May 2001

(Back)

SEIU is holding three general membership meetings to discuss issues to be addressed in upcoming negotiations. All unit members, regardless of  SEIU membership, are invited to attend and participate:

·        Tuesday, May 15, 9-10am in Plover Library, Rm 1, teleconferenced with Petaluma. This meeting is scheduled to correspond with the custodians' lunch break.

·        Wednesday, May 16, noon to 1pm in Bech, Rm 1901

·        Wednesday, May 16, 5-6pm, in Bech, Rm 1901. This meeting is scheduled to accommodate those employees who work afternoon/evening shifts or who cannot attend the two previous meetings.

We are entitled to released time to attend contract ratification meetings only. You must use your own time to attend these meetings, but we are certain it will be worth your while.

There will be a brief report on the status of preparation for desk audits and another brief report on the fee-payer issue, but general discussion of these items is not on the agenda.

Please come meet your new negotiators and let them know your views about issues they will be negotiating for you.

Questions & Answers: Fair Share Service Fee Classified Advisory Council

Some questions have been raised regarding the Fair Share Service Fee.  We want to answer them to further clarify what this required obligation gives you.

Q:  Honestly, what has SEIU done for me? I've never needed a steward, never had cause for a grievance or even a dispute with my supervisor. This isn't heavy industry; why does an AFL-CIO union represent me?

A:   SEIU has negotiated a favorable wage, working conditions, and benefits that make working at SRJC satisfying. Stewards and SEIU paid staff consistently advocate for workers' rights to improve everyone's working conditions. SEIU replaced California School Employees Association nearly 20 years ago, by the will of the unit members, in the belief that SEIU could be more effective for us.

      Here is some example of SEIU's efforts:

1.   SEIU successfully lobbied for a significant increase in PERS retirement benefits, beginning at age 55. While fee payers would not contribute to such political activities, all PERS members will benefit.

2.   The recent comprehensive Classification Study is an excellent example of effective union advocacy:

Under the initial hay Group recommendation, approximately 25% of job classifications would have been y-rated (meaning salaries would have been frozen, with no COLA or step increases until the job class' salary caught up the overall salary scale.) Under local SEIU advocacy, the number of jobs frozen was just 4%, and those jobs will undergo desk audits to confirm that job measurement was accurate.

Skilled Maintenance workers would have been one of the frozen job classifications, but because of SEIU's efforts, that job was determined to be market driven, with a resulting increase of 6.44% at the top step.

Administrative Assistants who were reclassified from Level II to Level III gained an immediate 2.87% increase, with an increase of 25.08% at Step 5 over the previous top step (Step E).

As an example of SEIU's commitment to the group over the individual, many jobholders went from the top step of their previous job class to the beginning step of their new job class. While that decreased the immediate earnings increase for those individuals, it decreased the pain of wage freezing for many others. The overall gain, however, was even greater since those same jobholders at the top steps who had no hope of step increase now will have a step increase in July (less than a year from implementation of the Study.

Absolutely no classified employee lost money as a result of this Study.

3.   SEIU stewards pride themselves on their record of resolving issues rather than filing grievances. Many of the working conditions and relations you enjoy in your employment with the District are the direct result of SEIU's efforts to achieve a productive working environment for all workers.

Q:  I pay dues to my trade union; why should I pay to two unions?

A:   Your trade union may have a favorable retirement benefit that makes your paying dues highly worthwhile, but it does not negotiate your pay here, your benefits here, nor most specifically your work day and year. If you worked exclusively in your trade, it is very unlikely that you would get a full 12 months of work each year.

Q:  The union is run mostly by women/secretaries. Why should I belong to a group I have so little in common with and which cannot possibly understand the work I do?

A:   The "union" is all of us. It's not true that there are no men in leadership positions (the president, communications officer, and three of four negotiators are men, none of them secretaries, and our field representative and SEIU general manager, who negotiate with and for us, are men). The leadership is made up of the people who step forward and are voted in. When you join SEIU you gain the rights and benefits of membership, which include full participation in voting on the collective bargaining agreement. This means your wages, your benefits, and your working conditions. One of the upcoming topics on the table is hours of employment (your workday and your workweek). You can participate in developing contract proposals and electing officers and negotiations team members as a right of membership.

