VICE PRESIDENT
DAVE WOOD'S REPORT
September 22, 2008
Qwest- Reminder that you get your contract ratification ballots in, they will be counted on the 29th.
Let me now take the opportunity to thank all of you that participated in the mobilization activities at Qwest during contract negotiations. Whether this contract is in or its out, your mobilization was a vital part of our solidarity and visibility to the company. A special recognition goes to our members in Unit 5 for the outstanding job they did in getting creative with the banners and hand painted CWA t-shirts made from their Qwest ones, they were a great hit at 20 E Thomas
As a side note, Qwest has put some Documents Discussions in the files of Unionists at 20 E, for allegedly doing union business in areas of work operations on August 15th. Call me if you have any questions on this matter.
In El Centro we are still getting new hires with another new class next week. Union reps are doing a great job in organizing these folks by educating them on labor history and the need to move this labor movement forward. Great job and welcome new members of Local 7019.
Before I forget again, I want to acknowledge our Qwest COBROS group in Unit 1 as being 100% union. Go COBROS!! There are 100 members in this group.
We will also be starting our work at Qwest for next year on entitlement time, so if you have carry over time, get it on you vacation calendar soon.
Will be going into bargaining with AT@T early next year. Bargaining surveys are going out to our members this week. This survey can also be done on line on the web site.
We encourage all of our members at AT@T to take this survey and get your issues for bargaining heard.
We are also looking for volunteers from AT@T to be part of a new training developed to educate the workers on the issues and mobilization for the membership. This training will be done during the day and CWA will replace any wages lost .We will also pay a flat $50 to compensate for lost commissions. If you are an interested member at AT@T or wishing to become a member to part part of this please call the hall and we can get you going.
With the general election fast approaching we are still in need of volunteers for phone banking and walking for candidates. Please call Valerie Dossett at the hall for details. The Labor 2008 is in full swing so please get involved with Labor to help elect candidates that support Labor!
We will also again this year do our annual collection of Holiday gifts for the children that our members at Labors Community Service Agency support. Watch for details soon.
1-29-08
Happy New Year. Here we are again headed into bargaining with Qwest starting in June. I want to thank all of those that responded to the bargaining survey and the proposals we received. In May, delegates from all the locals will convene to narrow down the proposals given to those serving at the bargaining table The delegates going from here are Paul Castaneda, Sue Head and Chris Rossie. They will bring back the information and disseminate what they can, without compromising our game plan. We do know that the most single issue again will be health care, which we can count on. Watch for information on this early on. Moblizers are still needed in all units so please see a union rep in your area to sign on!
With it being a bargaining year at our largest employer, many people plan on retiring, but keep in mind that we still need the retirees engaged as this fight for heath care is about us too, so please get involved with the Retiree Chapter. And remember that if you are leaving and need financial planning, our members at Principal Financial Group are there to serve you and are our preference as your local union
To those that are leaving active employment, THANK YOU for your years of hard work and union membership
Also at Qwest, things are pretty quiet in the centers I support. Discipline is way down for performance as the company is focusing on training and developing( wow what a concept) and it is having some positive effects on our members as a whole. Although we have a few members that have been harmed, by job loss for performance, its way down from years past. Constant attrition by discipline is not how to effectively slow retention. And speaking of attrition this is manly in El Centro, where the company believes that paying $10.00 an hour is a great job to have! and it is, but they deserve and need more than this and hopefully this round of bargaining we can increase this salary. As of today we have approx another 50 folks in training, with about a 98% joining our local. We welcome all of you to CWA.
Last week in Northern Arizona, our district arbitrated 2 cases with Qwest on motor vehicle accidents suspensions of 6 days total. I am happy to announce that we were successful and these employees will be getting their money back. Thanks go the Larry Larsen, Angel Garcia and Brent Kellogg
Dex is fairly quiet, late last fall our members were moved from the old location on Dunlap, from which has been the yellow page home since they were part of Ma Bell. Their new location is now at 7th Ave and the 101 Freeway in north Phoenix.
