General Membership Meeting-AFSCME 404
September 19, 2019
430PM St. Peter American Legion
Present:
Adam Castle, Emilio Florez, Ryan Cates, Jamie Sheppard, Kurt Crosby, Jake Schoenecker, Rich Delestre, Stacy Mueller, Crystal Kreklow
1.Secretary Report:
Motion to approve August meeting minutes by Adam Castle, 2nd by Steve Wilking . Motion passes
2. Treasurer-Antonino Guerrero:
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FOR MONTH ENDING: August 2019
CASH BALANCE BEGINNING OF MONTH: $ 82716.39
INCOME FOR THE MONTH: $ 7300.73
EXPENSES FOR THE MONTH: $ 11385.64
CASH BALANCE ENDING OF MONTH: $ 78631.48
SAVINGS: $ 80052.17
SUBMITTED BY: Antonino Guerrero
Motion to approve Treasurer Report subject to audit by Kurt Crosby subject to audit. 2nd by Emilio. Motion passes
3. Correspondence:
MSH Meet and Confer: https://www.union404.com/news/september-2019-msh-meet-and-confer
MSOP Meet and Confer: https://www.union404.com/news/september-msop-minutes
4. New Business: Rochester Meet and confer on September 26th. Mileage and per diem motion by Kurt Crosby, 2nd by Steve. Motion Passes. We need a Steward to go to Rochester on October 2nd mileage per diem by Steve. 2nd by Jake. Motion Passes
5. Old Business: Convention is coming up. Attendees need to have the time off of work to attend. Let us know at least 2 days prior if you cannot make it so we can cancel the room and not get charged. Thursday morning registration ends by 9am. Council 5 meeting is on Wednesday night. Motion for mileage, per diem and hotel by Kurt, 2nd by Wilking. Motion Passes.
Contract has not yet gone to senate employee committee until all units have been received. Waiting on one.
6. Items from the membership: Delestre: Is there a Hennessy rule that membership can’t talk to council 5 about the goings on at the council. Has anyone been told they can’t tell the membership things? Crystal-no, no one has been instructed that. If you have questions, ask. Rich-I am asking for you to find out if we did not file for intent in time? So the state didn’t have to negotiate with us? Or is there a rule that the council has been told not to talk about council business. Rich-I have gotten information that says otherwise. Crystal-I will ask but I haven’t heard about this.
Cates-at check in yesterday, I asked Scott about what happened with the assaults. He said “yes, I told them that”. I asked why, the unit station is there for our safety. Stacy-he said he wanted someone posted on every corner and keep your head swiveling.
7. Good and Welfare:
8. Officer Reports:
President: Ryan Cates-
VP: Matt Stenger- This month we have had several meetings for the nursing home trying to improve the environment. We are reaching out both in person and via email to the nursing home to find out what kind of schedules would help with their staffing. Please respond to help us figure out what will help you guys in contract language. We will also be attending meet and confer in Rochester for CBHH/CARE. I have also sat several investigations and filed four, grievances two of them have come back as a win.
VP: Eric Hesse- I’ve been busy trying to catch up since being away on vacation, but I’m slowly getting there. This past month we have been dealing with trying to rectify the staffing issues and issues overall at the Forensic Nursing Home.
CONTRACT UPDATE: We are still awaiting the Commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget to give the ratified contract to the legislative Subcommittee of Employee Relations (SER), which I hear may happen sometime in October. When this does happen, the SER has 30 days to make a recommendation to the full body of the legislature, whether to pass the contract or to reject it. If they fail to meet within the 30 days, the contract gets temporarily implemented until the legislature votes on it during their 2020 session. If they do meet on it, there are three possibilities that can happen. They can vote to recommend the approval of the new contract, which then the contract will be temporarily implemented. The can vote to recommend that the contract does not get approved and the contract will not be implemented until the full body of the legislature votes on it. There can also be a tie vote, which is the most likely outcome, and a tie vote goes in favor of the contract and the contract will be temporarily implemented. Once the contract gets temporarily implemented, all new contract changes will go into effect and we will all get our cost of living adjustment and we will get back-paid from July 1st for the raise we were supposed to get.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out.
In solidarity,
Eric Hesse
Vice President – Steward Coordinator
AFSCME Local 404
Executive Board: Jake Schoenecker-
Executive Board: Chief Steward Emilio Florez- This month has been pretty busy. I made all the meetings this month. I had some investigations at the Nursing Home and CARE facility. We plan on going to Rochester twice this month one for a couple investigations/grievances and one for Labor management Meeting.
