11/10/11 Local 404 General Membership Meeting Minutes

Present:Ann Sullivan (Recorder), Matt Stenger, Kevin Graves, John D. Collins, Jill Gorman, Connie Anderson, Kelly Woelpern, John Knobbe, Molly Kennedy, Adam Castle, Brian Wells

1.Secretaries Report: October 2011 meeting minutes- Additions or Corrections? Motion to accept subject to review byConnie Anderson second by Molly Kennedy then carried.
Correspondence Review
a) State Contract Training Nov 18th C5- anyone interested see Molly Kennedy. We currently have 5 people signed up. A motion was made by Molly Kennedy to pay usual expenses for those attending. Second by Brian Wells then carried.
b) Arbitration Award – DOT Termination – union win.
c) AFSCME International 2012 Minimum Dues Increase - .0983% which is below the 5 cents threshold so it is zero for 2012.
d) Shutdown vacation class action grievance settlement- affected persons should have gotten paperwork.
2.Presidents Report:
a)FD M&C - Minutes will be posted- Any questions, please see Chuck Carlson or John Knobbe
b) Lead promotion process meeting
c) CBHH/CARE Meeting –Kevin graves will report
d)Forensic Division Joint Labor Management-
e) MSOP Meet & Confer – Any questions please see Molly Kennedy
3. Old Business:
a) Executive Board Vacancy– 404 Executive Board has appointed Tim Headlee to service out the remainder of term of office.
4. New Business:
a) Elections: union positions will be open for nominations from now until the end of the general membership meeting on December 8th. If interested in running for one of the elected positions or if someone else nominates you either submit in writing or email Kelly Woelpern or you can announce it at the December General Membership meeting. The election for these positions will take place on campus, January 12, 2012. Any questions on this feel free to contact any current executive board member.
b) On November 28th AFSCME has sponsored a meal at the “Kitchen” at Trinity Lutheran Church on 511 South 5th St. in St. Peter. This is a meal provided to the St. Peter community free of charge. Jill Gatzke has put this together so if you are interested in volunteering please send her an e-mail with your t-shirt size. Hope to get a great turn out. Below is the list of job duties and the e-mail she sent me.
3:30 pm- 5pmDining hall table set up and set- 3 people.
4 pm-Meal Preparation 4-5 people ready the last minute food- salad etc.
5 pm-Servers/ Activity leaders for the children.
5:15pm Meal Drink servers/ People assistants- help children and carry plates
5:30- 7:30pm Dish Crew: 4-6 people scrape plates/ run dishwasher/put away
6pm-7:30 Hall clean up
We welcome any and all people to come and help at the kitchen. A great turn out would be 20 volunteers. Workers may stay and help the whole time or any part of the process. People may bring older children, please plan to work a job with them, our crowds have increased and the place gets busy during the serving times .In the 5 weeks since Labor day, we have served 587 people! Approximately 50% of the diners are children under 18 years. This is the third year for The Kitchen, thanks to people like AFSCME 404 who give generously with time and monetary support to this local need.
c) On December 8th we will be having our annual AFSCME local 404 Christmas Party. It will be at 4:30pm at Hobbers Highway 99 Bar and Grill. Our Quarterly Drawing will be held along with many door prizes such as gas cards and chamber bucks. Food will be provided as well. This is a family friendly event! Hope to see you all there!!
5. Items from the membership:Coaching Sessions/Letters of Reprimand/Oral Reprimands discussed. Double disciplines should be grieved. AFSCME will be discussing this with MSOP management next week.
Social Committee:John Collins made a motion to change the location of the December meeting and Holiday party to Hobbers 99 Bar and Grill. After discussion, the motion was seconded by Connie Anderson then carried. John also made a motion to budget up to $1000 for food and door prizes for this party. Second by Kevin Graves and carried after discussion.
Officers Reports:
VP-John Knobbe: “I have been at Negotiations several days in the last month and spent much time working on a return to work for a terminated employee. This employee will return to work next Wednesday- paperwork was signed today.
In Solidarity,
W. John Knobbe”
VP- Molly Kennedy: “In MSOP we recently did a total reassignment of all work areas, effective Jan 4th, 2012. A complete list of assignments and rotations are posted under St. Peter reassignments on the MSOP homepage. The local presented a third step grievance on a termination this month and we are still waiting on the final outcome of that. Contract training is Friday November 19th at council 5. We have 5 people from MSH and MSOP attending this training. We did try and get some members to the December steward training but it was full so the Council opened up another class January 26th and 27th, 2012. We have two people signed up so far and if you are interested in attending please contact me ASAP as those classes fill up fast. We have a joint labor management meeting with Moose Lake November 17th. Please see www.union404.com for the meeting minutes. And lastly all stewards that get called upon to sit an investigation or present a step 1 or 2 grievance try and pick a steward from the list to shadow you so they can see how it is done. Please drop me an e-mail about investigations so that I can track them. Thanks!!! Keep up the excellent work!!!