We recently lost a couple of Arbitrations on contracting which had a huge effect on our contracting grievance on the India contractors doing our graphic work. This grievance will not be arbitrated after all. I want to thank the reps at Dex for all they’re input on this case and specifically Kenna Stevens, union rep, who worked very hard with the District on this case. We know where we need to focus next bargaining with this employer
Our annual Spring Basket Drive and local Golf Tournament, benefiting Labors Community Service Agency and Pediatric Aids, respectfully, will be here soon. Part of our CWA triangle is our work for the community, so please do your best to be part of these fundraisers. Information will be forth coming. Watch for these on you bulletin boards
October 10th 2007
As of October 1st, there are only 321 days left of the current agreement with our largest employer, Qwest Communications. As locals begin the process of getting things going, it’s important that all members get engaged with process when we start. With 2008 bargaining we also have another big year in the political process electing a new President. For those two big things for us( Labor) it is going to be vital that all members get involved in our Cope Program and education and mobilization for bargaining. Heath care will again be a big issue in both of the arenas and we need gains on the political front to help us battle this at all bargaining tables we represent. Please help us help you by getting involved.
Also at Qwest, the surplus in the Consumer Data Specialist title has been resolved with no layoffs. A big thank you and best regards to those members who are leaving voluntarily to pursue a new life away from Qwest. These member’s decisions helped save the least senior folks from layoff. Thanks and good luck.
We have also been notified that it looks good for more classes of the CSA title in Consumer El Centro. We have a high turnover in this title so it’s good to know that we will continue to see the jobs backfilled.
We also have a new class of SSC’s in Small Business that started on 9-24 whom by the way, have all signed union cards.
We have recently had a number of calls regarding pensions if someone gets fired. Once someone is vested in the pension plan, it cannot be taken from them no matter how they leave employment.
If you are pension eligible, you can immediately call for your pension packet.
If you are not pension eligible, you will receive a letter from the company asking if you want your pension money now or have it deferred until you reach 65. Two options only but you do get your money. Don’t let any manager tell you otherwise. Any questions please call me.
We are also beginning our annual talks with our employers on 2008 vacation schedules and local agreements. Some agreements call for unscheduled 2007 vacation to be scheduled before we start for next year. If you have that process and have time you want to book in 2008 please contact your manager if you have not been contacted already.
Please also remember that we are collecting gently used or new Halloween costumes for our kids at Labors Community Service Agency. Please give to your shop stewards or bring to the union hall. We will also be starting our Annual Holiday Gift Drive soon for our same kids. Please watch for the flyers at work in the next few weeks.
Have a fun Halloween and be careful of the little goblins out collecting treats that may not be watching for the cars.
We have reached a new 1-year wage agreement with LCSA, which was ratified by the membership. The new agreement calls for a 21/2 % increase, a $1300 bonus and another bonus of $100 for each year of service. The agreement also has a salary increase to two of the positions in the agency. I would like to thank Liz Henry, the new shop steward, for all her valuable input that brought this agreement together on the last day.
At Qwest, we have another surplus in the Data Specialist title in the Consumer Organization. This surplus is with our clerical support for We Can and El Centro centers which is downsizing to 9 from 14. The resolution date is October 18th. Again the local will do everything possible to help our members get thru this again. I say again as these are the same Data Specialists that we surpluses last September.
Also at Qwest, we have some new work again in the Sales Support center. Under a (LOA) Letter of Agreement with the bargaining agents, we have brought work to Phoenix and Omaha from Denver that was being preformed by contractors. This work is the back room support for wireless. Bringing this work in has not been without challenges but our members have stepped up to help make this work and local management has been working with the local union do make this a success. Under this LOA, it does not give us this work on a permanent basis but we believe that come 08 bargaining, that the company will find that contactors are no match to our members when it comes to quality and we will succeed at getting this work permanently
Again at Qwest, we were notified that the current CSA’s in training for ElCentro are going to have their starting salaries raised to $10.00. from the current $8.50 per hour. The current LOA on this title gives the company that latitude. As we have said from day 1, these salaries were going to keep attrition levels high and apparently the company is giving that some credence. The pay scales on this position will defiantly be one of our top proposals from our local for next years bargaining.
