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North Texas Association of Public Employees
Steel Workers Local 9479
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Merit Only
In keeping
with the mean-spirited budgets we have been enduring the last several years,
the Mayor, Council and Manager have gone with only delayed merit raises.
That’s right, not only will you only have a *chance* at a merit, you will
not even get the darn thing until spring. Big Whoop.
What this
means is that the council was convinced that merits were the way to go. So
what happened? Either not enough of us complained… I know I did, did you?
Or council decided it cared more about other ‘projects’ than the
employees. No matter what the reason, we were passes over again.
And the sad
thing is that in all the council meetings I listened to and attended, I did
not hear the topic broached even once. Pathetic.
Now, please make no mistake, I heard plenty of whining about how
increasing costs meant the city needed more money, but nothing acknowledging
that those same burdens were being shouldered by
Dallas
employees.
And this is
just not about the money. There were things we could have been given, like
the Political Rights charter change that would have not cost a dime. But
nothing happened there either. Please forget all that mush about employee
moral being important, the bottom line is the needs of civilian employee’s
are unimportant to the people running
Dallas
So what does
this mean to you? It means that if every one of you does not become a
‘squeaky wheel’ this entire year and let everyone…council, mayor,
manager, friends that live in Dallas, citizens you come in contact with,
know you are unhappy, then this is your future. See 'City Problems
Increasing' it gets worse. – M. R. Frey
Dr. Elba García - Dist 1 Ph: (214) 670-4052
Fax: (214) 670-1815 Elba.garcia@dallascityhall.com
Pauline Medrano
Dist 2 Ph: (214)
670-4048 Fax: (214) 670-1816 pauline.medrano@dallascityhall.com
Ed Oakley Dist 3 Ph:
(214) 670-0776 Fax: (214)
670-1833 ed.oakley@dallascityhall.com
Dr. Reese - Dist 4 Ph:
(214) 670-0781 Fax: (214)
670-5117 m.thorton-reese@dallascityhall.com
Donald W. Hill - Dist 5 Ph:
(214) 670-0777 Fax: (214)
670-3409 don.hill@dallascityhall.com
Steve Salazar- Dist 6
Ph: (214) 670-4199 Fax:
(214) 670-1833 steve.salazar@dallascityhall.com
Leo Chaney, Jr.- Dist 7 Ph: (214) 670-4689
Fax: (214) 670-1819 leo.chaney@dallascityhall.com
J. Fantroy - Dist 8 Ph:
(214) 670-4066 Fax:(214) 670-1834 james.fantroy@dallascityhall.com
Gary Griffith -Dist 9 Ph:
(214) 670-4069 Fax: (214)
670-5117 gary.griffith@dallascityhall.com
Bill Blaydes - Dist 10
Ph: (214) 670-4068 Fax:
(214) 670-1843 bill.blaydes@dallascityhall.com
Linda Koop -
Dist 11 Ph: (214) 670-7817 Fax:
(214) 670-0765 debra.brown@dallascityhall.com
Ron Natinksky -
Dist 12 Ph: (214) 670-4067 Fax:
(214) 670-5650 ron.natinksy@dallascityhall.com
M.
Rasansky
- Dist 13 Ph: (214) 670-3816 Fax: (214)
670-1831
mitchel.rasansky@dallascityhall.com
Angela Hunt - Dist 14 Ph:
(214) 670-5415 Fax: (214)
670-1847 angela.hunt@dallascityhall.com
Civil
Service Attack Rebounds
Yet another
attempt to gut the Civil Service department was temporarily derailed on the
21st of last month. It seems that using some concerns by the
uniformed employees about the way tests are conducted, H.R. tried to pull a
fast one
and get all testing assigned to them. After all H.R. all ready does some of
the testing, why not all of it. Admittedly they test only tiny portion of
all the tests given, but hey, lets not quibble over numbers.
Pretty slick
huh? Pretty funny too, it seems H.R. had meetings with both police and fire
but somehow forgot to get any civilian input. Tsk, tsk, tsk. But these
things do happen, especially if you are trying to pull a fast one. But they
made a bit of a misstep. It seems their report to council included wording
that indicated that the Civil Service Board was consulted and okey-dokeyed
the whole plan.
Marvin
Lane
of the Civil Service Board was at the briefing, and he was a bit miffed. He
stated that not only did the Civil Service Board ‘not’ endorse this
change, but that they had discussed it and then specifically voted it down.
This was when the briefing hit the fan, at least as far as council was
concerned. Council was not amused. Go figure.
Mr.
Lane
also pointed out instances where the study of ‘Best Practices’ of other
cities was spotty to say the least. He also questioned why the Civil Service
Board was not included in the discussion with uniformed employees. The
Steelworkers also pointed the lack of civilian involvement and requested
that H.R. be required to include civilians in any other attempts at changing
Civil Service. Many nasty things were said by Council to H.R. and the City
Manager. Stay tuned for round three.
What’s being done now?
