CBA 2018 Megathread

[AdminAdmin]

Megathread for the new CBA, all discussion goes here!

[mcsmith]

Hi guys,

Does anyone have any actual presentable evidence that other unions have negotiated their CBAs to include their benefits into their pay? Also I'm concerned about write-ups not having a drop off. I've been told that they don't consider older ones towards punishment but I'd feel way more comfortable if that was in writing. What do you guys think?

[Losvigil05]

I’m disappointed in the negotiations. I pay five hundred plus dollars for the insurance we get from Deco, I also pay another five hundred plus dollars to get insurance for my wife and child from a private insurance. To have it go into the paycheck taxed I’m fine with. In the long run money will be saved for me and my family. I’ll take that any day over a 78 cent pay increase.

[mcsmith]

I'm with you. We should be getting the pay increase and the benefit money. Not to mention all the other stuff we asked for, I understand the need to concede some stuff and meet in the middle, but it really seems like we conceded everything?

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[Clayton C.]

If the copy of the draft is what they took to negotiations it's no wonder we got nothing. That draft I got looked like it was prepared by a school kid, lower grade school kid. The thing was not proof read and full of both format and grammar errors. The wording changed slightly in a few areas from the 2015 CBA, however, it said the same thing. They probably laughed as our union reps were trying to negotiate, they were ill prepared and that is why we got nothing we asked for.

[mcsmith]

Hey everybody, check this out, it was negotiated last year for UGSOA local 883:


Article 27, section 2 (27.2) states:

"27.2 Officers shall receive a Health & Welfare hourly rate of $4.27 per hour (based on 2080
hours per year) as a part of their wages. Officers may elect to voluntarily participate in
the Company’s benefit plans, the cost of which will be explained in detail to each Officer.
Should Officers elect not to participate in the Company’s benefit plans the amount of the
Health & Welfare hourly rate will continue to be paid directly to the Officer in the form of
wages and be reflected on their paychecks. Should an Officer choose to participate in the
Company’s benefit plans on a limited basis (for example taking dental or vision insurance
only) any cost of the plans will be subtracted from the Health & Welfare hourly rate, with
the remaining funds continuing to be paid in the form of wages."

[Clayton C.]

Indeed it was

[PSOFields]

PSOs,

I am in agreement with those saying they are disappointed with the results of the negotiations. Though, I realize it's probably too late for this message to come across to everyone, I think we should APPROVE the current CBA proposal. I don't like what we got either, HOWEVER, if we reject it, we send THE SAME PEOPLE back to the bargaining table. They have already proven ineffective, and now we want to send them back? Big nope.

This, to me, is a choice of evils:

Evil option 1: Vote no. Send the people we're dissatisfied with back to the bargaining table, and almost definitely get no return on investment. Voting "NO" does not "punish" or make your dissatisfaction with the union leadership known. All it does is let them know we don't like the CBA.

Evil option 2: Approve the CBA proposal and suck it up. Hold re-election. Get our shit together AS A UNION, attend meetings, and promote solidarity between us. Collect information like Matt shared about the other local with the Health and Welfare in their checks, find an attorney who will fight this issue with us.

I don't like the CBA proposal any more than anyone else. I just don't think there's enough time for a special election, transition of leadership, finding an attorney, collecting required research, and renegotiation right now. I think if the current proposal doesn't go through, we're going to be stagnating for quite a long while, and maybe not make any progress at all. The reason I think this is I have been to every union meeting since I have been on contract, and I could definitely count the number of members I've seen there without taking my shoes off. I'm not sure what the reason is, but I have a suspicion that others (like myself) do not enjoy being "talked at" by the President, for starters. I think a change in leadership is what we need, and we need it NOW.

Those are my thoughts. I welcome any of yours. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and I'm with you in this.

-Fields

[PSOFields]

Just received this:

"All,

We are please to announce the proposed CBA has been approved and will go into effect January 1, 2018

Thank you to each and everyone of you who took the time to vote."

OK, so my last statement is now moot. I say we start cleaning house.

[mcsmith]

Fields,

Good to hear from you man! Long time no see.

