loss of enrollees in the plan was
about 2%. However, with the increase in Associate Members
dues, our union, Nationally, should realize an increase of
more than 2.5 million dollars annually. What this all boils
down to is that the threat of a reduction in revenue for the
Local was real, but never came to pass. I would say it looks
like we will have a good year financially.
Per the IRS tax settlement agreement
our Local has made the 1997 payment as scheduled. We now have
only two payments remaining to settle the agreement with the
IRS. Our final payment of a little over $36,000 will be made
in March of 1999 which should free up more finances for more
appropriate matters, like representation.
The Local’s annual audit is
underway and should be completed within the next month or so.
All members are free to review the Local’s audit reports
once they are completed. In order to review the audit
reports, you will need to come by the Local Union hall as
these reports are not disseminated to the offices.
Appointments are recommended.
c) New National and Local
Constitutions
Copies of the National and Local
Constitution (with changes from the 1996 National Convention)
have been distributed to all offices. All members are
encouraged to obtain a copy of the Constitution and become
familiar with the internal structure of your Union.
d) National Agreement
As you all know by now, the long
awaited National Agreement has finally been released to the
membership. If you have not obtained a copy, see your steward
for one today. Our Local received enough copies to issue one
per member plus approximately 10% extra. Any additional
copies provided to the Local will be paid for by the Local.
We ask that you keep your copy as replacements are not
available without a cost. Just as a point of information, we
are only about 16 months away from the next round of National
Negotiations. All members should give consideration to any
possible changes that they would like to see on the
negotiation table. It is anticipated that within the next 12
months, National will issue a request for submission of
negotiation items from the membership. Not all submissions
will actually make it to the negotiation table, but it
can’t hurt to have them considered.
General Membership Meeting
Schedule
Though numerous discussions and with
much reluctance the Executive Board decided to reduce the
frequency of General Membership Meetings which are held at
the Local Union hall. This decision is based on the lack of
attendance at the meetings. In 1997 we only had enough
attendance at 6 of the 11 scheduled meetings to constitute a
quorum,. And the attendance at those 6 meetings was never
more than 20 members. Some say it is a good sign when
attendance is low because things must be going well. No
matter what the case, I and the other elected officers would
like to see a good turnout at each and every meeting. It
gives members and their officers the opportunity to go over
various issues and concerns. As well, it is a good way to get
to know those who represent you and your investment in the
Union. Based on the above the meeting schedule for the first
6 months of 1997 only contains 3 meetings. The first meeting
date came and went without enough members to constitute a
quorum. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April
16, 1997 at 16:00, please try to attend.
f) Step 3 grievance issues
The amount of cases being appealed to
Step 3 of the grievance process has been steadily increasing
over that last several months. Increases are usually caused
by one of two things; either the amount of step 1 grievances
has increased or; the amount of denials has increased.
Currently, both of these scenarios are true.
There are also a couple of other
reasons for the increase. The GMF’s Step 2 designee is
to meet on about 50% of this Local’s grievances at Step
2. He constantly fails to schedule meetings with the Union in
a timely manner, forcing the grievance to be appealed to the
next step of the process (Step 3). Or he fails to write a
decision once the grievance is discussed. Again, this forces
the grievance to the next step of the process (Step 3). After
much effort in trying to resolve these problems, management
is now replacing the Step 2 designee for the GMF. This may
correct the meeting problems, but the ability of the new
designee to settle cases has yet to be seen.
At the beginning of the year management
shifted their Step 3 Reps around and I am now back to meeting
with Mike Beauchamp. There have been various concerns with
meeting with Mr. Beauchamp in the past and only time will
tell if those concerns remain.
g) Picnic
Numerous attempts have been made to
hold our picnic in a different location than the last two
years. We are having some problems in accomplishing this
goal, as our group is becoming too large for many of the
parks around the city. Also, we are competing with other
groups for the parks which can accommodate a group the size
of ours. As a precaution, Del Mar Park has been reserved once
again for this years picnic. The tentative date for the
picnic is August 2. Attempts to hold the picnic elsewhere are
being considered. Once a final decision is reached and a date
set, you will be notified.
h) Council Meeting
The Executive Board has set the next
Local Union Council Meeting for April 25, 1996. As always,
members are free to submit agenda items for discussion during
this meeting. National President William Quinn has been
invited to attend this meeting.
i) Training
Recently, Ron Lucero and Richard Lujan,
AVPs at the GMF and BMC respectively, attended arbitration
training at the George Meany Institute for Labor Studies.
This training, along with their participation in previous
arbitrations, should offer the Local two additional qualified
advocates.
State Representative John Meding
attended an Impasse Arbitration training sponsored by our
National office. This training should be highly beneficial to
this Local in future Local Negotiations.
Training programs for new stewards have
continued to be offered and updated. Additionally, two more
Advanced Steward Training sessions are scheduled to be given
over the next couple of months. Following these sessions, the
Local will begin to give specific Article training to the
stewards. It is hoped that this type of training will better
educate our stewards in contract interpretation, discharge
and discipline, and the appropriate corrective remedies to be
sought.
j) Arbitration Issues
The Local continues to attempt to keep
it’s docket of cases current. This has been difficult
because our Local has only had the availability of two
arbitrators over the last couple of years. The National
parties have yet to come to agreement on the new Regional
Panel Arbitrators. This is done immediately following each
contract our National Unions enters. The problem is that with
the one year extension and the current delays, no new
selections have been made since 1990. Hopefully the new panel
will be agreed to soon and we will have more dates available
for hearings. For the Month of March we have three cases
scheduled for hearings.
You should have received your copy of
Local 321’s newsletter recently. If you have not, please
contact the Local, as your mailing address may need to be
updated in our system. I would like to thank the stewards
from the GMF for the largest submission of newsletter
articles to date. As always, all members are encouraged to
submit articles for incorporation into the Local’s
newsletter. The deadline for submission of articles for the
next newsletter has not been set, so write what you like and
submit it to the editor, Don Gonzales. As always, the
Executive Board reserves the right to determine what is
acceptable in the newsletter.
Don’t forget, you many now trade
in your old apron for a new one when it wears out. Just bring
your worn out apron to the steward room and exchange. This
new test will be in effect until further notice.
Last year the union leased new copiers
for the hall and the GMF. We also invoked the one dollar
buyout on the old hall copier lease and sent it to the BMC.
All of these transactions were made with Copy World company.
After the agreements were reached and the new copiers were in
place, Konica, the manufacturer of the old hall copier, said
the one dollar buyout was not legally binding on them and
they started billing the union what they believed was fair
market price for the lease buyout. Copy World refused to get
involved and said that the problem was the union’s, even
though one of their representatives had written the lease.
Copy World said the commitments made by their manager were
outside of his scope of authority. After much discussion on
the issue, the Executive Board decided that in order to
protect the union’s credit rating, we would pay Konica
the amount they were requesting. Furthermore, it was agreed
that when we received our big checks in early 1997, we would
pay off the existing leases and terminate any and all
business with Copy World. We are also currently preparing to
file in small claims court against Copy World for not
honoring their written agreement. In order to not spend more
representing the case than the case is worth, Local 321 will
be acting on their own behalf.
6. For those members not located in the
Denver metro area, I can now be reached on my pager at
1-800-850-1367. For the metro area the number remains
767-8293.
Thank you,
David E Ross
President Local 321
NPMHU