Our Back to School drive for LCSA was a huge success. I want to thank all of you who gave your time and donations. I especially want to thank Unit 6 and those members who made it a valiant competition to see which team could produce the most. It apparently was quite a good spirited competition and it paid off for these kids like you wouldn’t believe. Hats off to all of you!
Once again we are in the process of electing delegates to our annual convention. This year the dates are September 29th and 30th. All units have posted their notices and the dates are as follows for the Units that I support. Unit 1 is today, June 5th, 700 pm at the Starbucks at Park Central. Unit 5 will be June 14th, 400pm – 600 pm at the Hilton at Central and Thomas. Unit 6 will also be at the Hilton on June 21st, Unit 3 has elected all delegates except Flagstaff, which will be done by the end of June.
At Labors Community Service Agency we have recruited a new steward. Liz Henry has graciously accepted the assignment. Our contract with the agency allows for wage negotiations on the off years of bargaining a full contract. On June 14th we will start these negotiations and Liz will join us at the bargaining table. We are currently trying to get this group back the 100% union shop that we lost after last years wage reopener. I believe that progress can be made.
At Qwest, in the CMC, we are waiting for the company to respond back to our protest on their attendance board. Two weeks ago the company set up an attendance board in the hallway that had the names of all employees that were not at work that day. Their plan was to do this on a daily basis as a way of trying to bring to light the high number of folks that don’t come to work. I guess that they believe that if they embarrass you this way then you will decide that you were not sick or decided that that V-day isn’t important so you will just come into work. After we made our calls to Labor Relations, the board came down. The department said they would get back to me and we are still waiting
We understand that attendance is important, but getting people to make good decisions about coming to work if they think they can make it thru the day wont be accomplished this way. On this same day, the name of a manager that was not at work was posted on the union board, IT DISAPEARED! Within the hour! Maybe someone was embarrassed!
In Northern Arizona, we are now getting into the problems with QJD that the valley has been going through for several months. Lots of grievance activity going on with a couple that has created a Labor board charge against Qwest by the grievants. The charges will be deferred until the grievances are resolved. The charges are on retaliation.
Also at Qwest, we have new hires in training in the SBG and El Centro centers. It is my understanding that we are having a great success in getting these folks to join CWA. We want to welcome these new members.
In El Centro it seems that we have a manager that likes to coach by monitoring and intimidation. The union reps have got this covered and hopefully in the next few weeks we can have this issue resolved. If not I guess we will have these employees contact the EEO. If you or others you know are being target by this coach and haven’t contacted us, please see a steward.
In the Sales Support Center, we are also seeing a rise in discipline and in the grievance procedure. It looks as though all functions in this center have now been given CIP’s and the ramp up periods are over. Over all this is still a great center to work in according to our members and reps. We have a good working relationship with the company and are fairly successful in helping our members with their issues.
Our annual Back To School Drive is about ready to roll. Units 4, 6 and 10 will be placing boxes throughout 20 E Thomas to begin collecting new items for our 150 or so kids with Labors Community Service Agency. Please donate items or money so we can send these kids back to school in the fall feeling like a million bucks! All donations are tax deductible. Unit 8, will also be collecting items for plans on their process please call AVP Ron Fagan, who can be reached by pager on 602 356 4745.
Thanks for your donations.
May 8th 2007
We recently negotiated a new 5-year agreement with AT@T (formerly SBC Advertising) for our members who sell and support yellow page advertising in various markets in the state. The agreement was ratified on May 3rd. The new contract calls for an 11% base pay increase for the non-commission employees and 5% in lump sum payments, all over the life of the agreement. For the commission employees we increased Existing Target Earnings 3 times over the agreement, improved the Graduated Bonus Schedule, increased the meal allowance and increased the Airport Long Term parking rates. There were also some new letters of agreements that directly impacts our members more positively. Tremendous thanks to Don Davey for his hard work at the bargaining table. Don is the shop steward for this group and his knowledge on their work is insurmountable.