In Solidarity,
Molly Kennedy
Vice President Steward Coordinator
Local 404”
Treasurer-Connie Anderson:
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FOR MONTH ENDINGOct, 2011
CASH BALANCE BEGINNING OF MONTH:$ 55180.96
INCOME FOR THE MONTH:$ 5238.86
EXPENSES FOR THE MONTH:$ 7061.42
CASH BALANCE ENDING OF MONTH:$ 53358.40
SUBMITTED BY: _______CONNIE ANDERSON_____
Accepted subject to audit motion by John Collins second by Kelly Woelpern then carried.
CS MSH/Transition: John Collins:“I am going to Arlington, VA on Sunday the 13th for a SAMSHA conference I was invited to. This is regarding more work on implementing trauma-informed care and creating non-coercive environments for patients. David Proffitt is also attending.
Also want to emphasize again how important it is that in the last week union officers and stewards won two step 3 grievances, one in MSOP, and one in MSH, in which two members had been terminated. These two members will now be getting their jobs back. The individual cases were unfair and wrong and as such this could have happened to ANY of our members. These grievance victories were victories for EVERY member, not just for the two members concerned. This is an example of what your union has done for you lately. On behalf of the officers and stewards involved….you’re welcome!!
Also in MSH, I have had members express some confusion over how much vacation is granted to their unit each day and how determine if you can get vacation or not on a certain day…the answer from management and in particular interim program director Tom Christensen is that you should request the vacation on the day desired…….then if you don’t get vacation on that day and you don’t understand why you should contact Tom and ask him for clarification. So please take advantage of this valuable assistance as needed.
A Victory for One is a Victory for All!!! Gods Bless America!”
CS-AMH/CARE: Kevin Graves:
CBHH Combined M&C
Finally got things worked out and they posted a GMW position that was filled in house in Rochester. (something MGMT and union working on for Mos.)
Discussed how Union needs to be contacted for new employee orientation.
Rochester will not replace Mark Lancelet. Carol Olson will run both Rochester and St. Peter sites. Fought off effort to reduce meetings to 4 per year…. (We had previously been meeting 8 times a year and already went down to 6)
Next meeting Dec 15th 2011 in St. Peter
CARE:
Issues over reimbursement through the state. Point of contention being do you start your job at 8:00 am in Anoka for 1st day of training or do you start your job at 6:00am and you get into your car to drive to Anoka for training.
Discussed ways to streamline filling of vacancies through hiring off of the street.
Next Meeting January 19, 2012 at 1:30pm
Kevin Graves
Chief Steward
AFSCME Local 404
CS – Facilities and Forensic Nursing Home: Jill Gorman:“Nothing has been reported to me about any problems in my area. I distributed the lanyards to the FNH. There will be a fundraiser for John Feldmann former SCL at MSH for years at the Redmen 11/18/11. I don’t have any details at this time as his daughter us in charge. He has been diagnosed w/ Lou Gehrigs disease.
There was 32 people that came for SC interviews.”
CS – MSOP: Matt Stenger:“Currently we only have one step 3 grievance filed in MSOP. I’m also happy to report that the step 3 we presented last week was granted and the employee that was wrongfully terminated would be brought back. Details are still being worked out but the employee will be reinstated. We are also going to be having a joint labor management meet and confer with Moose Lake on the 17th. After that meeting we will be going over the PD’s for SC, SCL, and the nursing departments.”
EB-Anne Mehltretter:Nothing new to report.
.EB- Eric Ridout:Nothing new to report.
EB-Tim Headlee:Nothing new to report.
Good and Welfare:Jesse Miller, Jake Cottew, Matt Uecker, Tom Eustice, Mike Keech, Ashley Kisor,Joel Frey, Marvin Vega, RoarkeEngelhardt, Brian Woeller, Michelle Roemhildt
CLU delegate report- nothing new to report
Council 5 Field Representative Scott Grefe:Scott discussed the current grievance wins that the union had and Occupy Wallstreet as they pertain to negotiations season. These issues tie into power and that is why we endorse their cause.
Message to Members: “Wear green on Fridays to show our solidarity.”
Door Prizes:Kelly Woelpern, Jill Gorman
Progressive Drawing- Dec 2011
Meeting adjourned at 5:44pm