Budget Time Letter to
Council
As
you go into the final budget briefings, one thing that will undoubtedly
be mentioned is the heavy hit that energy costs are expected to make in
the 2007 budget. It is a major staff concern. Not too amazingly, it is
also an employee concern.
Please.
Civilian employees are up against the wall with this. If you grant the
uniformed employees a guaranteed raise that will start in October,
please do the same for the civilians. We have still not recovered from
the pay freezes during the
5-5-5
years.
On top of the
$60.00 a week that it takes to fill my midsized car, I just received a
$767.00 electric bill. Due, no doubt to the heat wave unknowingly
damaging my AC unit. Guess what? After last years increase to my health
benefit costs, the amount of money left from my entire last years raise
won't pay this one month's eclectic bill. Which also means than
any unexpected expense, like an air conditioner repair, or replacement
is going to be difficult. This is not an isolated incident, it has
happens to many employees and indeed, the city itself is experiencing
this problem.
I understand
that the city manager does not believe in cost of living increases, but
I wonder if she believes in bankruptcy and increases in domestic stress?
The uniformed employees are not the only people who need an increase
this October. Please remember that. -
(Ed. Note: email recently sent to council by M.R. Frey
Problems
with Deloitte Touche?
NCPERS
is the organization which is the voice for Public Pensions. In
California
a group called
"Citizens to Save California" is an organization who wants to
eliminate defined benefits for
California
government workers.
What
is interesting to Dallas City Employees is that one of the contributors
to the organization trying to strip away these benefits is our very own
Deloitte & Touche. You know, the people who are being paid to advise
the city on the direction we need to take with our benefits.
Additionally
the ‘Deloitte Public Employee Pension Research Study’ has been
called into question by NCPERS for being incredibly misleading. They are
also accused of ‘cherry picking’ from various other surveys to
manufacture a Public Benefits Crisis that does not really exist.
One
interesting final note was that Deloite, the company telling us how to
properly manage OUR affairs, reported in 2004 that their pension plan is
only 69.17 % funded. This is a much worse than the public plans Deloitte
noted in their study as troubling.
These
people make recommendations on our benefits. This is definitely a
problem that needs to be looked into.
We need objective advice, from a company that practices what they
preach.
Workers
Comp Presentation
At
the June meeting, we had a presentation on Workers' Compensation Rights
and Responsibilities by Kyle Morris. Mr. Morris was introduced to us by
our own Employee Councilor Dan Pedroza. Apparently Dan’s association.
consulted with and recommended Mr. Morris’ firm to their members for
particularly tricky Workers Comp Cases.
This
may be something needed soon, as the word is that the Director of H.R.
is currently planning on reducing Worker Compensation costs quite a bit
over the next three years. Rumor is that some departmental budgets are
already being reduced in expectation of savings from the planned
‘efficiencies.’
Mr.
Morris discussed employee rights and their responsibilities. He reminded
us all that workers comp deadlines are absolute. Once a deadline is
gone, that opportunity is gone. And, as in the cases of grievance this
means that waiting too until the last minute to ask advice can mean the
difference between loosing your case and winning it.
We
appreciate Mr. Morris, taking the time to do this presentation and thank
him for sending us a presentation on Workers’ Compensation Rights and
Responsibilities. It will be posted on our here
on our website or you can receive a copy by requested it via email,
fax or phone.
Offices
of W.J. "Bill" Morris
8080 N. Central Expwy., Suite 1430
Dallas, TX 75206
(214) 696-2301
(214) 696-3674 Facsimile
(972)
783-4884 Home
kyle.morris@wjbillmorris.com
If
you notify his staff that you are a union member, there will be no
charge to talk to him for your initial visit.
Beware
the Settlement
Employee’s
who have been injured on the job need to be very careful in accepting
impairment settlements. Before you decide to accept a settlement, you
need to fully understand what all may be involved.
You
may be offered life time medical, and a modest cash payment, but
consider all the consequences of accepting.
