Business Managers Report

 

Tuesday was Veterans’ Day. If you see a vet, thank him for his service to our country.

 

Elections are over and hoping everyone exercised their right to vote. We now know who the players are and we will do what we can do to move forward.

 

I attended the 3rd District Workshop in Pittsburgh. We received good information on call out pay and fire retardant clothing. We had a company come in to give us an overview of Obama Care. There are still a lot of unanswered questions. There are some good things and we will have to watch.

 

In Massachusetts we will be representing Bear Swamp which is the newly organized Brookfield property. We tried to get the company to put them into the current contract but they want to start from Article I. We have to create a whole new contract. We will be meeting November 17, 18 and 19 in Massachusetts to start negotiations.

 

Met in Albany with the NYS Electrical Worker Association prior to elections. There was a lot of good discussion with fellow IBEW brothers and contractors.

 

Ginna organizing campaign – First we are trying to keep them alive. Heard from the PSC that they are going to mandate NYSE&G to sit down and keep the plant alive. We are setting up a meeting with all employees and trying to get some political pull.

 

Moving forward with staffing levels thru the PSC. In-house is where we should be vs. contractors. We work safer and are more reliable.

 

 

Rolled out Code of Business Conduct and Ethics with no notice to us. They want employees to sign a statement of compliance. We sent a letter back that we will not sign because it was not negotiated. You can sign that you were there which is the same on all properties. Brookfield has sent a letter back that they will recognize that and will do as training.

 

 

An arbitration is set for March 23 and 24 in regards to management doing bargaining work. Had an issue with a clerical piece. Abolished the job and brought position into management to do the same work. Then they wanted to get rid of that position.

 

Still dealing with pension lawsuit. It will be at least nine months before it will be heard.

 

 

Outstanding memorandums:

 

1. Design Representatives

Would be going up from a pay group 17.

 

2. Gas Initiative

Awaiting the company's response.

 

3. Gas I&R

19 jobs in Albany and Syracuse for in-house and temporary.

 

4. CMS

17 jobs in Central

 

Because of budget problems, any jobs out there can be filled but nothing new will be approved.

 

Frank DeMauro, Labor Manager, has retired. There is no replacement yet and probably will not replaced until January. Hopefully will not put us at a standstill on issues he was handling.

 

 

Requested dates from Labor Department that we need to meet on the drug policy and benefit changes. We will be meeting on December 5.

 

 

Company notified us regarding changes to their benefits. There are only four minor changes which are for the betterment. But we still need to negotiate and put them on notice.

 

 

Their contract is up in February. Company has asked to talk about pension and benefit changes. We will be exchanging proposals on December 8 and then negotiations mid-December to January.