11/17/16 Local 404 General Membership Meeting Minutes

Present:
Adam Castle, Tim Headlee, Matt Stenger, James Hemshrot, Marvin Sullivan, Antonino Guerrero, Jeff Bruns, Gus Grau, Melissa Grau, Stacey Mueller, Joann Holden

1.Secretary’s Report: Parental leave act passed.  The state is honoring back to July 1st but can still be overturned by legislation in January. We will be voting on attendees for negotiations committee. Motion by Hemshrot for Kurt Crosby to receive 3 hours driving and 3 hours per diem for investigation on day off. Stewards for overnight investigations is very difficult to find.  2nd by Guerrero. Motion passed. Motion by Stenger for mileage and per diem for DHS Policy Committee meetings. 2nd by Headlee, motion passes. Motion for CERP meeting mileage reimbursement and half day per diem for Hesse and Headlee. 2nd by Hemshrot, Motion passes.  Motion by Stenger for $100 paid to Jamie shepherd for tracking bidding, stewards and grievances regularly. 2nd by Headlee, Motion passes. Steward training on November 18th. Motion by Stenger to pay per diem for attendees and trainers for steward training for up to 20 people. Will be 1 day per diem for an 8 hour class. Training materials and lunch provided. 2nd by Hemshrot, Motion passes.  Motion by Stenger to give Abu Kamara $150 for retiring as is common practice for retirees. 2nd by Headlee, motion passes. Delegates list for negotiations committee must be provided by December 2nd.  Motion by Stenger to send up to 1 person for unit 2. 1 from unit 3. 13 from unit 204, 1 from unit 6. 1 from unit 7. Per diem for attendees and mileage for negotiations. 2nd by Hemshrot, Motion passes.

2. Treasurer-Antonino Guerrero: STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FOR MONTH ENDING October 2016 CASH BALANCE BEGINNING OF MONTH: $ 40273.32 INCOME FOR THE MONTH: $ 6091.20 EXPENSES FOR THE MONTH: $ 4268.11 CASH BALANCE ENDING OF MONTH: $42096.41 SUBMITTED BY: Antonino Guerrero Motion to pass by Headlee 2nd by Hemshrot

3. Correspondence:  Discussed CRP and continuity of care. Discussed capable and qualified for CRP coverage. How scheduling would work with how staff would be working at both locations.  They will be running drills to work out potential issues when incidents occur.  December 2nd construction completion.  MSH Staff appreciation is December 14th.  Colleen Ryan took over the scheduling department. Discussed new working titles for Counselors.  If you have any other ideas, send them to Headlee.  AFSCME will fight if it doesn’t match our ideas. Would like to use the titles which promote more pay and match our job descriptions closely.  Hay studies will come down to position descriptions and how closely they reflect your job. Staff can open up their own appeal to the supervisor for changes to job description. Campus Security position is trying to get a 3rd spot on NOC’s.  They are going to start posting staff in the upper access on overnights soon. Bartlett has recognized an influx of patients and Carol does recognize a different acuity level and has placed a freeze on admission. Please look for merit throughout your workday for safety issues and prepare to have a solution not just the problem.  Use the tools given, use staffing examples and bring to safety committee meetings. Show how they do not work.  Then we have a case for class action if necessary. Kitchen intermittent staffing will be cleaned up. Carol will be looking into how the intermittents are being scheduled.  Overtime list discussion again and how OD’s are not doing the call outs. Overtime has had a lot of media attention and we are asking for them to at least attempt to call staff that are interested or provide the list with phone numbers. Discussed the new holiday codes and confusion around it.  Management is aware and they will have this worked out very soon. Inversing and the time in between. If the need isn’t until 3 but the staff is off at 2, an OD is telling staff to leave for that hour.  This is not according to contract and management will look into this. They agreed that this should not be happening. Grievance process-Every step is being heard from HR people.  Three step ones are approved and then overturned later.  Unknowing to AFSCME, there is an HR review sub-committee when it comes to pay.  Hooded sweatshirt issue is coming from a DCT policy.  Stenger is going to DCT to try to get them to include hooded sweatshirts in the allowable dress section.  Carol said she will not fight this issue.  Hats is allowed in a sub section and will look at adding hooded sweatshirts to the sub-section. Follow Up: 1. Scheduling Program-JR sent out an email.  If you are having issues please contact him.  Many of the issues encountered by staff have been problems accessing the program with certain browsers.  If you are accessing through a cell phone, copy the URL into the site address area. 2. Switch Rotations Approval- Management will accept these within reason.  Contact JR if you are interested. 3. More Leads at CPS- Tim Benesch is looking into this.  There is a need for more staff and proposals have been submitted.(Tim L)  Molly K- Asks for bid staff at CPS be scheduled according to CPS as a whole, not specific units of CPS. Example: roll call-instead of staff A assigned to Sunrise East, staff A would instead be called off as CPS. Staff could then figure out which unit of CPS to work.  Molly will present this to Michelle Sexe and Tim Benesch. 4. Vacation Audits- Audits will be completed at the end of the pay period before the switch over to semaphore. 5. Rec/Visit Staffing- Management is looking at this closely and changes are coming soon. Have been staffing heavier on weekends due to increased visits during this time.  There is a meeting scheduled with management and AFSCME to go over staffing options.  New Agenda Items:
1.  1st Watch AGS calling people at home before inversing- Staff can request names of staff on the advance overtime sign up list from the OD when inversed.  Staff must obtain contact information themselves.  Please access any social media sites during break time and on non-unit computers! 2.  Hand Sanitizer on Units- Management is unaware of a shortage at the warehouse and will look into this.  Non-alcoholic only. 3.  Pexton 1 South Staffing- This will be part of the conversation of the Rec/Visit staffing meeting. 4.  Badge Policy- The policy covers all staff in facility. May be a performance issue if this is occurring consistently.  If a badge is lost, please notify the OD immediately.  Level 1 incident reports do not go into staff files.  Your supervisor is notified the issue for follow up only.

