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 After intervention with HR the plan was withdrawn, and a Reasonable Accommodation plan put in place instead.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!

Meeting July 23, re ES Series Changes

There will be a teleconference call about this topic on July 23 at Noon in Lacey,  Building Room 1s-16/17.

Contact Kerry Grabers for the teleconference phone number if you plan to participate.

Thank you!  Kerry

ES Series Changes

by Debbie Brookman, WFSE/AFSCME Labor Advocate

On 6/21/12, I sent out to all of you a notice from Ecology of their intent to make changes to the Environmental Specialist Series.

To date, none of you have responded with any concerns related to the proposed changes.

This is Ok but it seems a little odd to me, given all the discussion this issue has generated in the past.

So, I'm going to file a DTB today to ensure our time frames are preserved (7/5 is the deadline), just in case some of you forgot to get back to me.

If we truly have no issues with the proposed changes, I will withdraw the DTB.

Let me know your thoughts... if any... Thanks -Debbie  debbieb@wfse.org   800-562-6002

• Read the ES Series proposal here.

It's official! Our own Ecology Local is approved.

By Paul Pickett

Last fall a group of Ecology union members petitioned AFSCME for our own Local. Last month Ecology WFSE members got exciting news. We received a letter from AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee, who told us “the Department of Ecology request is granted.”

This is an historical event for our agency. With our own Local we’ll have more autonomy in the union, our own budget, the ability to choose our own delegates to WFSE committees and to conventions, and other direct and indirect benefits.

This is an important step, and now there’s lots of work to do. Over the next month we’ll work on fine-tuning the new Local Constitution, developing the structure of our new Local, and resolving other transition issues. Then later in the summer we will formally receive our Charter and hold elections for officers.

We need to determine our share of the reserves in Local 443. The result of this effort should be a healthy bank account balance when our Local starts up. A group of members are collecting data and developing a proposal.

There are several issues with the Constitution that need resolution:

• How many members constitute a quorum at a Local meeting?
• What Executive Committee officers will we have? How are they selected?
• How many Local meetings do we hold every year?
• How will elections be held?

We need to decide what Committees we’ll need to have in place to begin with, and find members to participate. Some committees we’ve discussed include:

• Finance Committee – support the treasurer and develop the Local budget
• Stewards Committee – support stewards training and problem resolution
• Grievance Committee – review grievances and recommend them for further action
• Communication Committee – communicate with members; manage the newsletter, website, email communications, mailings, etc.
• Political Action Committee – make endorsements for local elections
• Election Committee – a group trained in best election procedures to run our elections

In general, we’ll need to develop a set of policies that will be ready for adoption at our first official Local meeting, such as committees, standing rules for meetings, and other essential business functions. We want to start this new Local on the right foot, so we are spending some time thinking through how to organize policies to be useful, transparent, and effective.

Behind all this is the question: what are our values that we want to support and codify in our Constitution and policies?

We’ve had a lot of discussion about openness, inclusion, good communication, accountability, and responsibility to members. What do you care about? We need your input.

Please join us and be part of this new era! If you can’t make it but would like to help, please contact me, Elena Guilfoil, or any other steward. “Many hands make light work.” Pick a topic that interests you and decide how much time you have to offer – anything you can do will help!

Ecology Union Members--HELP PLAN THE NEW LOCAL!

Two special meetings are scheduled: Wednesdays, June 13 and June 27

Ecology Lacey building, Room R1D-16/17
Meetings start at 5:30 pm
Dinner is provided—Everyone is invited!

Ecology UMCC Report

Prepared by Jim Wavada, W2R-ERO and Dolores Mitchell, TCP-HQ

Union Members who participated in Ecology’s April 30th meeting of the statewide Union Management Communications Committee, and with union advocate Debbie Brookman, said the event at Headquarters had a new feel to it.

The principals had agreed at the earlier meeting to limit Agenda items to concerns and questions not covered by contract provisions.  Both groups brought guests to define or respond to specific items on the Agenda; nothing was tabled pending consultation with absent parties.  This gave the entire meeting a new, productive feel. The Director engaged in discussion of all the major items on the agenda.  He listened carefully and responded directly.

• SB 6211 the Brownfield Bill - Privatization/Contracting OutSenate Bill 6211, based on the Brownfield Recommendation purchased with public funds would privatize site-cleanup-oversight and regulation.  Executive Management invited TCP Program Manager Jim Pendowski to respond to economic, environmental, and ethical concerns we’d voiced about the bill—and to hear how we will react to re-introduction of the bill when the legislature reconvenes next January.
  
  UMCC Member Dolores Mitchell laid out our explicit concerns about the substance of the bill—and particularly the scheme that would delegate to “licensed site remediation professionals” (private sector contractors) authority to sign-off on the adequacy of independent site cleanups.  Members see the transfer of duties from Ecology’s expert and committed staff to profit-driven corporate contractors as a move away from public service and accountability.  Pendowski promised communications on this issue will be more transparent in future; he said meetings would be scheduled in all of the Regions.

• Field Staff On-The-Job Safety - Bargaining Unit member John Blacklaw described inadequacy and incongruence among current program-by-program or region-by-region Field Safety guidance and the Agency’s Safety Plan.  He observed a lack of definition and transparency in the relationship between the decision-making Safety Council –composed of paid Safety Coordinators— and Program volunteers on the various regional safety committees.
  
  Janet Hyre heard the concerns.  She explained the difference between the Agency’s “Safety Manual” and “Field Safety Guides” and Hyre pledged to work with an ad hoc group of bargaining unit members to resolve any redundancies and fill any gaps between the program safety plans and the agency safety plan.
  
  Blacklaw encouraged the agency to use the LEAN process (1) to identify and fill gaps in field safety manuals and processes, and (2) to coordinate and update the guidance, across agency programs and regional offices.  He pointed out that we also need to make staff trainings (based on those manuals) a priority.  Management agreed to work with Blacklaw on this project.  So now we have a joint project coming out of a UMCC meeting.  Everyone I talked to after the meeting sees this as a significant improvement in our shared understanding of the role of the UMCC.

• Layoff Notification Process - UMCC discussed the recent layoff notification practices and Members supposed it could be improved by letting employees know, even during the informal notification, about their contract rights as the process progresses.  Management rejected any role in giving employees union information; but did agree to advise potentially affected employees that they are at risk and to tell them where in their building a list of stewards can be found.
  
  HR conceded failure to provide regional area representatives with timely notification of proposed layoffs.  Amy Heller resolved to eliminate such notification delays in future, because employee must exercise some contract-rights within five days, in response to a formal notice.

• Facilitation Services - UMCC Member Jim Wavada again expressed members’ concerns about the routine practice of contracting out for facilitation services, despite investments of employee time and public dollars to train Ecology staff in facilitator skills.  He asked for a status report on the work of the Facilitation Ad Hoc group.  Executive Management acknowledged our interest and concern.

• Facility Use Protocols - UMCC Member Bob Penhale explained that policies seem inconsistent, between the Regional Offices and between the Regions and Headquarters with respect to events of common interest to Management and Employees.  Members believe some cooperative /co-sponsored events would benefit the whole agency.  UMCC Member Jim Wavada cited as an example, member interest in a presentation about the Blue-Green Coalition.  Management asked us to send a short list of such ideas.
  
  Altogether, this UMCC meeting seemed more focused on clear responses and cooperative solutions than previous meetings.  It doesn’t mean we don’t have to continue to be vigilant; but it does demonstrate that focusing on the “Communication” in the committee’s title may yield some long-term results.  Stay tuned!