Someone very
uninformed has informed someone else that “all you have to do is sign a
card and let these people (i.e., USWA staff) do what they are trained to
do.” What a wonderful world it would be if it were true that by
signing an association card someone else is going to do all of your work
for you. The truth is that USWA staff reps are here to support the
local association, not run every aspect of the organization. Because
the local association belongs to the members, the success of the local is
totally dependent upon the efforts of the total membership. This means all
of us, not just the unpaid officers or our paid grievance councilors.
The question keeps
coming up, “What is the association doing for me today?”
Perhaps some education on the role and function of associations is in
order for those individuals who repeatedly ask this question. Unions
help give workers a voice in the workplace and help workers exercise their
rights to representation. Unions assist in provided legal protection
and provide legal services when workers are treated unfairly or placed in
dangerous jobs.
The United
Steelworkers of America for example recently filed and won a lawsuit for
the
Dallas
County
employees over the county blocking their rights to
dues check-off, while extending those same rights to county law
enforcement personnel. Our own local currently has the
international’s lawyer looking into the charter change problem. Asking
and persuasion didn’t work so depending on their findings we may try a
lawsuit.
Our
local union has several areas that need volunteers. For instance,
the newsletter can always use columns or columnists. We have several
people who contribute, some who prefer not to be mentioned, but others
like Linda P and Nurse Carol who keep on top of their areas of expertise.
We have lots of other opportunities to assist. Just contact us if you are
interested in helping out.
More Payroll System Trouble?
CIS has
certainly had problems. Apparently their last two outside hired directors
left (terminated) under a cloud and CIS is now tempting fate for a
third time. Word is that the
Deloitte Touche Project Leader, who led and approved the work on our
(tragically) flawed new payroll/personnel system (HRIS) has been
hired as a senior project manager and will report directly to the HR
director. Word is she will be trying to fix/finish the city’s HRIS
system, the same one that she approved as the Deloitte Touche project
manager.
Hopefully
there is a current position open for her fill. Although that has not
apparently been a problem for CIS in the past. They have a history of
hiring high level employees that they have no vacant slots or current
funding for. Not only that,
but they are apparently well know for being very generous when hiring
managers and paying little heed to starting and salary ranges.
Perhaps this
is why the Desk Top Support group is being RIF'ed, Possibly with all the
other hiring in CIS, there was just not enough money to keep the Desk
Top Support Group going. There certainly wasn't enough money or management
will to support it properly. They weren't keeping up with the
work load with their reduced numbers and it was thought that
privatization, rather than proper funding would be the answer to all the
support needs of the city.
Ye gads, if
contracting out the new payroll system didn’t work, why are we hiring
the head contractor? Cutting
people and funds from desk top support isn’t working so contract that
out too?
Hellooooo if
contracting the payroll system resulted in a horrible mess and cost over
runs, who thinks it will be any different if we turn desk top support over
to them too? How much waste, call churning and over billing is this going
to result in? When something doesn’t work, why does the city keep doing
it?
City Problems
Increasing?
On September
19th, the Council received a briefing from ‘The Public
Strategies Group’ about the future of
Dallas
. This group is of course hoping to get a
consulting contract with the city to tell them things like how to
outsource various functions to the county, non-profits and the private
sector. But in among all their hopes for future gain was an interesting
tid-bit for the employees of
Dallas
.
That being
dying revenue streams that the city (and other cities) are using and how
they will negatively impact future budgets. The two mentioned in this
briefing were the declining franchise fee the city receives from telephone
land lines and sales tax revenues siphoned off by internet transactions.
There possibly will be more, as markets change in the future, but these
two are causing a lot of concern for a lot of people.
It was of
course no surprise that the State of
Texas
has always operated their
government using less money than the average spent
by other states. Nor was the fact that
Dallas
for the most part followed that trend surprising.
But it was a wake up call that even should the economy improve, city
budgets may not due to the above mentioned, increased costs from an aging
infrastructure and other yet unknown revenue losses.
It is not
that the city could not make adjustments to their spending patterns to
make employee compensation more of a priority. They could of course, but
frankly there is no sign of that at present.
This means
that mid-term employees, holding on for better times, may never see them.
This could accelerate the loss of older employees as they see no future
gain, and therefore no reason to stick around past their first retirement
date. In fact the only way that change might occur is if the mid-term and
the new hires make a concerted effort to continuously make their wishes
known to council.
Steelworkers
affected by Katrina
The international is trying to
determine the status of 12,000 active and retired USW members living in
the Gulf area. Many are still searching for family members, homeless,
unable to work, and emotionally and financially overwhelmed by this
enormous tragedy. The Steelworker relief offices have been set
up in
Mobile
and
Baton Rouge
to coordinate our relief efforts
and some emergency funds have already been sent by the
international.
All locals have been asked if they
could contribute both individually and as a group.
Many of us have donated to larger umbrella organizations like the
Red Cross, but we also have fellow union members who need our help.
We ask all of our members to send
a donation payable to - Steelworkers
Charitable and Educational Organization and mail it to
United
Steelworkers, Attention: Secretary-Treasurer,
Five
Gateway
Center
,
Pittsburgh
,
PA
15222
.