Q:  Under the mandate to become an SEIU member or fee payer, I would be paying for SEIU legal expense that are not germane to its function as the exclusive bargaining representative of SRJC classified employees. Why should I be charged for these expenses?

A:   This view is similar to saying that you are willing to pay taxes for repair of roads that run only in front of your house or for fire and police services that are provided only for your neighborhood. SEIU incurs expenses for representing workers' rights established by law or contract both locally and nationally. Those rights have been established by the efforts of labor unions such as, but not limited to, SEIU; they protect your working environment. You may not realize that you benefit from them, but you would realize something was wrong if they did not exist.

For example, these are benefits enjoyed by all workers, won at expense by unions, that fees would not support:

1.      OSHA regulations;

2.      The Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets the 40-hour work week and mandates overtime for work in addition to the maximum;

3.      Work-site child care facilities;

4.      Family Medical leave Act.

Examples of expenses fees would support are:

1.      Costs of arbitration here and elsewhere, to enforce disputed contract provisions such as hours of employment, application of shift differential, termination and other disciplinary actions.

2.      Costs of litigation to enforce the same issues

Every time Local 707 has such expenses, SEIU International provides a portion of the funds; every time any local incurs such expenses, SEIU International assists in funding. A portion of your fees will be targeted for such expenses, because SEIU's efforts, both locally and nationally, protect your working conditions.

 Q: SEIU has advocated for people I know to be unpleasant, difficult, and poor workers. Why should I associate with that kind of effort?

A:   Unions represent workers rights, not personalities. If the employer has observed the rights of the worker(s) in question, SEIU would not be successful in advocating for them. It is not the union's place to decide whose rights are deserving of being protected; it is the union's place to see that Management takes the responsibility of appropriately applying evaluation, discipline, and related guidelines equally, fairly, and even-handedly.

Q:  Why do I have to decide? I was perfectly happy just doing my job and staying out of politics.

A:   The California State legislature determined that it was fair and equitable for California school employees to pay a fair share of the costs of representing them with the school districts that employ them.

Q:  Can I simply ignore the fee-payer agreement?

A:   If you do not complete and submit the fee-payer agreement, an automatic payroll deduction will be made from your check, and your status will be "fee payer" as opposed to "dues payer."

Q:  I just can't afford to have anything taken out of my paycheck; I'm right on the edge as it is.

A:   You can look at union dues or fees as a take-away, or you can look at them as paying for a service you use although you may have been unaware you were using it. You very likely would not be "making it" without SEIU's negotiating a favorable wage and other conditions.

Q:  I am a part-time employee, without benefits, and I already have money taken out of my paycheck for parking and retirement. How can you justify this measure without my okay?

A:   As indicated above, the California legislature mandated that all employees pay their fair share of the cost to represent them.

All employees pay for parking, but SEIU advocacy has ensured that part-time employees are afforded the same right to have these fees deducted from their paychecks as full-time employees. The District did not want to afford them that right, requiring a lump-sum payment.

If retirement is deducted from your paycheck, then you are building a retirement fund. It is not clear how that is a negative.

SEIU continues to work toward gaining pro-rata health care benefits for part-time employees.

For more SEIU information, see the Web page at:
http://www.santarosa.edu/seiu/

Stewards Needed! We still need three more stewards to bring us up to the maximum of six. Training and 16 hours released time per month are provided by our contract.

Power Source Support! Is there anyone interested in writing an article for the Power Source? If you are interested, contact Doug at  527-4654  or dkuula@santarosa.edu

CAC Bylaws Update! Please remember to check the current and proposed CAC bylaws posted on the SEIU, Local 707 website at http://www.santarosa.edu/seiu/. Get your comments to any of the CAC members.

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