| Negotiations Update Ann Samson |
The Negotiations Teams issue frequent reports on their progress by e-mail. If you do not have access to e-mail, call Shirley Davis at x4889 to arrange for a hard copy.
What we can tell you today is that we have a tentative agreement on the issue of Promotions; the desk audits for those who disputed their job classifications began on Tuesday, July 31; and the salary survey for those who were Z-rated during the Classification Study will begin as soon as the SEIU team can review the survey document (shortly after August 9, the next negotiations meeting.); salary (COLA) talks continue.
Further, the issue of Hours of Employment has been removed from the table by mutual agreement and will be handled by advisory arbitration. Some contracts carry language mandating arbitration of disputes; ours does not because we have no record of disputes that we couldn't negotiate or achieve through advisory arbitration and that the Board rejected.
As you may remember, SEIU asserted through the Grievance process that the District was in violation of the Hours of Employment article by advertising and scheduling regular employees' shifts outside the defined Core Hours of District operation. We proceeded through various steps to resolve this issue and failed to reach agreement. The District requested that before we submitted this issue to arbitration we bring it to the table, which we did. In preparation, we surveyed the unit and discovered that unit members, without regard to SEIU membership, were not interested in any monetary or other inducement for having their work hours changed. Realizing we were getting nowhere, we mutually agreed to remove this issue from negotiations and seek arbitration. At this moment, the District's and SEIU's attorneys are nominating arbitrators; if they cannot agree, they will approach the American Arbitration Association, provide an arbitrator, who will study the contract and the specific issues and then render a decision. That decision will be presented to the Board for acceptance. Under advisory arbitration, the Board can reject the arbitrator's decision. What would happen under that circumstance is unclear. Stay tuned.
The next negotiation meeting will be Wednesday, August 8th. If you have any questions or concerns contact the SEIU negotiations team.
John Hemenway jhemenway@santarosa.edu
Shirley Davis sdavis@santarosa.edu
Jeff Holzworth jolzworth@santarosa.edu
| Parking Ann Samson |
If you were paying attention last spring, you know that various drafts of a new parking-fee and parking-use policy were being distributed, revised, and discussed. Unfortunately, insufficient numbers of employees came to meetings or responded to the Parking Committee's reports, and the fees have risen. We've received lots of calls asking what "the union" is going to do about it. This is not a negotiable item; no one is required to drive to work, and our contract protects us from having to use our personal vehicles in the performance of our work. The Parking Committee is considering several alternatives to parking priorities (reserved vs. general use); one of those options is the "scramble" system, in which no one has a space in a particular parking lot, but parking would be on a "first come-first served" basis. If you care about these issues, you should attend Parking Committee meetings (call Martha Villanueva at District Police for days and times). There are several facts to keep in mind: Although fees are not pro-rated, employees who work 20 hrs/week or below pay half the full parking fee of $120; in addition, part-time employees of any percentage have the same right to payroll deduction of their parking fees as full-time employees have.
| Union Support Doug Kuula |
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 |