DISCIPLINE

If you are given in writing for any reason discipline, you must contact your Union Representative immediately if you want our assistance.  Please be mindful that a "cc" to the Union doesn't start your Union assisted appeal process.  You must contact your representative.  For more information Contact the Chief of Stewards afge1975css@gmail.com

WISCONSIN Pt. 2, "The DC Connection".

This is part two of my take on the recent discussions surrounding labor unions in the public sector.  Make no mistake about it I believe this is some BS for lack of a better phrase.  The Government gives away trillions for all types of projects and services annually.  Let’s add up the contracts given out by government agencies that too is expending dollars.  Let’s add up every single government, state, local, county, municipal, and federal contract that’s out there currently.  And what about the Politician in Washington own "sweet" benefit package?  Speaking of tax payer’s money what about entitlements for everyone one with a cause? Isn't that taxpayer money?  What about Kwame Brown and his custom made Navigator?  In fact it would be fair to say THE GOVERNMENT OPERATES OFF TAXPAYERS MONEY IN ALL REGARDS.  WE ARE NOT A BUSINESS, WE ARE PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES. 

To even suggest Labor Unions have some type of strangle hold on the taxpayer is nothing short of an aggressive attempt to show public sector workers as not worthy for what we earn.  In reality, the public sector labor unions in DC have seen a decline due to record consecutive years of RIF's.  Numerically we can yield significant leverage politically, however we must consider our experience under the Fenty administration where all common sense labor/management agreements were ignored.   

To Date WE EMPLOYEES HAVE GIVEN UP STEP INCREASES, CAREER LADDER PROMOTIONS, COST OF LIVING INCREASES, 20 MILLION IN FURLOUGHS.  I don't know what collective bargaining rights they are talking about since by law in public sector unions management has sole right over budget.  Using that logic a significant shift in the MANAGEMENT and ADMINISTRATION of the Government IS THE ONLY SOLUTION.  They are busy chasing employees for 1 hour of AWOL rather than adding any real value and efficiency to the present labor force.  I wonder what bargaining rights they are talking about.  Where was DC bargaining rights when they got us for 600 million on a baseball stadium with a sorry team in a low attendance area flooded with over priced and vacant developments?  What about the hundreds of millions funding various transportation projects?  Where was collective bargaining when the City just up and mandated all DMVE employees give up their Saturday or face termination?

The real issues are your benefits and the cost of maintaining those benefits.  The real money is in our retirement programs, health insurance, cost of living increases and rate of pay provisions.  That’s hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Imagine a one percent cut to your retirement contribution without having the ability to bargain.  As far as salary, DC can't in no way be compared to the Federal Pay structure.  It is misleading to place all public sector Unions in this big pot over some issue that's applicable to Wisconsin.  If the right wing is successful in this initiative this would place your benefits and bargaining rights in congress by a vote, just like Federal Sector Workers.  We are not Federal Workers and WE WANT TO MAINTAIN OUR RIGHT TO BARGAIN OVER BENEFITS.

Since you read this far I will give you a little secret.  Very few public Unions have the right to bargain over the terms of employment and all matters related to compensation.  Your Working Conditions and Compensation terms cover close 100 collective but separate provisions.  We are unique like several other state and city governments that have the right to barging over COMPENSATION.  This is what we have in common with the Wisconsin; we are a very rare few organizations that has that dual ability to negotiate.

WISCONSIN

Everyone should be aware of the Labor Struggle in Wisconsin the birth place AFSCME International where it split from AFGE.  There has been much talk about the issue of Collective Bargaining Rights for Public Employee Labor Organizations.  However, this is not what the real issue is at the root of this blatant misleading struggle as portrayed by the media.  In politics I have learned always to look deeper at any Political Campaign that comes in the form an apparent truth and as a savoir, protector and enforcer of rights.  Its very easy to be mislead by these type of campaigns because it uses as it hook something that maybe true and people can indentify with.  Almost all of us love a good drama when some great good seeks to expose the bad or evil empire. 

Proper understanding of the Collective Bargaining concept will allow anyone to see through this marketing campaign which has come across as a blatant effort to mislead the public.  Collective Bargaining has to be tied to an issue.  It does not exist unless there is an issue to be bargained.  The issue in Wisconsin is centered and based on your BENEFITS.  Your employer wants the right to determine benefits, cost of benefits to employee and/or employer.  For example, your employer decides it wants to increase your insurance premium by 50% they want do so without bargaining.  Their entire marketing campaign is based on demonizing public sector workers as over paid, lazy and expendable.  Despite their insistence on building a negative campaign against Public Sector Employees, we all know for a fact the same people hating on Unions are either gladly living off the benefits (that your employer aim too curtail) or will with open arms accept a good government union job.

Another area where more control is sought is in the area of pensions and retirement programs.  You employer wants to set the terms of retirement contributions.  A great example of this would be a notification from your employer that it will no longer contribute to your retirement account.  Your hard earned benefits and the cost associated with those benefits is the issue.  Your employer seeks to strip your right to NEGOTIATE YOUR BENEFITS.  This is of concern to us here because D.C. is one of the few jurisdictions that allow us to negotiate a compensation agreement every three years.  If the opposition is victorious that will throw up in the air many benefits we take for granted.  Stay tuned fore more post on this topic.  Next post will go into the media hype campaign against the Unions.

