April 2021 General Membership Minutes

General Membership Meeting-AFSCME 404

April 15, 2021

430 PM Video Conference

Present:

Adam Castle, Ryan Cates, Annie Jakacki, Nick Weerts, Antonino Guerrero, Steve Wilking, Alex Flores, Eric Hesse, Karla Herzberg, Hans Paulson, Judy Ehrman, Tom Keck, Andrea Nelson, Nolan Siemers, Tom Kluntz, Stacey Mueller, Antonino Guerrero, Jake Schoenecker

1.Secretary Report:

Motion to approve March meeting minutes by Adam Castle. 2nd by Steve Wilking. Motion passes.

2. Treasurer-Antonino Guerrero:

STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FOR MONTH ENDING: March 2021

CASH BALANCE BEGINNING OF MONTH: $ 108495.64

INCOME FOR THE MONTH: $ 7770.53

EXPENSES FOR THE MONTH: $ 6913.22

CASH BALANCE ENDING OF MONTH: $ 109352.95

SAVINGS: $ 125472.46

SUBMITTED BY: Antonino Guerrero

Motion to accept February Statement subject to audit by Adam Castle, 2nd by Eric Hesse. Motion Passes

Motion to accept March statement subject to audit by Judy Ehrman, 2nd by Adam Castle. Motion Passes.

3. Correspondence: Osha was on site last week due to how management has handled the pandemic. Get any other issues to Ryan or Steve. Other information is on the social media site. You can contact the person stated on there directly and you will remain anonymous. In the complaint it was cited for Linden because those were the positive tests. Labor brought concern that it should not be only Linden staff because staff are rotated throughout campus. Management wants it limited to only Linden staff, but labor is going to. If there are 40 Linden staff, they want to limit it to only 40 staff, but labor is saying the entire facility, due to cross contamination. Carol has put out 108 total positive staff cases, but we have yet to have any osha recordables. Staff are given the ability to use short term disability if you got COVID at work per federal statute. There is inaccurate reporting. Management does not want to listen to this. We want to wrap this in with the OSHA complaint. Management has admitted to the OSHA that they have not been on the recordables. They don’t believe it needed to be and they will have to defend that. Staff can use workers comp to help record they contracted COVID at work so that down the road, if you get other issues, you could possibly be covered. The law changed where it is assumed, we got COVID from work due to the nature of the job. Now it is on management to prove it wasn’t contracted at work.

FMHP Meeting Minutes: https://www.union404.com/news/april-2021-fmhp-meet-and-confer-minutes

MSOP Meeting Minutes: https://www.union404.com/news/april-2021-msop-meet-and-confer

4. New Business:  In-person meetings: There may not be a lot of space due to other customers at the locations and CDC guidelines. We can also do ZOOM at the same time since we already extended it another year. We will look at in person next month.

A Chief Steward resigned. The executive board voted Eric Manriquez as the new Chief Steward.

Contract negotiations started with the master team. Under mediation rules, Eric cannot get into details. Eric Hesse stated this is his 3rd contract negotiation. This is by far the worst initial offering the state has ever given. They are crying poverty. With the lower membership statewide, we can expect more of the same in the future. At the state level we are at 70 percent membership.

Annie: Supplemental negotiations will be soon. Meeting next week to hash out details about meetings. Then going to the table. All negotiations have to be complete by June 1st. Hopefully we can get it going in May. Supplemental applies just to our local.

5. Old Business:

6. Items from the membership: We approved 2 additional chief stewards for the local. Steve has been working on analytics. A member is building a database, voluntarily. This is investigation information, records of grievances won and lost. Steve makes a motion to pay her per diems when she is working on this database.2nd by Hesse. Motion passes for a per diem of $125.

