Oct/Nov 2023 Newsletter of NALC Branch 887
It has been quite a month for our little local union. We are quickly heading into the holiday season and with all the fun and overtime it will bring.
Our Union leaders have been busy putting us on better footing than last year. First, we have many more CCAs than we did last year. Be sure to give them thanks for all they are doing for us, and let’s all give them a hand whenever we can.
Remember that we have local union meetings every second Thursday of the month at 5pm at the Startup Building (https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZQ2HNTpYAFYUmWDDA). We also will be streaming the meeting via Google Meet for those that can't make it physically. (https://meet.google.com/drn-xumu-egw)
Getting Work Done
Just this month Tom and Zach have met on 20 informals, 11 formals (9 are getting met on 11/6/2023), with Management. Tom was even able to settle a grievance with Jen herself at the formal level, which makes it her fourth grievance settled without having to go to Step B!
Tom and Zach met with Carmen and Jenn at one of the first Labor-Management meetings they’ve had since Zach and Tom moved into the Union Leadership. There were a number of surprises revealed in that meeting, the least surprising was that Management will lie about anything.
We are beginning to see some real results from the work that our Union leadership put in several months ago. Just this month we’ve received around 30 Step B decisions. Many CCAs and those on the ODL will have received little payments from these Step Bs. Congratulations!
Several of the grievances sent up to Step B this month deal with incidental leave, dignity and respect, and safety.
Step Bs
We got a lot of good language settling a lot of the shenanigans that Management tried to pull while our guys were getting on their feet. Early on Management tried to mess around with being able to meet with the Union for informals and formals. The Step Bs we received this month set us up nicely in case they try that again.
We’ve received a foundation-setting dignity and respect grievance for East Bay. The language instructs management to stop violating the M-39 115.4 AND the Joint Statement of Expectations, which is directly relative to the dignity and respect that is given to not only the carriers, but the Union at large. It is also the first dignity and respect grievance we have received that names a supervisor directly. This is a great cornerstone to build off of to ensure that management, and especially this supervisor, treats all of us as we deserve.
We got more Step Bs that put us on a good path to stopping Management from denying, or just screwing with our incidental leave. Management is now accountable if they try and take our slots. We are getting close to closing the last loophole that Management is using to deny our leave. One thing that will help protect us is making copies of our signed 3971 forms. One for management, one for the carrier and one for the union. We are currently setting up local files as a union to have backup copies of all submitted leave slips. This will be important because when management loses the slips, we will have copies available so the carrier will be able to prove they did in fact request the time off.
We got one of our first Non-compliance grievances this month too. These are huge. Management has shown us again and again that they don’t respect the grievance process. As more and more of these Non-compliance grievances go up and come back, the more trouble Management will get into. Perhaps we’ll even see a little money.
All the Step Bs that we got back this month about Article 8 are really good too. Everytime Management violates Article 8 we can send all these up and perhaps get some increased remedies.
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