AFSCME Council 25 Convention Call

Delegate Nomination and Election

 

To all Local 207 members:

 

            Michigan AFSCME Council 25’s 13th Constitutional Convention will be held in Dearborn, Michigan, Friday October 12 through Sunday October 14, 2001. Convention activities include workshops, training classes, election of Council 25 officers and decisions on Council 25 policies for the next 2 years.

 

            Local 207 will elect 4 delegates to represent our membership. In accordance with the Local 207 Constitution, the Local President automatically attends the Convention as a delegate as well.

 

            Nominations for delegates will be taken at the General Membership Meeting which is being held on Thursday September 13, starting at 5 PM, at the union hall, 600 W. Lafayette, in Conference Rm. C.

 

            Delegate elections will be conducted on Tuesday September 19, 6 AM to 6 PM in the Local 207 office (basement of union hall), 600 W. Lafayette. The 4 candidates with the most votes will be the elected delegates from Local 207.

 

            In accordance with the AFSCME International Constitution, Appendix D., and Local 207’s Constitution, the election shall be conducted by walk-in secret ballot vote.

 

            In the event of any tie votes, a run-off election shall be held on Wednesday September 18, 6 AM to 6 PM, in the Local 207 office (basement of union hall), 600 W. Lafayette.

 

            The results of the delegate elections will be officially reported at a Special Call Meeting on Thursday September 20, at 4 PM, at the union hall, 600 W. Lafayette.

 

            In accordance with the AFSCME International Constitution, any candidate whose name is to appear on the ballot shall have the right to a mail-out of literature to all members through the Local office, at the expense of the candidate(s). To arrange a mail-out please contact the Local office as soon as possible (phone: 965-1601).

 

            Each candidate also has the right to have an official observer at the election. Observers should call the Local office as soon as possible (phone 965-1601).

 

 

 

Time for Action is Now!

 

            Winning a good new Master Contract from the City administration is the most important issue for Local 207. The contract is past due, and being extended with no end in sight. The members are not getting the respect we deserve on grievances, back pay or in Local 207’s Supplemental Contract negotiations either. Hell, we can’t even get paid on time! We must step up the level of confrontation.

 

            The Archer administration hasn’t moved from its last offer of a lousy 1.5% raise the first year and 2% bonuses for each of the last 2 years, with the bonuses being contingent on the city saying it has “the ability to pay.” Archer hasn’t budged on the other important contract issues either. The AFSCME Negotiations Team’s demands have so far only been reduced slightly to 6% per year. But without an organized response from the members the wage and benefit demands will be whittled down or dropped entirely. The officers of this Local are determined to fight against the dropping of any demands which are vital to the members.

 

            Our conflicts with the Archer administration have reached a crucial stage. We are being confronted with new instances of contracting-out and privatization in every sector of the union. Water & Sewerage and Public Lighting are severely impacted by hundreds of vacant positions. Meanwhile the city says that they must hire contractors because they don’t have enough city workers to do the work. The money owed to hundreds of our members who were improperly paid in the “frozen minimum” scandal have not been paid yet, and no one knows when they will be paid. The Water Department has failed to fill the many clerical vacancies,so there’s not enough clerical staff to do the hard and tedious work necessary to get our members’ pay corrected. Even after status changes are submitted, it takes over 6 months for promotions to go into effect. Promotions to management positions seem to be a priority, while workers wait in the dark, broke.

 

            Management is even starting to harass some of our stewards in an attempt to get them to back off. Members’ grievances are either unjustly blown-off or delayed endlessly by Human Resources. Action is called for now!

 

            In 1999 our Local had a successful one-day sick-out. This, and a series of rallies forced Archer to quickly up his offer from a total of 1.5% to 8%. This spring and summer our Local has held rallies for a good contract at the City-County Building, and also in Delray against the Minergy Incineration privatization scheme. Now we must hold discussions on taking the next step.

 

            At the September 13 General Membership Meeting we need to discuss what actions we will take to win the victories we need. Each monthly meeting will continue to be a planning session for our future as a city workers’ union. We must organize, and pursue victory by any means necessary!

 

 

Attention: Sewage Plant Attendants, Operators, & Sr. Operators

Let’s Win Fixed Shifts & “B” Schedule Now!