Something that surprises a lot of employees is that any cash
settlement will most certainly be reduced by the amount of salary
continuation money you have received.
More
importantly, should you ever have complications or a reoccurrence of the
injury you normally will not be eligible for I-time. This means that
while the city may pay for your treatment, you will have to use your own
sick or vacation time.
You
will want to think carefully before signing anything that does not also
include future pay for lost work time due to a re-occurrence of this
injury.
Snipletts!
Missing
Appraisal Review?!?
Still no word from City Manager Mary Suhm about the Merit Appraisal
review she promised to do this spring. Requests for information to see
if this review process has been completed or even started have gone
unanswered. We all know that
there was very little compliance on the 2004 and 2005 reviews. Makes you
wonder if this isn’t a stall until the 2006 reviews are finished.
Get
Past the Easy Answers
For
years, while wages and benefits keep dropping, union activists have been
asking each other, “Why won’t people get moving and fight back?”
I
decided recently that part of the reason is that there are too many easy
answers.
When
people ask why unions are under attack, why pensions are disappearing,
why health care is worse and worse, and why so many jobs disappear, they
get easy answers like:
“That’s
the way it’s always been.”
“There
nothing we can do.”
“You
can’t fight City Hall.”
“Globalization
is just a force of nature.”
“Things
will swing back the other way sooner or later.”
Those
aren’t answers. They are excuses. Don’t
accept them. Please think it through for yourself, even though the
answers you discover might not be so easy.—
Gene
Lantz, Editor UAW 848 and Host of “Workers Beat" radio program,
8:05-9 every Wednesday morning on KNON 89.3 FM or www.knon.org. You can
talk to Gene during the show at 972-647-1893
Corporate
Confidential – The Book
50
Secrets Your Company Doesn't Want You to Know was written by Cynthia
Shapiro, a
former Human Resources executive turned Employee Advocate. She reminds
us that anything you say to a Human Resource Rep, can and may be used
against you if necessary.
Casual
conversations about medical concerns, family stresses or that wild party
last week may bring things to the attention of management that could do
you damage in the future.
Uneven Cost
Distribution
I
have never thought that the way the City of
Dallas
offered dependent
coverage was fair to the single employee, or the employee covering a
spouse only. I do not
believe any employee should have to pay for other employee children,
especially when those “children” are over 18 years old, or are not
the employee’s.
I
believe that all employees should receive the same or equivalent
benefits. What makes the
single employee less valuable than the employee with children?
That is what you are saying when the city contributes 62% less to
their insurance coverage, than is contributed to employees with
non-spouse dependents, and then you increase the premiums the employee
pays from their paychecks to make up the difference, which is what has
happened for years. –
Concerned Steelworker
(Editor
Note: This came about several years ago when council was appalled at
how unaffordable our insurance coverage was. Rather than increase the
amount that the city contributes, the cost was redistributed so that it
became more affordable (marginally) for one group of employees, at the
expense of another group.)
Bandwidth??
- One member had a strange
call a few mornings ago. They were asked how much bandwidth they had.
When the caller was told this was a confusing question, he apologized
and said he needed to know what their scheduled was like because they
needed to be included in a meeting. J
Hello! We are not machines with a bandwidth, we are human beings with a
“schedule” or “time”.
Want
to get involved? - The
AFL-CIO Dallas Central Labor Council will be doing several sessions of
sign making. Interested in
being involved in an important part of the political process? Volunteers
are needed to build yard signs at the IBEW Hall, 7940 Northaven in
Dallas
. Continue every Wed (
4:30 PM
) & Sat (
9:30 AM
) til around Oct 7.
Council
Meeting Audio Available
Did
you know that you can download city council meetings? Some interesting
stuff in there. Take a listen. http://www.ci.dallas.tx.us/cso/audio.shtm
End
of year raffle Remember at the last meeting of the year you get one
raffle chance for every meeting or work session you sign in for.
Make six meetings, get six chances. So congratulations to the
members who were present at the December meeting when their names were
drawn for the gift certificates from Target, Best Buy and Chili’s.
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.