And never forget, for the Union haters, your very own US Constitution is based on the concept of Union.  The preamble of the US Constitution plainly states "WE THE PEOPLE, IN ORDER TO FROM A MORE PREFECT UNION".

FURLOUGHS UPDATE

No words can describe how the City has fumbled the ball on this one.  As Friday, February 25, 2011 the Department of Transportation is still not certain on how to deal with the recent furlough with repsect to how employees will be paid who worked on 2/21/11. I literally received more than enough revised updates from DDOT and DCHR on Friday.

There is also the matter of the deeply flawed notification process which may cost the City millions in anticipated savings.  We advise any employee who has a problem with notification to enter time has holiday Union pay and have mangement do its job and engage the employee.

We are looking into the prospects of filing a grievance over our right to bargain for pay on Holiday's.  However, lets be mindful that in all circumstances we will do 32 hours of furlough.  Our foucs should be the tornado called DC Budget Deficit coming in April.  At least the furloughs guranteed us that NO RIF's will happen between now and upon passing of next budget.  Going into the FY12 budget all bets are off and we are looking at a definite impact.

Point of Interest

The City Councl Meeting was attended by Tianeka Downing, Chief Shop Steward, Wanda Pinn-Mills Secretary, Thomas Bell First Vice President, Donna McCrea Second Vice President, Clifford Lowery, President, James Ivey, President AFSCME Council 20.

While we were leaving we were able to run across a few people and you hear things.  One thing for certain is DDOT's Director status is a topic.  A lot of names are being thrown around, but there is no clear decision from the administration on which direction it intend on taking with repsect to stable and permanent leadership at the Department. 

Also the Navigator "old" news is just a tip of the iceberg.  Add up all those new iphones the managers are playing with all day, across the government that is another huge area of waste (especially mobile technology).  And since were on that topic lets add up the monthly phone charges and I gurantee you hands down managers would be charged near triple the amount all the Union employees put together would pay if charged for excessive usage.

Do you have a City cost saving suggestion?  Submit your idea of cost savings to the city AS FOLLOWS;  Click on title above to post.  We ask that you please stay on topic with your suggestions.

POST YOUR SUGGESTION ON WHAT WE CAN OFFER THE CITY AS SAVINGS THAT SUBTRACTS FROM THE OVERALL IMPACT ON UNION EMPLOYEES CONSIDERING THE UPCOMING PROJECTED MULTI HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT.

Furlough Update

By now we all are familiar with the mandated 32 hour furlough days for all D.C. Government Employees.  We are currently working on the issue(s) of improper notifications, proper notifications, and the selection of alternative days for those not furloughed.  We are also pursuing the issue of furlough on Holidays.

Furloughs is something that is going to happen under all circumstances simply because it was in Former Mayor  Fenty's budget for this fiscal year FY 2011 to close a 198 million dollar budget shortfall.  The furlough represents about 20 million savings from Labor's end. 

By far DDOT represents the worst case scenario with respect to administering furloughs for its employees.  It seems that the Agency for some odd reason is refusing to request an exemption for DDOT employees and allowing them to pick (and rotate among employees) furlough days throughout the designated furlough period to end in July 2010.  To date over 190 DDOT employees has been exempted from the first furlough day and they will pick an alternative day.

We are still waiting for the City to provide a detailed report from all Agencies to include a copy of notification, mail certification receipt, furlough schedule.


ANY EMPLOYEE ASKED TO WORK ON A FURLOUGH ISN'T UNDER ANY OBLIGATION TO WORK UNLESS SPECIFIED IN WRITING AT LEAST FIVE DAYS IN ADVANCE OF FURLOUGH DAY.  EMERGENCY EMPLOYEES MUST BE NOTIFIED IN ADVANCE OR PLACED IN AN ON CALL STATUS PRIOR TO BEING MANDATED TO WORK.

Meeting With Tommy Wells

Local 1975 met with DPW/DDOT/DMV/DCTC Council Committee Chairman Tommy Wells Ward 6(D) on 2/23/11.  The groundwork was laid for a continued relationship between the Union and Mr. Wells.  It was agreed to work towards a working relationship between the parties.

We talked in detail about the leadership at the Department of Transportation.  The Local offered its views and will be publishing our view on the direction of DDOT soon.  

Meeting With Councilman Tommy Wells

The City gears up for the FY 2011 budget oversight hearings.  The hearings will begin on Monday February 28, 2011.  Tune into DC channel 13 to view hearings live or through dc city council website for live computer link.

AFGE Local 1975 will be meeting with committee Chairman Tommy Wells on February 23, 2011 at 1pm to offer our views prior to DMV/DDOT/DPW/DCTC oversight hearings.

WELCOME

Welcome to the AFGE Local 1975 Blog.  This site is designed to provide a way for updated information that affect the employees in our Local.  It is our hope to generate enough traffic to eventually expand this site to accommodate a contract page, current case page, case history page, and a page for you to let us know what is going on in your Agency.  This site is free of charge and can be expanded at no additional cost depending on visitors to this page.  Please click any advertisers link to the right and below to register traffic numbers. NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY, JUST A CLICK WILL RECORD OUR TRAFFIC.  ALSO IF YOU WANT TO SEARCH THE WEB AFTER VISITING THIS SITE, PLEASE USE THE SEARCH THE WEB BAR LOCATED ON THIS PAGE, THIS WILL ALSO RECORD OUR TRAFFIC.

As this site continue to grow we hope to attract advertisers of interest to our members.  The vision is eventually have a one stop site for our Local.