Attend Special Operators Unit Meetings

Tuesday September 4

7:15 AM     3:15 PM     11:15 PM

Sewage Plant Union Office, Second Floor Old Administration Building, Old Lab Rooms

 

            For most of the last twenty years, wastewater operations have been on rotating shifts. In 1999, at the urging of the members and due to the persistent organizing of former Operators Unit Chair, Virginia Callaghan, we were able to negotiate a eight-month trial period for fixed shifts. This was then extended to a year.

 

            The trial period proved that fixed shifts work. Absenteeism was reduced. It was a real improvement in the members’ lives. We also learned that in order for fixed shifts to work fairly and consistently we needed regularized, frequent bidding on shift preference based on city seniority, and the “B” schedule which gave weekend off days to Afternoon Shift.

Issue Coming to a Head

 

            Currently Local 207 is negotiating for five-crews, fixed shifts and the “B” schedule. Management is resistant to this proposal. We can only overcome this hesitancy by making it clear how important this is to the people who actually do the work. And we will have to demonstrate our determination in action.

 

            This issue is coming to a head as management attempts to put a real training program into effect. Already some lower seniority attendants are being denied the right to exchange shifts “body-for-body.” When management starts the new training they’ve been promising under PC-744, they will attempt to deny higher seniority workers the right to stay on the off-shifts as well, which would force others onto the off-shifts. The Local will grieve these violations of past practice, but clearly only real solution involves winning fixed shifts with training for off-shift workers.

 

            There will be a series of on-site meetings for Attendants, Operators and Sr. Operators held in the Sewage Plant Union office so that most everyone might have the opportunity to attend.  There we will discuss the schedules and come up with a plan to win our just demands. We can win if are unified in purpose and in action.

 

 

 

Rotating Shifts Kill

 

            Working rotating shifts disrupts our bodies’ metabolism and sleep patterns. Studies have shown over and over that the risk of heart attack and other life-threatening health problems increase dramatically on off shift work--and increase even more on rotating shifts. Look at the number of deaths that have occurred recently among sewage plant operations. Our shifts surely contribute to these early deaths. Rotating shifts compound the dangers of exposure to sewage, sludge and other hazardous and or contagious materials. They also increase the chance of accidents, both on the job and off.

 

Management Shifting the Blame

 

            Over a year ago Federal Judge Fiekens commissioned a report which was highly critical of Sewage Plant management, not the workers. The report said that we were understaffed, not overstaffed. From the beginning, management has been trying to shift the blame onto the workers, who had nothing to do with the abysmal state of the plant. There is plenty of work to be done by five crews, even without the kind of intensive training management is talking about establishing. The Sewage Plant has been chronically understaffed for decades will likely continue this historic pattern due to the high turnover rate. The double crew shifts (4 out of 21 shifts per week) have been used to reduce overtime costs by filling vacancies. Double crews also provide the opportunity for the kind of special cleanup and other projects which can’t effectively get done while a single crew is preoccupied with operations. And of course, it allows for training for the two day shifts.

 

            Operations and training is important. But so are our lives, and the need for experienced workers. The two needs are not in complete opposition to one another. The rotating shifts contribute to the turnover rate in operations. A stabilized work schedule, with seniority determining shift preference, is a strong incentive to remain in operations. The burden of rotating shifts every 17/18 weeks has caused all kinds of personal difficulties over the years for which we could never be properly compensated. Some of these problems can’t help but affect our jobs.

 

Imaginary Problems

 

            Training could easily be adapted to a fixed shift, five crew schedule, even for Midnights. For instance, a third of Midnight Shift could be temporarily assigned to days for training, while the vacancies on Midnights are temporarily filled with overtime. Both Afternoon Shift and A/C Shift have every Tuesday afternoon for training. With less than five crews you are forced to abandon the eight-hour day, or make one crew suffer through different shifts per week, and staff at least one shift per week strictly with overtime workers.

            There are lots of ways to make this work, and management will listen if the members unite and take action to show them how important this is to our lives and to the lives of our families.

 

Attend Your Union Meetings: 5 PM, 600 W. Lafayette (at Third)

September 13 (Thursday)

October 10      (Wednesday)

November 14   (Wednesday)

December 5    (Wednesday)