At at@t( formerly Cingular), some changes will be made on the commission plan after a meeting with CWA representatives from across the country. Although they are not all of the changes we were looking for, it’s a start. These changes include 8 hour increments on quota relief and feature charge backs, which will guarantee that when a rep is up sold on a feature, they will keep the commission and the employee that up sold will only get the difference. According to our members, these are good changes. We are now waiting to hear how long it will take them to get these changes reflected into the systems. We should know in about a week.
In the Qwest We Can center we are focusing on the objectives for the Spanish que. As it looks right now they seem rather high based on the number of Spanish calls coming in and the wait time some of our members are experiencing. With the company’s bright idea to send our Spanish work from the Screening Center to Panama, this has significantly affected the number of referrals to We Can. We are also asking the company to take a look at the closing time also. With all of the Consumers centers closing earlier, we believe these folks should have the same consideration.
A big thanks goes to our members in the Small Business Center also for consistently being number 1 of all the Business centers in the region. This shows the Union workers care about their jobs and are great at it! Due to the huge success of this group we are still seeing new jobs added.
Last but not least, please look for our Annual Back to School Drive to begin shortly and please continue our tradition of making going back to school exciting for our kids at Labors Community Service Agency. This agency is one of our own union shops and our members there count on us to make their jobs easier helping underprivileged kids start the school year with new clothes and supplies! Watch for the flyers/boxes/hands to make this a success!
Well its spring and just 1 year away from starting the bargaining process with Qwest. At this year’s national convention in August, your Executive Officers will be electing a bargaining committee to represent you at the table. So far there are at least 9 people running for 4 positions. If you are interested in giving your input on who is voted on from this local, please see any Officer for the resumes.
As I stated in my last report, we have an open grievance on the 7-day calendar for entitlement time in Qwest Consumer We Can and El Centro and Small Business. We have settled the grievance in Small Business, but not yet in Consumer. At this time the Company is not willing to make any changes in El Centro, citing the bad access, but in We Can, at this point, they will keep the calendar open until the day before only because the call volumes are low, which could change as volumes pick up. With that I am sure we will be processing our grievance forward, as this is not a settlement they we can take.
Also in Consumer, we were notified by the company, that after 20 years, we can no longer conduct our stewards meetings in the conference rooms at 20 E Thomas. Apparently they see this as using company assets for union business. We will now be taking our meetings off the property and will not be discussing any company business or speak with any manager during this period of time.
Cingular is still growing and they are hiring at many stores, so if you know any union friendly friends or family, please have them apply. We have just completed our membership surveys and are compiling the data for the next National meeting with the company in April; hopefully they will be perceptive to any changes on their work environment that we propose.
We are starting bargaining with SBC Advertising on April 16th. Members have submitted their bargaining proposals. This is a 100% unionized group. We have asked the company to roll this contract into their larger book but they have refused. When bargaining is complete I will update in my next report.
Our annual spring basket drive for Labors Community Service Agency did not yield a very good turnout in baskets. You still have time to bring one in or make a donation, as Easter is not until the 9th, so if you can contribute please do so by the 7th and we can get that to them in time for the kids.
Our next charity fundraiser is our annual golf tournament in May. Monies go to CWA’s charity of choice, Pediatric Aids. Please donate or come out and golf. Details are on the website.
Happy New Year. Lets hope this year is better than last year at the companies we represent.
At Qwest, we say goodbye to many more of our brothers and sisters in the CMC. Today is the 2nd roll off date of the surplus that was declared last September. Again, I want to thank them for their many years of membership and involvement in our local. Although everyone that is leaving today were all VSPP, they are still not leaving by choice. We wish them well and hope that they will still remember us as they begin life away from Qwest.
We are currently in the EVSPP process in this surplus. So far, we only have the Screening Center willing to play in the process. We have contacted our Bargaining Agent to see if he can convince Robert Jones, who is over the Sales Support Center, to allow the process in this center. We have employees in both centers willing to leave and give their position to a surplused employee
In the Consumer and Small Business groups, grievances are being filed throughout the region on the vacation policy. These groups have determined that all employees need to decide 7 days in advance when they want to take a vacation day They believe this is the only way they can determine whether they have enough recourses to handle the customer demand. This position clearly does not take into account the needs of our members, and it is unreasonable to expect our membership to always know a week ahead when they need a vacation day. We all know that we do not always get to use our entitlement time for fun and lets face it, their GENEROUS amount of demand days just don’t cut it!
