- By Kerry Graber
The UMCC met with managers on February 11, 2011 to talk about how to make the union/ management relationship work better. Ted Sturdevant, Chris Parsons, and Polly Zehm shared a number of concerns about the deterioration of the relationship, and expressed a desire to make it more productive. We were asked to stop asking for flexibility in the contract that they believe is not there, and we were asked to refrain from venting frustrations with their positions in our newsletter. They made an offer to work with us and to collaborate on issues that we could have more success at resolving, and they indicated a desire to engage with us toward solving problems.
The UMCC representatives listened attentively and responded to their concerns by explaining our positions and providing our perspective on how frustrated we are too. Since we have different interpretations of some of the articles within the contract, even though both parties have representatives at the bargaining table we walk away with two different perspectives on what is flexible and what isn’t. We were able to effectively point this out during the meeting, but there was no resolution to this conundrum during this meeting.
Ted offered to meet again with the larger group of stewards, activists, as well as UMCC representatives. This is scheduled for April 18, 2011. For a full text of meeting notes check the Ecology blog
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