November Newsletter 2023 of Branch 887
As the snow is finally hitting the ground and the holiday lights are up we can take a moment to think about all that has been done in our little branch over the past year.
At about this time last year we didn’t have a single CCA. We’d been told many times that there were five that were just about to start. Now we have about 16. We want to do everything we possibly can to help keep our CCA’s around, so be sure to thank them as often as you can. They are invaluable.
Make sure you get all your vacation requests in for the next year. We would like to be able to have three copies of everyone’s 3971s, vacation and incidental, going forward. One for Management, one for you, and one for the Union. Eugene (106) has access to a file cabinet next to his case where he will lock up any documents you want locked up.
Getting Work Done
This month Zach, Tom, and Dave have met on many informals and formals. Dave has been the hero getting guys paid for throwing post in the mornings. It’d be nice if management would properly staff the clerks, but we know the ODLs like getting the overtime early in the morning. I’m sure they don’t mind a little extra too.
Tom and Zach met on another Labor-Managment meeting. These meetings are only supposed to happen every 3 months, but because management thought they could skip the one back in July, they had to do another one. While management still lies as much as they can about everything, forcing them to the table to talk at all is an improvement.
Some of the grievances sent up this month include all the changes that management is trying to do with the 3971s. This includes their desire to have them fully filled out (As if they don’t know our start times, our pay locations, or our non-scheds.) And that if you want a Friday and Saturday, if it crosses a pay period, you have to fill out 4 3971s. It’s ridiculous and we all know it. Thanks to everyone who met with Zach for an interview to make this grievance happen.
Management also decided this month that it would single out our branch president for discipline. Of all the things they’ve decided to discipline him for, they decided to discipline him for wearing a Union hat. It’s obvious that they’re just trying to punish him for all the grievances.
Future Union Meetings
We plan on continuing to offer additional training and information at the monthly meetings that will educate our members. We are always open to suggestions as to what topic/subject to discuss, so feel free to voice your opinion. In December’s meeting we will discuss Medical Documentation/Submission, calling in sick, the OHNA and your rights. Hope to see you there!
Step Bs
This wasn’t a big month for Step Bs. We got a total of 7 back this month. There was the repeat Labor Management Meeting. Management also had to recommit to actually maintaining the vehicles. There were also some smaller GATs payments that some people got. If you want to get a little of that extra money, the ODL is where it’s at.
Thanks Jen!
One of the biggest developments this month was a big old thank you from Jen herself. She must have had some extra time on her hands so she looked into it and found that around 120 grievances have been filed this year. That is more grievances filed in just this past year than in the past 11 years. She also said that more grievances have been filed against her than Jesse Carillo (ask an old timer about him.)
For The Future
As we go into the next year we want to start setting up for the Union to have better footing than it’s ever had. We want to revamp the LMOU, please ask for a link if you want to be involved in that rewrite. We also want to look at making changes to the bylaws too. We want everyone to be involved in the Union, and to make it accessible to everyone.
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/skx-evam-kvn) These meetings are important to make your voice heard and to help out. We need people to step up and help out with things like party planning. We’d also love to have more people willing to file grievances, and we can get that training started. We can’t expect Zach, Tom, and Dave to keep doing this forever.
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