At Cingular, during the month of February, we will be doing a nation wide survey with our members on their working conditions in the Retail stores. This survey was done in the call centers last year and resulted in some significant changes to the good for our members. Union reps will be visiting the stores over the next few weeks mobilizing these members to help us help them by telling us about issues that directly affect their work lives.
Up coming events are our Annual PEDIATRIC AIDS Golf Tournament and our Spring Basket drive. Please plan on getting involved by donating time or money. Watch for the flyers in your area and on the bulletin boards. Our golf tournament benefits CWA’s charity of choice, PEDIATRIC AIDS while our Basket Drive benefits the community’s under privileged children though are own LABOR’S COMMUNITY SERVICE AGENCY (LCSA).
11-06-06
November 7th is Election Day, please cast your vote and vote for those that you believe support working families. If you are unsure on who is supporting issues that affect working people, please refer to your last local newsletter for those endorsements. You can also visit the our website and also the AFL-CIO’s website.
At Dex, members are in the process of voting on a new tentative agreement. Ballots must be in by Nov17th. Please call the hall if you are a DEX member and did not get a ballot, do this immediately as ballots have been mailed out.
At Qwest in the SSC surplus, we are down to 29 SSC’s looking to get placed. In the CMC, there is about 35 still impacted. This one is more difficult to keep track of as the layoff line is constantly changing. The CMC surplus actually has 3 different impact dates.
The next step in the process is the EVSPP. We currently have many folks in other centers willing to give their job to a surplus employee. We are hopeful that we can place many impacted people in this process. However this process does require that impacted employees be “satisfactory” in all areas of performance.
Also at Qwest, even though we have surplus in the Consumer and Collection groups, the company is still performance managing, so please do not give them any opportunity to not pay your VSPP or ISPP monies. If you get fired, they are off the hook. If you are unsure of where you are in any area, please contact your manager and even get a steward involved to get you an answer.
I also would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the members that are leaving us in the surplus for all the solidarity and involvement they may have had over the years to this local. Many members are taking VSPP, retirements, moving to new cities, ect. and all with various dates and I don’t want to miss anyone and will if I wait to long. Thank you all for everything. Special thanks to all of you who held many positions and appointments in the local, your talents and accomplishments will be cherished and missed. Being a local officer for my 20 years gave me that opportunity to work with you all and I wish you all a good life wherever you go. Special thanks to my old and dear friends and stewards Pepper and Amy, thanks for the support and good memories.
10-03-06
At Dex we have now began our 3rd week of bargaining. At this point CWA has put down all of our bargaining proposals including our economics. We are now mobilizing “show me the money” to get the company to reveal their economic proposals. This year, as with most negotiations unions are involved in, our fighting loss of jobs and outsourcing our work abroad. For all local, we have graphics work being done in India, supposedly on a trial. If this is not resolved at bargaining, we do have a grievance ready to arbitrate to get this addressed. Congratulations to our members in our graphics group that are on the ball this bargaining and getting our troops organized and involved. They have signed up 3 new members since bargaining has started. Way to go! Bargaining conference calls are every Wed evening at 530 pm at the hall, until an agreement is reached or we go on strike. The contract expires on Oct. 14th.
Now at Qwest, what’s left of it for Phoenix anyway is just disgusting. We now have about 400 people in force adjustment with many of those hitting the streets right before the winter holidays. I can’t even begin to describe how it feels to be in a union leadership role after 20 years and many surplus conditions and not be able to place people in jobs. We have always prided ourselves in being able to do that and now we have nowhere in this company, in Phoenix, to place our members. It is sickening. As many of you might not be aware, Qwest as only been given the union about a 4 hour notice when they making an announcement. There are many rumors flying around and we cannot confirm any of them. Who’s next seems to be what’s on everyone’s mind. If I have learned nothing else, I’ve learned to be ready for anything, be prepared to move on as this company doesn’t seem to care how long and how hard you have worked here. If they did care they would tell you why and what they were doing as they toss out 30 year employees and keep the rest on pins and needles while they expect you to carry on, meet the quotas or you will lose your jobs too.