Management Agenda Items

1. DCT Smoking and Use of Tobacco Products Policy, Effective December 6th- This policy has been updated with no big changes.  No alcohol, tobacco, or firearms allowed on campus. 2. Computer Usage- There have been a lot of reports of internet usage while on the living units and client areas. Use of “drop downs” should be utilized.  Molly- Where are these drop downs? One is Stacy’s office, Tammy’s office, and the back room of the Pexton Lobby-(Wold)  I didn’t know that..Molly.  Tim Headlee-are people getting their breaks? Leaving staff on unit.  Bonnie-“call the OD if you are not getting your breaks in. The reason for the audit is not to be punitive” Randomized audits will be conducted soon which will include; Date range, time periods, and staff names.  Please be mindful of only using the internet in the drop down areas on your breaks and away from client areas.

4. New Business: MSOP management said they will be conducting a computer usage audit of staff. Keep in mind there is a computer usage policy and to be familiar with it.  Be aware that MSH may decide to do this as well but nothing has been mentioned by MSH management about this issue.

5. Old Business:  None

6. Items from the membership: None

7. Officer Reports

Presidents Report-Tim Headlee: Keeping a close eye on CRP.  We have the class action ready to put in play if necessary.  Preparing for arbitrations, attaching petitions and exit letters with same existing problems as it pertains to approving step 3’s and then overturned by HR when it involves monetary compensation and safety.  3rd step is to sit across form Carol and explain our biggest problems, which are inversing and overtime.

VP-Matt Stenger: On November 10, 2016 Eric Hesse and myself went to AFSCME Council 5 to meet with MSRS to discuss our Corrections Early Retirement Plan (CERP). What we were presented with was that our CERP retirement is only at 70% funded. The reason why we are only 70% funded is due to a couple of reasons, 1. MSRS put money into bonds instead of investing in a risky market. Due to the current interest rates being low and have been for a few years now, we are not getting back the best investments on our return but it’s safe.  2. People are living longer and or giving their retirement to a beneficiary after a death. This is taking a bigger toll on our account than in previous years. Which is why we are seeing a decline in our retirement projections.    MRSR developed a plan back in October 2016 to try and correct our declining account. What they came up was to take the following actions over the next 3 years. In 2017 they wanted to implement .5% increase that employees would pay per check so taking us from 9.1% to 9.5% employee contributions and have the state pay a 6% increase from 12.85% to 16.62%. In 2018 they would like to reduce the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) from the standard 2% down to 1.5% from those who are currently collecting from retirement.  In 2019 they want to have the employer to take another bump in employer contributions from 16.62% to 18.85%. By doing so this would put our CERP retirement at 100% fully funded by 2042. Now here is the problem with the plan that was developed back in October of this year. It was drafted prior to the elections that just took place. It was drafted in hopes we would have a little friendlier legislator.  Since we didn’t get that, it’s going to be difficult to get the current plan pushed through the legislature. I’m expecting to see push back from key players in the legislators. In the past, the legislators have gone after our retirement plan, including putting in proposals to get rid of retirement all together and force us into the stock market with no employer contribution. This is going to affect more than just our retirement but our contract negotiations as well. During our meeting, Eric Hesse and I put ourselves on a committee with the presidents from DOC that is also affected by this changes in our retirement plan. Once we find out who will be assigned what committees in the legislator. We can start conversations with legislators and attended the hearings on our retirement. We will have more information on how to help fight these actions and what you can do to help. So we can retain the benefits we have worked for in our dangerous environments. 

VP- Eric Hesse:

Executive Board: Ryan Cates: Working with scheduling department and coding with HR.

Executive Board: Luke Frederick

Executive Board: James Hemshrot: Talked about going straight to step threes instead of using the process due to 1st steps being approved and later overturned by HR.

Executive Board: Molly Kennedy

Executive Board: Kurt Crosby

CS FACILITY SUPPORT: Mike Homer

CS MSH / CRP / Nursing Nights: Jeff Brunz

Motion to adjourn by Headlee, 2nd by Adam Castle Meeting adjourned at 6PM.