Even a modest $10.00 donation from
each of us would mean a lot. Please make sure you write ‘Katrina - Local
9479’ in the memo area of your check or money order. This will make sure
every dime that is collected will go directly to Hurricane Katrina relief.
Donations
are needed as soon as possible so please send it now.
If
you know a Steelworker from the affected area who needs assistance, please
have them call the
USW Toll-Free 24 Hour Hurricane Relief Hotline: 1-866-203-4960
We will discuss a group donation
at the October 11th meeting, and we are in talks with the other
USWA Municipal locals in our area about a joint fund raiser raffle. If you
have any suggestions, ideas or want to make sure your work location can
participate please call our main number 214-760-7422 and leave a
message.
Spanish
Language Pay
Several
of our Spanish speaking members had questions about who was eligible for
language pay. According to Margaret Wright from H.R. the individual
departments request to have employees tested for language skills pay (LSP)
based on the departmental need to provide bilingual service to
customers.
The testing
for verbal skills (the city does not test/pay for writing skills) is
conducted by an outside testing firm, the Language Testing Institute. Oral
proficiency interviews are administered over the phone by certified
assessors. There are three levels of proficiency for which the City
pays LSP: intermediate, advanced, and superior. The criteria
that the assessors use are developed by ACTFL (American Council on the
Teaching of Foreign Languages).
Ms. Wright
also noted that LSP is not limited to only citizen contact. The department
determines where bilingual skills are appropriate. For example, a
crew leader over a primarily non-English speaking crew would be a good
position to have someone bilingual. Please note - employees typically do
not receive LSP while on probation.
So this
means if you translate for your work crews, you may be able to test for
language pay. Call Dan or Scott if you need help requesting this testing
from your department.
Snipletts!
No word yet
– Concerning the results of the Merit Appraisal survey. With the way the
questions were asked we most likely won’t see these result vanish into
the abyss like the last survey, so result should be forth coming soon.
*********************************************
Strange –
During this last flurry of briefing, we employees are now referred to as
‘Human Resource Capital’, how warm and fuzzy does that make you feel?
*********************************************
Out you go – City
Manager Mary Suhm mentioned at a recent council meeting that she fully
expects employees with two poor consecutive reviews to be let go.
*********************************************
Parking Fee Increase –Council
member Rasansky proposed raising the employee parking fees from $25.00 to
$32.50. He got no support on this.
*********************************************
International Union Elections – Will be held on
November 22nd
2005
, stay tuned for more details..
*********************************************
FMLA Changes
– There was a bit of private session wrangling over a proposal to make
employees who use Family Medical Leave Act ineligible for attendance
vacation bonus. While this bonus is normally only given to employees with
perfect attendance, a part of the FMLA seems to forbid ‘punishing’
employees who use approved FLMA sick time. Since this did not come up
again after the private session, apparently this means that the city most
likely cannot change the current set up with out a law change.
*********************************************
Retiree Retention Plan?
– Oh. My. Goodness. Something that was recently found ‘alarming’ was
the boat load of civilian and uniformed employees are eligible to retire
next year. Who knew? Well actually we did, and have been steadily telling
management and council that this may be one reason not to hack off so many
of their employees. And the
fun news? It will last a lot longer than just next year. J
Anyhow, a
Retirement/Retention scheme was also a closed session topic. One of the
statements bandied about before the lawyer hushed them was the possibility
of allowing employees to retire and them return at 20% less of their
salary. How about you pay them enough to stay ahead of inflation to tempt
them to stay? Anyhow, if anyone has heard anything else about this, please
call us.
*********************************************
Credit Union Problem
– If you bank at the Employees Credit Union check your credit report!
They had a bunch
of information stolen. Their assertions that they are watching your
account carefully will not stop someone from starting new ones at Sears or
Penny's or applying for loans using your info. More
Info Here!!
Henderson’s
Chicken is Back!
– Okay, so this is not union news, but it is of importance to a lot of
us who work in South East Dallas! As a lot of you know,
Henderson
’s
has always been very nice in letting us post notices and newsletters at
their facility in the past, so we are happy to assist them in getting
the word out. Their new location is
3103
Grand Ave
,
214-421-1777 – Welcome Back, we missed you!
**********
What have
unions done for me? - The American concept of the weekend has its
roots in labor union attempts to accommodate Jewish workers who took
Saturday instead of Sunday as their Sabbath. The first five-day workweek
was instituted by a
New England
spinning mill for just this reason. Despite a boost from the Ford
Automobile company closing
their factories on Saturdays, it wasn't until 1940 that the two-day
weekend officially began nationwide.
**********
Daily
State
of
Texas
Updates Available Want to
know what is happening in
Texas
that affects us from the labor point of view? If so, you can receive a
daily update from Ed Stills who is the AFL-CIO Austin Information Chief.
Just send your *personal* email address to comments@ntape.com,
put “updates” in the subject line.
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.
