General Membership Meeting-AFSCME 404
May 17th, 2018
430PM Hobber’s 99
Present:
Adam Castle, Jamie Sheppard, Emilio Florez, Crystal Kreklow, Antonino Guerrero, Matt Stenger, Steve Wilking, Kurt Crosby, Ryan Cates, Tim Poppen
Motion to accept April’s Meeting Minutes by Adam Castle. 2nd Stenger. Passes
2. Treasurer-Antonino Guerrero:
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FOR MONTH ENDING: April 2018
CASH BALANCE BEGINNING OF MONTH: $ 74163.89
INCOME FOR THE MONTH: $ 7050.08
EXPENSES FOR THE MONTH: $ 8706.60
CASH BALANCE ENDING OF MONTH: $ 72507.37
SAVINGS: $ 54827.30
SUBMITTED BY: Antonino Guerrero
Motion to approve Treasurer Report subject to audit by Matt Stenger, 2nd Adam Castle Motion Passes.
3. Correspondence: There were two arbitration decisions from another local. Both were denied by the arbitrator.
MSH Meeting Minutes: https://www.union404.com/news/51718-msh-meeting-minutes
MSOP Meeting Minutes: https://www.union404.com/news/51018-msop-meeting-minutes
4. New Business: EBoard vote took place for vacant position. Incumbent is Jake Schoenecker. July General Membership Meeting is Thursday July 12th at 3pm due to officers being gone at international convention. Eboard meeting is at 230pm. Motion to order more checks for the local account by Stenger. 2nd by Emilio. Motion passes
Benefit for Hudson Bruns, son of Ben Bruns on Saturday, June 23, 2018 at the Redman Club. Tim Poppen presenting asking for any amount of support from the local. Flyer handed out and attached in secretary email. Stenger motion for up to 500 to the benefit. 2nd by Adam Castle. Motion passes.
Debra Burger is retiring from CARE and Diane Erickson from MSH. Stenger motion to pay each 150 for retirement for their amount of years of service. 2nd by Emilio. Motion passes.
5. Old Business
6. Items from the membership:
7. Good and Welfare:
8. Officer Reports
Presidents Report-Ryan Cates: Publisher is running behind on printing the contracts. The contract can be accessed on union404.com in the meantime. Meeting in 2 weeks about the cascading shifts not working.
VP: Matt Stenger- We have continued to attend our weekly check in meetings that take place on Wednesday at 2 pm. Ryan Cates, Steve Wilking and myself attend. We have addressed the radio issues of not working, response to the OSHA complaint, CRP being on a different channel than MSH slowing the response time down from program to program and the ATO (alert button for ICS) being too loud when it comes across. We have also set up a “problems solving” meeting where we address one issue at a time to come to a resolution our next meeting is on 5-24-18. The next meeting will be about when units have to cover other units and the OD picking who covers. We should have a resolution to this hopefully sometime this month. Our recommendation would be to have the least senior do it and rotate up the seniority list like we do with inversing. This list will reset at the end of each pay period but would also allow staff to work with each other in case you have something that needs to be done on the unit you work on.
In solidarity,
Matt Stenger
VP: Eric Hesse- The legislature passed the Omnibus Pension Bill that will steer our defined benefit pension plans to be fully funded in 30 years. Again, this means that we as employees will be seeing a slight increase of what we pay into our retirement. The state will also be seeing an increase of what they pay and the retirees will get a slight decrease in their cost of living adjustments each year.
Council 5 has changed their grievance and arbitration policy. The changes in the policy is now there will be no Arbitration Review Team to decide if a case gets sent to arbitration or to a settlement. Instead it will automatically go if it meets the criteria. All oral and written reprimands will still go to the local executive board for a vote on whether to proceed or not. All suspensions and terminations will go to a settlement or arbitration if denied by the employer in a grievance. All contract grievances will have to go through the State Employee Policy Committee (which I was recently elected to be a part of) on whether to send to settlement or arbitration. Overall, I believe this change, while some flaws in it, is a very good change. Hopefully this change will make it so the employer will stop disciplining our membership for petty and mundane things.