In the SSC surplus, it looks as though we have many employees wishing to follow their work, that’s good. We also had no problem in getting the company to recognize that employees that are always being used to cover the bilingual que will not have to take the proficiency test for bilingual work.
In the Credit Consultant title we are still waiting to confirm that all election departure dates will be done by seniority. The company is waiting for some of the options to close before giving us their answer. We know this is a big issue for our members and we will continue to dog the company to give it.
Another big issue for us is to try to get some closure to our bilingual members is how many English people can and want to take a bilingual position. Our members sitting in those jobs with very little seniority need to know how safe or vulnerable they are, This is why we are trying to get the company to get the testing done so we have a better idea of who will be left to do the work that is left. This is more prevelant in the Credit center as this is where most of the work remaining is bilingual work. How ever we do have a small percentage in the We Can group that will remain and where we have most employees doing this work want to remain.
At this point in time, STLA is now being offered and it probably won’t be till after the VSPP, that we will begin to see where the waterline is to determine who will get to remain in Phoenix doing the work in these two centers.
We have had lots of calls about the EVSPP match process that has been given to the surplus employees. It will not be offered to them until November and is only there if we still have employees looking for work. Which I assume we will, given the numbers in the surplus. Please don’t put a lot of stock in this process as it has not highly successful in the past and now that Network has done their Zipp VSPP offers, there is probably very little chance any matches will be made in those departments. But it doesn’t hurt to have the paperwork in as this is a 14 state process and we are not the only state with surplus conditions.
That’s all for now. Please see the website for the Dex bargaing update as we don’t want to lose sight of these members issue with all of this happening at Qwest.
August 29th, 2006
First, let me thank all of you that were either delegates or guests to our 4th annual convention on Aug 26th and 27th. Getting involved in your union is what its all about. Now that its over, we can get back to the business at hand and hope we can keep all of you just as involved the rest of the year.
On September 18th we will begin bargaining with DEX, who are now part of R.H. Donnelly. We plan on having a kick-off celebration at the DEX location on that day. If any of you want to come on over and help these members, please let me know. This years bargaining is about jobs. Over the past year and a half, these units have seen many jobs eliminated or contracted out and in our local we are down to about 40 employees. The members we do have here are getting mobilized and ready to fight the necessary fight. We are wearing RED every Thursday and would like all of you to do the same in support of our union brothers and sisters. There contract expires on October 15th and if provoked will strike. I know that all of you will help when called.
Now at Qwest, things just seem to never get any better. Discipline is still on the rise and managers continue to walk around looking PRETTY instead of coaching and developing. Please, I ask again, never tell the manager that there is nothing they can do to help you, if you find yourself in that PRETTY manager’s office discussing your performance. They are famous for asking, what can you do different? Hell if you knew that, you would be doing right? Please, always put it back on them to tell you and if they can’t then at least ask to go back through training. If they don’t help you, then they are not doing their job. At that point, ask for a grievance to be filed so we can get involved
There are still far too many employees getting caught with Code of Conduct violations. Please be very careful as not to fall into these issues. We are losing a lot of folks to terminations and its not new hires, its members with lots of years on the job. If something doesn’t sound right or sounds too good to be true, check with a steward or check the rule. Do not give the company any reason to end your employment. Do what your suppose to do and be where you are suppose to be!
Now, if you happen to be on SSC in the Regional Support Center, please be on your guard when dealing with manager Charlotte Jones. We have seen a recent increase in her inability to keep from saying things she should not be saying, which is being dealt with in the grievance procedure. Always document your discussions or have a witness, your employee file could depend on it.
We are also having difficulties in some areas getting stewards the time to meet with members on their issues. As we work thru these issues, please remember that if they are on their jobs, just drop them a note and they will get to you as soon as they can. They are not allowed to do this work (union work) on company time and neither should you. Please call the union hall if you need immediate help.
