Summit with Ted - Stewards and UMCC representatives meet with the director

- by Kerry Graber

The sometimes difficult relationship with management seemed to turn a corner when stewards and elected representatives from across the agency met with Ted Sturdevant, Polly Zehm, Chris Parsons, and Amy Heller.  The purpose of the meeting was to find common ground and move from conflict towards a more productive relationship.

To prepare for the summit members and stewards held a number of internal discussions with members.  We went over both our issues and complaints brought to the table as causing conflict.  Some of these difficulties have been highlighted in past  bulletin articles (see Ecology Blog at www.wfse.org), issues that seemed to hit a brick wall with management when brought to the UMCC meetings.  The complaints from management's side were primarily about how the union was pursuing the interests of members, including using this bulletin as a forum to express editorial opinion.

Our internal discussions centered on agreeing to our values, and then holding up our various positions against those values to see if they were still appropriate.  Then we came up with our list of priorities and suggestions to present to Ted at the summit as opportunities for collaboration.

We were able to explain our values as we presented each opportunity to Ted during the meeting.  For example we felt we still had more ideas to offer regarding effective communication and training around the overtime eligibility audit, with the value that clear, upfront communications need to be provided to employees with "no surprises."  We renewed our request to work collaboratively on budget issues such as efficiencies and overhead costs within the agency, in order to pursue participatory management of the agency we all work for and care about.  And we suggested collaboration on training and policy development around "inappropropriate behavior" (or workplace bullying), for a safer and healthier work environment.

The discussion on the last topic stirred up a lot of questions for Ted and Polly.  They both said they were very concerned to hear our characterization of Ecology as having a management culture that allowed workplace bullying.  We gave specific examples, and the stewards were able to illustrate the nature of the problem and the challenge we have representing people who are afraid to come forward in a bullying situation.

Ted wrapped up the meeting by agreeing to provide feedback on these offers of collaboration at the next UMCC meeting (to take place as soon as the legislative session is complete).  He also said he would plan on attending the UMCC meetings as a rule.

Next UMCC meeting scheduled for June 10, 2011.