Terminations
Reversed!
Scott
and Mark inform me that two more Code Enforcement employees have gotten
their jobs back. Congrats to the guys for jobs well done. One of the reasons
that Mayor Miller is so hot over this is that while the statistics for
termination reversal is normally only 25% were are already over 50% and we
aren’t done yet! She claims it
proves that the Civil Service System is flawed. Which is why she was less
than thrilled when,
Marvin
M. Lane
, Jr. a
member of the Civil Service board who spoke at the Feb 16 briefing, pointed
out that all of those over turns pointed to a flaw in the reasoning behind
the disciplinary action taken and not a problem with Civil Service
rules.
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The Time to Join is Now!
Don’t
forget about the 30 day waiting period on certain services for new members.
We don’t want anyone to miss out on assistance should they need it. The
time to join is now, so you will already be a member before any problem that
you need help with occurs.
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What
to Look for When Joining an Association
When
signing an Association Membership card, look at it very carefully. You need
to make sure that you know which association you are joining; there is more
than one you know. J
Which is why, we encourage employees to check their pay stubs. There have
been several instances of employees thinking they were Steelworkers (North
Texas Association of Public Employees or NT
Pub E) and then finding out too late that they were not.
The following are important things to look for in an Association. The
Steelworkers of course meet all the criteria below, and several others there
was not enough space to detail.
Has
the association chartered a local devoted specifically to the City of
Dallas
? The reason that this is
important is that you want your association to focus on your needs and
issues as a City of
Dallas Employee
. You don’t want them spreading their attention between the
issues affecting several other companies or cities. Also, this means that
your dues money will be devoted to that which is important to you as a city
employee and not going to some amalgamated union’s bank account.
Sadly, some associations recruit from outside areas just to increase
the dues they receive. You might be able to get grievance help from them,
but they will not be devoting their full attention to trying to solve long
term problems that you face as a City of
Dallas
employee.
There
are a few ways to tell if a local is charted specifically for the City of
Dallas
. Find out who the officers
are, if you have a City of
Dallas
charted association then
the officers will all be City of
Dallas
employees. As fellow
employees, that means that your president, vice president, treasurer,
financial secretary and recording secretary will all be focused on your
concerns. If the association is
chartered solely for City of
Dallas
employees then all the financial and tax records will be
signed by your elected co-workers. Oh, and by law, you are permitted to view
your association’s financial records if you want, and in fact all
expenditures have to be presented to the membership monthly.
How is
the association going to keep you informed? The City of
Dallas
covers 387 sq miles and
has several dozen yard and office locations; this means it takes a
coordinated, sustained effort to make sure that everyone can be kept up to
date. If you get an answer like, ‘face to face is best…’ Think about
this. How convenient will that be for you personally? What happens if you
are not at work that day? Or running late, on a different shift or forgot to
come in early? Does that mean you don’t deserve to find out what is
happening? Also what are your chances of being in that place at the exact
time that this face time is occurring?
Face
to face is great for monthly meetings, but you should have access to the
information you need every day, not just when it is convenient for the
organizer. Besides, in a city
this large and spread out, face to face would be prohibitively expensive and
not a good use of your member dollars. Ideally, your organization should
have a monthly newsletter delivered to you, a web site with a searchable
archive you can access when you need to check on something, regular meetings
that occur at the same time every month and have people on staff in the
office that you can call with questions.
Finally,
your association should have easy access to other city associations like
police, fire and the retirees. They should also be part of the greater labor
movement so they can make your concerns known to a large pool of labor
friendly groups whose members live in the City of
Dallas
. To accomplish this the
City of
Dallas Steelworkers
have been members of the
Dallas AFL-CIO Central Labor Council since we were first chartered.
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We’re
Moving!!
Our
present location on Ervay is being closed down so that it can be totally
renovated, so we have to move. While we may miss some of the conveniences of
the Ervay office, our new location has some features that we will
like.
We
are moving to the
Oakwood
Tower
,
Suite
411
at
3626 N.
Hall Street
,
Dallas
Texas
75219
. While
not near as close to city hall as our other location, some members may feel
easier about visiting it for just that reason. Also this building is in a
very nice neighborhood and has plenty of free, convenient covered parking.
The
location is north of the Crescent and very close to Cedar Springs and
Oak Lawn
Avenue
.
The
attached garage has ample casual parking for stopping off during the day to
pick up paperwork and it is even more convenient for evening meetings as you
will not have to walk down from the second floor parking level. All the
attached parking at this location has a clear view of the lobby door.
Chatting with the Teamsters!
