Leadership Meeting Notes
Pierce County – IFPTE Local 17 Leadership Meeting Notes
April 22, 2010
• Meeting started: 4:30 p.m.
New Representative / Separate Supervisor Unit Representation
• Rene Jankiewicz has resigned and no longer with IFPTE Local 17.
• Roberta will continue working with Pierce County, and transition out of her current units in Spokane.
• Discussion on whether it should still be pursued to have a separate union representative for the Supervisor’s Unit. The main concern seems to be that the level of service is being met. The consensus for the time being is to see how things go with Roberta serving both the Employee and Supervisor Units.
Misc Duties Assigned
• Hans has asked Rachael if she would attend the health insurance committee meetings. Troy may also participate. Roberta attends these meetings as well.
• Hans has asked Juan to coordinate the CAN/CAR’s, and help get the network set up.
Labor Management Meetings
• Roberta and Hans are planning on meeting quarterly with the directors of PWU (Brian Ziegler) and PALS (Chuck Kleeburg). Our Chapter’s stand right now at these meetings is to be open to any conversations management wants to have.
• Would like to try to do the same with the County Executive staff (Kevin Phelps), but need to see if they are open to these meetings.
PALS – Budget and Layoff News
• From Local 17, one CE2 and one EB2 received their slips. As of this meeting, they still haven’t been able to find room for them in PALS. Chuck hasn’t let Roberta know yet what they’re doing with those positions. We should find out tomorrow (4/23) if bumping will start; the two members who received their slips have invoked their bumping rights. Roberta thought there were 10 total positions cut from PALS this round.
• There is an ongoing disagreement between the Council and the Department Directors – the directors believe the Council should control their budget, not their staff positions; the Councils disagrees.
• There could be another reduction in staff in approx. four months. If the PALS revenue is up but the Sheriff’s is down, the funds will be shifted to Public Safety. Our Chapter should consider looking at how we can prepare ourselves for the next round of cuts. One suggestion Roberta had was to discuss the lessons learned with King County, another agency that has been taking furlough days.
• Roberta shared the process of how it’s decided who receives the slips in PALS. PALS considers all of their staff to have the same abilities, skills, etc. She also described the potential process that will happen when and if bumping begins.
Chapter Meeting Preparation
• One potential topic of discussion for the meeting might be asking the members for some ideas of what our union could come to the table with in order to save its positions. The thought is to take more of a proactive approach rather than a reactive one. Roberta suggested that if we discuss furloughs, it’s helpful to have a more defined timeframe we’re talking about – hours or days. That makes a difference in member’s support. It’s important for everyone to keep in mind that these are strictly philosophical discussions though.
• We would like to try to keep the meeting on topic, and follow the agenda.
Insurance Committee Report
• Roberta attended just prior to this meeting. She shared that Betsy Sawyers and Joe Carillo (Human Resources) were both in attendance.
• The budget outlook for 2011 was shared, and it is anticipated to be negative. The 2010 first quarter financial report was shared as well. Influencing the revenue totals for 2010 include:
• Sales Tax revenues are 3% lower than this period last year
• PERS contributions up 64%
• New construction property tax down 50%
• Interest rates at historically low levels
• Property taxes – expecting some delinquencies in receiving payments
• Anticipated Timeline: The County is still planning on going out for bid this year. RFP’s should be out in May. Both outside companies and self-insure options will be evaluated. We may have an idea in May what kind of rates we’re looking at. Finalize in June-July. Begin negotiations in September.
• 4-5 Union representatives will also be reviewing the RFP’s.
• Regence will phase Selections out; unsure if another plan will replace it.
• The County wants to go for tier rates.
• This committee meets the 4th Thursday each month from 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM.
• Roberta shared that our chapter would definitely benefit from at least one person attending.
COBRA Premium Reduction
• Roberta shared the April 16th fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Labor.
New Water Quality Classification
• This has been being looked at for several years, and seems to have a lot of support.
• The proposed four new job classifications in the Water Quality Specialist series include Supervisor, 3, 2, and 1.
• Hans, Toby Rickman (PWU), Harold Smelt (SWM), and Wendy Seese (HR) spoke today about how the structure would fit in. Dan Wrye would remain overseeing the group.
• The pay rates are now being looked at and how they compare to the ET series. Preliminary findings suggest an ET2 pay scale would be similar to a WQS2. However, Harold wants WQS2 staff to perform code enforcement which currently is equivalent to ET3 pay. HR is going to refine their salary survey to account for code enforcement work. Roberta is sharing salary survey information she has with HR.
• This reclassification won’t be in place fast enough to cover the needed NPDES positions, so those will remain ET’s.
• Harold Smelt will be giving input on essential functions within the next three weeks.