There's truth in what you wrote and I am saying so even knowing the CBA outcome. Something about all this feels very rotten, the misdirection about why we can't have our H&W isn't sitting well with me at all. At first it was because of the law and now that it's not because of the law it's because of Deco. It feels like like we just had random excuses and thinly veiled threats thrown at us until we said yes.

Does anyone know when the next elections are?

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[PSOFields]

Fields,

Good to hear from you man! Long time no see.

There's truth in what you wrote and I am saying so even knowing the CBA outcome. Something about all this feels very rotten, the misdirection about why we can't have our H&W isn't sitting well with me at all. At first it was because of the law and now that it's not because of the law it's because of Deco. It feels like like we just had random excuses and thinly veiled threats thrown at us until we said yes.

Does anyone know when the next elections are?

Sent from Topic'it App

Good to hear from you too. I miss hanging out with you guys. Thank you for putting this together. I knew we needed a centralized place for this, and the only thing I could think of was Facebook, and I don't have Facebook anymore. So, kudos to you for being a smart guy!

Anyway, the CBA. I didn't get the same feeling from the emails regarding the H&W. What I interpreted was:

1. "Deco doesn't want to do it because it will count as income to us, and thus would be subject to payroll tax. If we wanted get the full $4.50, it would cost them (say) an extra $1.50 in payroll taxes, and they were unwilling to do that, and

2. Because of the legal mandates from the ACA, all of Deco's employees are required to have insurance, and if they don't, Deco is fined, and

3. Because Tricare is (by definition) a "secondary" or "supplementary" type of insurance, it does not meet the ACA mandates for a company of Deco's size, and

4. Because of Deco's unwillingness to fight / wade through the sticky legal issues and their reluctance to pay payroll taxes on the H&W, it was not impossible, but a dead issue for all practicable purposes.

So, with THAT understanding that I personally have, I was willing to let it go THIS TIME because I didn't feel like there was something dirty going on. I still don't. I do think we need to find someone who can go to bat for us and fix or resolve (in either direction) the issue. Now, for me personally, I don't care about the H&W issue because I like it going into my 401k AND I have insurance through my wife. I realize my situation is unique, and others (with their own unique circumstances) want to push forward on the H&W issue. That said, I think we should have a CHOICE in the matter, so all of our unique situations can be accommodated as best we can.

Really, though, I think the H&W is the least of our issues. We have SUPER low participation in the union, which means ZERO accountability for the leadership. That's the most important issue right now, and fixing it should be Priority #1. Once that gets going, we can call for a special election nearly any time, and I think that needs to happen as quickly as possible. I do need to check the bylaws on that though. As a part of Priority #1, we NEED VERY BADLY to have the ability to communicate. I missed all the email chains that were going around, and had no clue about what the members were saying until I happened to stumble into a conversation and asked what was going on.

[Pueppke]

This is a great place to start for communication. It allows us to get together without having to. I agree completely. We need to fix union participation, but part of that problem is we aren’t being notified of information as well. The last meeting was in March? But there’s been no communication as far as what the union is doing. We need this sort of thing fixed in order to help with participation. If we don’t know that the union is doing anything for any pso, we assume they aren’t doing anything. There’s a whole lack of communication on multiple points, so this is a good way to start fixing things.

[PSOFields]

Also, I'm pretty pissed we had ZERO meetings since March. Like, we're going into negotiations...don't you think we should maybe chat and strategize? I asked Sue about this on Monday, and she said because it had been just her and Gene, they didn't have the time / resources / whatever to hold a meeting. My first thought was "why do we need BOTH of you there to hold a meeting? Why do we need EITHER of you there? Couldn't we have done it with one of you, or just someone who could take notes and shoot them an email later?" I was pretty upset when she told me that. It's for primarily for this reason I want new leadership.

[Pueppke]

Hey will someone update us on the union meeting? What goes on/said? I would like to attend the meeting but I work weekends. Thanks guys!

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[PSOFields]

Yeah, I'm sure there will be plenty of discussion, Lia. I'll take notes.

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