The Supreme Court decision on Janus vs AFSCME will be given within this next month. If you have not signed a new membership card to show solidarity in the face of this case and say you will stick with your union no matter what, please see one of the local’s officers or executive board.
I do plan on having a steward training in August. If you are interested in becoming a steward, please keep an eye out for the announcement on this.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns on any of this or any other issue or topic, please feel free to reach out to me.
In solidarity,
Eric Hesse
Vice President – Steward Coordinator
AFSCME Local 404
Executive Board: Jake Schoenecker-
Executive Board: Chief Steward Emilio Florez-I have been working with the director or CARE to schedule a site visit at the CARE facility to see how the program works, meet management, AFCSME staff, and just learn more about the program. It is scheduled and hopefully all goes well as I expect to do the same with CBHH Rochester next month.
I have also worked on a couple grievances of overtime distribution. It seems like we still need some clarification with this and it has been brought up to management.
We are working to keep communications working effectively including the new radio system and being able to operate appropriately. Management is stating the detailed security reports are good in helping pinpoint issues that they can bring up to be fixed. It was established that issues with these radios are still partly system error and malfunction we continue to educated on radio usage to help staff get used to the digital radio system as well. We are communicating, working together effectively, and getting more involved to ensure staff safety during this process.
Executive Board: Chief Steward Steve Wilking- Hello Everyone! The last month has been a busy one. I have filed and presented (3) Grievances regarding overtime distribution and coordinated many investigations. I have attended (4) weekly check-in meetings. Those topics were: Overtime, removal of coaching sessions from the supervisory file, light duty, intermittent employees as well as the OSHSA siting on radios. I also attended meet and confer as well as the general membership meeting. Please see the meeting minutes for the meet and confer as well as the general membership meeting.
I am continually working with the HIMS department in regards to working on weekends as well as other departmental concerns.
Everyone is encouraged to fill out a Security Report for any concerns that you have with the new radios or the situation with the radios.
If you are being denied overtime or are having specific concerns with Atlas please bring them to labors attention so we can deal with it accordingly.
I would like to congratulate Emilio Florez on his election to the Chief Union Steward and congratulations to Jake Schoenecker on his election to the e-board.
For those of you who are aware of the case in Janus vs. AFSCME. You are encouraged to sign your membership of maintenance cards (MOM). If you haven’t signed one please reach out to any Chief Union Steward.
As always…. Your Humble Chief Union Steward
Steve Wilking
Executive Board: Chief Steward Mike Homer- This last month has been quieter for me. I have not sat any investigations or had to put in any grievances.
Executive Board: Chief Steward Marvin Sullivan
Executive Board: Jamie Sheppard- I have been answering a lot of questions about the contract regarding vacation, inversing, sick time and bereavement leave. I attended SEPC in Bloomington, attended MSOP Meet and Confer, E-board meeting, and the General Membership meeting. I am continuing to track grievances, so thank you to those who remember to send them my way. If you need anything, please let me know.
In Solidarity, Jamie Sheppard-E-board
CS Facility Support: Stacey Mueller-
Chief Steward MSH / CRP / Nursing Nights: Kurt Crosby- Grievances on missed shifts of OT. Labor/Management meeting discussing policies and uses of wording. Any NOC’s stewards that want to help with grievances, please let me know because we could use the help.
Grievances out on non-payment of worked hours.
Keep doing security reports on radios. Email Jodi Culver on any Atlas issues, she will do her best to address it. We may not always agree but she will address.
OSHA complaints should follow the correct protocol if we call and do not follow that. OSHA has limited resources to address everything. We will put on our webpage the correct procedure we need to follow to ensure the best and fastest remedy to a situation. Be safe.
Crystal Kreklow: Still looking for lost times to come out on political. Haven’t heard anything on Janus yet. Should be very soon. When you lose Janus, you usually lose 2 percent.
Motion to Adjourn by Adam Castle, 2nd by Emilio Florez. 530pm