Richard
Ford of Teamsters Local #745 has invited Steelworkers President Michealle
Frey to speak at their March 8th meeting. The topic of the
presentation is the Strong Mayor Proposal and How it Will Affect
Dallas
Employees. As fellow Dallas
Central Labor Council members the Teamsters are interested in our views on
how this proposal will affect the working conditions of civilian employees.
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New
but Familiar Assistant
We
welcome to the Steelworkers our newest Associate Assistant Lico Reyes. Lico
may be very familiar to many of our members as he has long been active in
the Hispanic community and last fall ran against the incumbent for the
congressional seat of District 26 in the Arlington Area.
A
few of Lico’s other skills and talents include translation, labor
relations consulting, teacher/instructor and singer/actor. J Lico comes to us on the recommendation of member Ernesto
Pena. He will be assisting Scott and Mark with grievances, especially those
needing translation services and filling in for Scott when he goes on
vacation this spring. As a former grievance assistant for the TPWA Lico
already knows how to deal with the City of
Dallas
will be
able to hit the ground running. We are fortunate he is joining us.
Texas
Fair Trade Coalition
We
have been invited to join the Texas Fair Trade Coalition. This umbrella
organization promotes
the right to adequate employment, livable wages, workplace safety,
education, health care, and basic public services for all people. TFTC
further insists that all people be permitted to play a meaningful role in
the decisions affecting these and other public policies and their basic
rights. One of the thrusts of this coalition is addressing out sourcing to
locations without the above rights. We will be discussing how this affects
us at the March 8th Meeting.
Snipletts!
Meet
the Manager Meeting
The
following snipletts are from the ‘Meet the Manager Meeting’ that Mary
Suhm had in February over at the Fire Department Complex on Dolphin
St.
Budget – This year’s budget is doing okay, but
not great. So there should be no real worries about this year.
Health Care – Suhm states that we really need to
address health care costs next year, since they are going up again. (Ed.
Note when asked if there was any chance that the city would restore the 15
million in funding to the health care budget that was removed 2003 to
balance the budget she stated that the city had NEVER taken money away from
the benefits allocation. When
question further she went on to claim that the ‘percentage’ of cost that
the city pays now, has not decreased. I am at a loss to explain how these
statements could be made with a straight face from someone who helped craft
these budgets. Fatigue? Overwork? Willful amnesia?)
Consolidation – They are looking into consolidating all
the collection functions in the city for greater efficiency and increased
revenue. This would include parking tickets, water fees, sanitation and
various fines owed to the city that are now done by various
departments.
Strong Mayor Petition – Suhm acknowledged that the
petition hanging over everyone’s head was unsettling, but said we should
do our best. She also
acknowledged that we employees and our associations CAN get involved since
this is not a council election. But she reminded us not to do it on city
time.
Performance Reviews – Will be done on a bell curve.
There is only 2% per employee per department and under NO CIRCUMSTANCES can
that be split up evenly. Some people will get 4% some 0%. :-
p M. R. Frey
Equity
Adjustment Problem
Ms.
Suhm reports that the comprehensive wage adjustment that management was
looking at to address the unfairness of new hires making
more than experienced employees is not going to happen. Suhm said this would
cost her almost 2 million dollars and she just doesn’t have it right now.
But….. she hasn’t given up on it in all cases, since there are some
situations that just really have to be fixed. She claims the problem was
caused by the ‘wage freeze’ situation that we have had for the last few
years. (Ed. Note Suhm has previously also stated that she has to pay people
more to get them to work here since the benefits have been cut so much)
As
part of this review, Human Resources reports that they are working with the
Director of Code Enforcement, Kathleen
Davis to further ensure that the process for determining incoming
inspectors' pay is fair and equitable both to the employees already on board
as well as to the new hires. Apparently Code
Enforcement hired in 12% of their new hires not only at more than minimum
starting pay but also over the average departmental wage of their
experienced inspectors.
The
Steelworkers have requested that Human Resources provide this guidance to
all departments and directors to keep this from happening to any more
employees. And we will continue to work on this problem to get relief for
the employees affected in Code and else where.
Ex-Wife
Gets Retirement?
It
could happen if you don’t update all the proper forms you know.
In fact it HAS happened a time or two, so let’s make sure it never
happens again. There are four
separate forms that need to be updated regularly to keep your life
insurance, pension, 401K/457 and finial pay check from going to the wrong
person. You can download them from our site under the payroll info tab, or
call the office to have them mailed to you. http://www.cityofdallasemployees.com/codePayroll.htm