Stacey-Where is the arbitration process? How does it work? How long does it take? Etc. Staff feel they aren’t being responded to also. We need to find a way to keep people informed. Cates-I have been contacted by many and I always respond. Generally, once a step 3 is denied, the local eboard votes to send it to arbitration. It is then sent to the council for intent to arbitrate within 90 days. Local send files to the council. Eric-From there, it goes to the review team in council 5. They discuss and either proceed to arbitration or decline. They let the local know after that. Then it is up to the council to arb. Sometimes it is settled beforehand but if it goes to arb, it takes time. If it is denied by the council, the local can make a case to the committee to overturn that decision. The committee then decided if enough was done to go forward. Annie-if it goes to arb, a field rep takes it to try for a settlement or schedule for arbitration. One arb was just done a month ago and MMB has set it for 6 weeks out. we tried for a settlement on that last fall. Another one that is trying to arbitrate and MMB said they aren’t scheduling anything until at least October. Getting MMB on board is the issue and they are who we settle with. Either to settle or go to arbitration. I have talked to many staff that have pending arbs and I have responded every time. It’s not a fast process. Stacey-Everyone needs to know what the process is so they can understand why it takes so long. Annie-MMB is in negotiations with every union right now is why they won’t even start until October. MMB is down to 1 person to deal with these. They had 9 at one time. The turnover is very high. The process starts all over when you get someone new. We are doing what we can to get it done. All arbs go to BMS first. We have tried to put pressure on MMB by going through BMS. Any member who would like to withdraw their grievance and release the union from their arbitration to proceed on their own with a lawyer, let Ryan Cates know.

7. Good and Welfare:

8. Officer Reports:

President: Ryan Cates- This past month I have…

 

 Attended Forensic Meet and Confer- Notes are attached to the meeting minutes.

  

Attended MSOP Meet and Confer- Notes are attached to the meeting minutes.

 

Participated in meeting between Labor and HR to attempt to improve the Lead leveling process.

  

Filed multiple grievances and sat investigations.

  

Talked with members in multiple work areas and listened to their concerns.

 

Presented and argued grievances.

  

Communicated information to E-Board members about issues facing the Local.

 

Chaired the Executive Board Meeting.

 

Chaired the General Membership Meeting.

 

Attempted to work with Human Resources to get management to respect out contract and recognize our voice in the workplace.

 

Talked to Legislators about issues at MSH.

 

Discussed ways to improve information sharing between Local 404 Executive Board officers and our members.

 

  If any member of Local 404 feels they are not being represented by our Union, please let me know. We cannot fix problems if we do not know there is a problem.

 We ask that all members who are interviewed as non-subjects in an investigation, request Union representation. If management refuses, then members should refuse to answer questions. Participation in investigations is completely voluntary and they cannot coerce you to answer their questions. We need to do this to compel management to discontinue their practice of refusing to allow Union representatives into investigations.

 

VP: Steve Wilking-

VP: Eric Hesse-

Executive Board: Jake Schoenecker- I have been sitting investigations weekly and attending monthly meetings

Executive Board: Chief Steward: Judy Ehrman- I have completed one investigation in March and the results came out positive for AFSCME

I have filed 4 grievances on behalf of AFSCME staff. Two have been settled in step one and 2 are waiting on results.

I have received masks for Rochester site. Waiting on list of members that are to receive the masks.

Executive Board: Chief Steward Alex Flores- I just sat some investigations this past month

Executive Board: Chief Steward Nick Weerts-

Executive Board: Chief Steward Marvin Sullivan- This past month I have attended meetings in regards to COVID updates.  Also attended Safety meeting, FMHP Meet and Confer.  I have had discussions with many members in regards to the contract negotiation process.  I have also sat some investigations this past month.

 

Executive Board: Jamie Sheppard- I attended MSOP Meet and Confer. Please continue to send me all of your steps and responses.

CS Facility Support: Eric Manriquez-

Chief Steward MSH / CRP / Nursing Nights: Kurt Crosby- It has been a busy week with questions and research going on this past month. I have sat 2 investigations and meet with leadership regarding a few issues as well. The Eboard is currently discussing several things that have been brough to my attention the past few months, please be patient as we work through this and I am hoping we can come up with answers this month. Please keep voicing your concerns and asking your questions as that I how we will get better. By continuing the conversations, we will get stronger!

Annie Jakacki- 822 Members out of 873 in bargaining unit. 94.2 percent.

 

Motion to adjourn by Adam Castle. 2nd   Tom Keck. Motion Passes.

Adjourned at 638pm