• Hans has always suggested maybe looking at similar reclassification issues with the PALS Development Engineering positions.
Council Outreach
• Roberta suggested that it’s a good idea to have our members attend Council meetings when items on the agenda directly affect us. Doing this would allow us to keep tabs on the issues, and is good to make our face and presence familiar to them.
Grievance Status – Health Insurance
• Joe Carillo (HR) has not yet followed up with Roberta.
County’s Shop Steward Paid Time Policy
• Roberta shared some information learned from Debbie Young (HR).
17th Annual Race for the Cure
• Roberta shared contact information for those wishing to participate or donate to Local 17’s team “Unions United Against Breast Cancer”.
• Meeting adjourned: 6:15 p.m.
Second Local 17 Leadership Meeting
March 25, 2010
Meeting started: 4:30 PM
• Meeting minutes for the last meeting were approved.
• Labor Management Meetings
• Roberta and Hans met with Brian Ziegler about approving labor relations.
• Brian Ziegler is interested in quarterly meetings with union leadership.
• Chuck Kleeberg is interested in participating in the meetings as well.
• The next leadership meeting will be held at Chevy’s on May 27th at 4:30 PM.
• Leadership will determine questions for a Medical survey, see below.
• Renee, Roberta and Joe discussed the change of representation.
• Renee will represent the general local 17 group, while Roberta will be the representative for the supervisors unit beginning now.
• Jennifer Walker will be the point of contact for the supervisors unit and they plan to have meetings on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.
• Medical
• A memo of agreement has been signed.
• Effective May 1st, Group Health will be available for Teamsters Trust Medical.
• Leadership recommends we do not revote medical for this year.
• The cons for the Teamsters plan in the last vote were dependent coverage, Group Health coverage, Part-time employee requirements, and prescription coverage.
• Our unit should hold a survey about the medical vote in order to determine the mail reasons for not choosing Teamsters.
• If Local 17 wants to be considered for Teamsters Trust we must apply for preapproval on our demographic.
• We should submit the demographic information in October
• Our demographics are similar to other groups.
• Preliminary renewal rates are not available until September, and firm numbers in November.
• We will have the administrator of the Teamsters Trust Plan hold a talk about the plan.
• Local 17 should hold a vote for medical in November.
• The teamsters plan is not negotiable and subject to mid-year change.
• Teamsters Trust is a Taft-Hartley plan and is exempt from some laws.
• Teamsters is not required to grant health care to children up to 25 years of age as the federal government dictates.
• Negotiations
• What worked
• Information was available to the membership in many different ways. It was on the website, there were handouts, and meetings were held.
• What didn’t work
• Why does the bargaining take longer than the end of December?
• If the contract expires on December 31st there is a perk year where the prior contract is still in effect if bargaining continues.
• Contracts roll into the perk year because of budget setting, and elections.
• Leadership can talk to labor relations and management about making timely decisions as a way to save money.
• How do items get chosen for negotiations?
• Two to three meetings are held prior to negotiations
• Agenda proposals discovered through survey information, ongoing issues, and the internal bargaining meetings.
• Union Leadership Conference Registration for April 24th, 2010.
• Topic: Public Employees in difficult times.
• Layoffs
• Hans said PALS will have another reduction in force.
• Section 7.6 in the contract says a person may not bump a potion not previously held.
• There seems to be legal holes in the contract about seniority.
• Leadership should try to determine our preference of interpretation prior to action being taken. We need to be proactive instead of reactive.
• Communication Action Network (CAN)
• Organization charts were looked at and sections were assigned to leaders to determine the CAN.
• Compile the CAN tree during the next meeting.
• Money is available for community support.
• Fundraiser: Union Race for the Cure Team.
• Taryn Givenchy photographed the leadership group.
Meeting adjourned: 5:50 p.m.
Feb. 2/26/10
Goals:
• Increase membership participation.
• Recruit more stewards
• Sewer division needs more stewards.
• Improve relations with County and management.
• Develop Communication Action Network (CAN).
• Each leader has a small group of people to inform, each of them has another group, etc.
• Develop a method of distributing information through email.
• Potential for a list serve?
• Create a Policy Committee.
• Labor Management Meetings
• Schedule a post bargaining discussion about the process and how to make it better.
• Emphasize that difficult negotiations are expensive and could be handled in a more cost-efficient manner.
Medical:
• 85 % of the unions are going to Teamsters medical.
• Operator and Captains voted no for Teamsters.
• Local 120 has not decided yet.
• Our union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the County for bad faith bargaining.
• Vote
• Ballot boxes will be distributed Tuesday.
• One last informational meeting will be held, last ballots cast and
Future Leadership Meetings:
• 4th Thursday of every other month starting in March.
• Next meeting March 25, 2010, 4:30pm.