I am still working with OSHA and their investigation at FMHP and have been documenting as much as possible. I feel were are close to finishing up. They have requested many forms from management and have still been doing more interviews.
We visited the CARE facility and had a chance to speak with some staff. We also handed out some shirts to staff. We Plan on going back again soon to finish up with the shirts an talk with other staff as well. We also plan on doing a whole review of operations at CARE/CBHH to determine if there are any needs. We will be also looking at scheduling patterns and contract violations.
Our subject we are working on at the Interest Based Problem solving group is “Overtime”. This seems to be going well so far.
Executive Board: Chief Steward Steve Wilking- Over the last month I have attended the usual meetings. Those are weekly check-ins, meet and confer, interest based problem solving, safety meeting as well as the General Membership meeting. We continue to take many union calls about our contract. Please continue to call us with any questions, comments and or concerns.
During those meetings we have spoken about the continued understanding of the organizational restructuring of groves, nepotism on campus, incorrect overtime distribution, continued trouble with Atlas and the Forensic Nursing Home concerns.
I continue to sit many investigations as well as file many grievances. Please feel free to reach out to any elected officer to answer any questions, comments and concerns.
Recommendations. If you are missing overtime due to missed calls on your phone…. There is a new policy in regards to cellular devices. Also, I would recommend that you go into ATLAS and add every possible state phone number to ensure the AODS office and the Scheduling office are calling you for the overtime while you are in building. Ensuring that they have called every number provided. I will provide a step by step instruction for how to accomplish this.
- Open Atlas
- Under the “My Account” menu on top select “My Contact Information”
- A dialog box of “Contact Information for (YOUR NAME)” will appear
- Within the dialog box on the RIGHT you will see “Employee Phone Numbers”
- Select the BLUE PLUS button
- This will clear the fields and allow you to enter “Phone Type” and “Phone Number”
- Enter every possible phone number that you could possibly work
- You can save after each one or save after you have entered many
- SAVE OFTEN
This will ensure that YOU WILL NOT miss a call for overtime while you’re at work because they called the number provided! Which is typically your home phone number.
In Solidarity,
Steve Wilking
Chief Union Steward
AFSCME Local 404
Executive Board: Chief Steward Molly Kennedy- This month we are still working on CPS Health Services and trying to work out staffing. We discussed MSOP not encouraging staff to write incident reports on other staff. It is creating a very negative culture also anytime a staff goes to a supervisor with a concern their first response is “did you write a report?”. I suggested that first of all people address things with their co-workers in the moment and if the issue continues then speak to a supervisor to have an unwritten coaching with the employee. I think it would solve many of our issues with staffing. We spoke about how bumping employees to nights should look and management agreed. Please see www.union404.com meeting minutes for that conversation. This month I have sat 2 investigations mostly surrounding ETL (no time on the books) please be aware of your accruals. I will also be bring up scheduling not putting a location of where employees are assigned for their shift. We feel that is unfair to not have any idea where they are working for the day. We do know that it is subject to change but it is nice to know where you may potentially be. If you have any question please feel free to reach out.
Executive Board: Chief Steward Marvin Sullivan-
Executive Board: Jamie Sheppard- September 2019: I attended MSOP Meet and Confer, E-board Meeting, the General Membership Meeting and I will be attending the AFSCME Convention in Duluth next month. I met with MSOP nursing and discussed ongoing concerns with the Sunrise Clinic. I have also met with numerous counselors to discuss recent and ongoing issues on 3rd watch. I think things have pretty much settled down now. ATTENTION STEWARDS: The most important part of grievance tracking are the responses. Please make sure you are sending me everything from start to finish. Thank you!
In Solidarity, Jamie Sheppard-E-Board
CS Facility Support: Stacey Mueller- I’ve had a few investigations this last month. Please make it a priority to call in sick when you are sick, and to make it to work on time. This is your job. Your co-workers count on you so that they may go home and spend time with their family.
Chief Steward MSH / CRP / Nursing Nights: Kurt Crosby- I have sat 2 investigations this month and have stayed busy trying to get answers to several pressing questions members have had pertaining to the process for the AODS office and their duties. Staff are getting inversed out of order and cannot get questions answered. Attended the eboard and general membership meetings, and have filed several grievances.
Interest based problem solving group has been working on getting an agreement on the new OT sign up.
I will also be attending the state AFSCME convention in Duluth in October and hopefully will have some good information for everyone when I return.
Crystal Kreklow: 95% membership
Register on memberlink for convention workshops
Motion to Adjourn by Kurt, 2nd by Steve. Motion Passes
Meeting adjourned at 515PM