Greetings USW Local 8599 Family,
May 1st was International Workers’ Day, a day commemorating the historic struggles and gains made by workers and the labor movement. Education Code 51009 deems the month of May as Labor History Month, public schools and are encouraged to commemorate this month and bring awareness of the Labor Movement in California and the United States to our students.
Doesn’t it seem that some days there are more struggles than gains?
What is positive about our struggles? We have the chance to improve. I appreciate when you, the Members bring your concerns to me, you give me or our Stewards the opportunity to address them with the appropriate Departments and Management Teams.
In collaboration with the District we have done very well with negotiations and the day to day challenges.
Most recently the payroll “System” had a glitch, that gave eleven month employees an extra sick and vacation day. Calendars should have been looked at by Payroll and if the month worked had ten working days the member would accrue one sick day, and if the member had more than half the month of working days a vacation day would be accrued. This effected approximately ninety members. At that point the Payroll Department started to withdraw the sick and vacation days that should not have been placed in the banks in the first place. For some, who were out of sick and/or vacation time this “correction” sent them into docked status. At that point, the Payroll Department started to withdraw funds from their pay warrants to correct their leave banks. However, Payroll were not notifying the members first. This is a violation of our Collective Bargaining Agreement. I requested a grievance for a Class Action Grievance. The District requested a meeting to discuss this incident. The resolution I proposed was, every effected member is to have the day(s) returned to their balance and any money that the District withdrew from the pay warrants be returned. BIG WIN. This will be corrected on your May 30, 2023 Pay warrant.
If you are in the Custodial Department, at your April Safety Meeting your Supervisors distributed flyers regarding vacation requests and sick time restrictions. These should NOT have been distributed. When we ratified the Contract in April the Sick use language changed to state. If you have sick time, you may use your sick time. Your Supervisor should be talking to individual members regarding patterns or excessive use of your sick time.