2013-2015 Contract - Bargaining Update

July 11, 2012 UPDATE

The General Government Bargaining Team negotiated Tuesday, July 10th  and Wednesday, July 11th and sent a number of proposals and counterproposals to the management side of the table.
In the end, the parties reached tentative agreement on three more articles and an appendix. That means 32 of the 54 articles have been wrapped up – an amazing accomplishment at this early stage of negotiations.

The team also elected its three representatives to serve on the Health Care Coalition bargaining team: Gabe Hall, Local 862, Green Hill School; Craig Gibelyou, Local 793, Western State Hospital; and Jeff Paulsen, Local 443, Consolidated Technology Services.

The General Government Bargaining Team goes back to the table Aug. 14. The team wants members to stay tuned for any calls to action once the economic picture becomes clearer after the next two weeks.

• Visit WFSE.org from your home computer for more information! Bargaining updates appear in HOTLINE reports and are posted by team in the General Governement Bargaining Center (left column).

Stewards Corner

By Paul Pickett, EAP/HQ, Assistant Chief Steward

Summer brought a raft of challenges to your Ecology shop stewards:

• We discovered that the current stewards list shows jurisdictions that don’t allow stewards to represent employees who work in a different county. We are now working with WFSE to change jurisdictions from “work county” to all the counties in the same region.

• Stewards have been grappling with how management is using “in-training” positions. We recently filed a grievance because an ES2 was being hired at the ES1 level as “in-training”, but HR would not take a candidate from the ES1 layoff list. 

• Stewards helped an employee with a disability who was being asked to work under an “Emergency Plan” which included inappropriate judgments about the employee’s medical condition and work productivity. After intervention with HR the plan was withdrawn, and a Reasonable Accommodation plan put in place instead. 

• Problems in the Spills Program continue with disagreements over steward communication, Standby Pay, and security procedures.

• Bargaining season is crazy season. HR has cracked down on union communication, insisting on a very narrow interpretation of stewards’ use of agency email. They seem to think that one steward can email one employee to represent them on a particular problem, but that a steward cannot email multiple employees about a meeting to discuss contract-related issues, which is clearly allowed by the contract. This being grieved.

HQ/SWRO Local Update - Building a Foundation

A group of members from HQ and SWRO have been working hard to build a foundation for the newly approved Ecology local…but there is still a lot to be done. One of the most important building blocks of a new local is the election of officers. Are you interested in sharing your skills with the new local and want to run for an office?  Would you be interested in volunteering for a few hours to help run the election? We are looking for members interested in being active in the new local and helping shape its foundation. Contact Elena Guilfoil or Annie Szvetecz for more information about officer positions or volunteering for the ad-hoc Election Committee.

Keep an eye on the bulletin boards for notice of upcoming HQ/SWRO Local planning meetings!