Remember, we are about 8 hours pay for 8 hours work. Our work is Quality and you can’t give Quality work if you are cutting corners to get it done. Do the work as you have been trained to do and if you need help, call your supervisor(s). If they can’t help, call their boss.
At Cingular, it looks as though they are working hard at having a good relationship with CWA locally, as they have been nationally. We have had a couple of meetings with the leadership team in the past month and we believe they are on the right track when it comes to the treatment of our members. We had the opportunity to bring issues about respect, working conditions and even came to some understandings around helping each other keep the attrition rate down. Lower turnover in jobs means lower turnover in membership. Cingular has been on target with plans they laid out to us in December around growth, which in turn provides jobs and membership.
Now at Qwest, that’s a different story, actually Qwest use to care about the relationship as a whole, but now its just few departments that seem to care what we or our members think. Quit guessing, because it’s not the LNO! Performance reviews are still escalating but, we are making some settlements in the grievance procedure.
In El Centro, we are still having overtime and the hopes of new employees are waning. It seems that we have a high turnover in the new $10.00 an hour employee, with most of it being job abandonment. Now, I have never been a service rep, but I know how complex this job is and I guess if it was me, I too would go to one of the other 22 call centers in the valley that usually only has 1 product to sell for that wage versus this one. I suppose that maybe by bargaining in 2008, the company might have learned a lesson or two. Maybe not!
In the Consumer sales centers, a trial will be conducted over the next couple of months to determine if we can go back to a fixed schedule. We believe that it can work, as it has in the past. The variable scheduling is not popular with a lot of our members and fixed schedules are easier to plan our lives. Stay tuned on the results.
Another issue in Consumer is the new flex policy that was derived from the contractual joint committee. This new policy actually was a loss to the Phoenix groups, but a gain for many members across the district that did not have any. Our plans are to see if this can be addressed, as we are not the only city to complain. We will let you know as we proceed on this request.
Once again, our COPE drives are underway, with a couple of ice cream socials happening at 20 E. Please stop by, get some ice cream and sign up. Labors future is in your hands and of those you vote into office. Get educated and fed at the same time. Please join the COPE program.
After recently attending the District 7 Conference, I was pleasantly amazed of how many new officers I saw this year. It is refreshing to know that we are still recruiting new blood into our old union. CWA has along history of making the lives of working people better than our grandparents had. The sad news is that all unions are again faced with a tough road ahead as corporate America and the Bush administration are fiercely attacking our rights to organize and the labor laws that we have enjoyed for centuries. These new leaders need you more than ever to get involved in your union, and the legislative process to fight back these anti union attacks. If we don’t, our kids and grandkids will not enjoy the workplaces free of harassment, good wages and decent benefits that we all enjoy today! We have a new Political appointment in the local, Paul Kent, who will educate you on the bills in local and national government that are anti labor, and if we all do our part we can continue to beat back these type of retrogression laws that affect the future.
At Qwest, we are seeing a rise in discipline for performance and it doesn’t sound as this is going to change anytime soon. In order to win these cases, we are going to have to make sure you hold your manager accountable for their job also. In many cases that I am currently working on, I see a trend in that not happening. We all know or have had managers that can’t or don’t do their jobs either and believe that walking around looking pretty and making small talk is their job, well its not! Managers are being paid to make sure you have the tools and the training, spending time developing and coaching, removing roadblocks and anything else you need to be successful. If they are not doing these things, then we win. If they are and you are still not succeeding, then they win, simple as that. Please don’t let them off the hook. Ask for the help. Ask for the training. Ask for anything you think you need to succeed and we will do our part in making sure that this happens when they say you are not performing.
Also at Qwest, we recently had 4 employees come back to work after completion of their termination grievances. Welcome back Members! We currently have several more in the grievance process.
In Qwest Retail Services, we have currently filed Regional grievances on the differential for opening and closing of the stores. Even though the company used this example at the bargaining table, they are refusing to pay for it now. Sounds like bad faith bargaining or double talk, but what else is new!
At Cingular, new managers and new grievances. We are testing this new relationship, we will keep you apprised.
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