The Union continues a strategy of targeting and focusing additional resources for mobilizing members for selected negotiations—particularly in the hotel industry.
A new State law, the Uniform Arbitration Act, provides for prearbitration conferences if the collective bargaining agreement is silent. These agreements should be changed to specifically state that a pre-hearing conference is only allowed by mutual consent.
Contract Negotiation Policy on Favored Nations Agreements (“FNA”). Currently there are half a dozen contracts that contain FNA language. Through negotiations there has been a modest success in getting some hotels to agree to temporarily refrain from asserting the FNA language or getting them to agree to limit the scope of the FNA language to only apply to certain other hotels.
Substance Abuse Policies. The union has a sample workplace drug policy that seeks to balance the rights of individuals accused of substance abuse and the rights of other members to privacy and a safe workplace. The union’s position is that individuals with a drug problem need help and should be given a chance to be rehabilitated before punishment is considered. The union also opposes random testing because of the tendency for management to misuse such testing, that it intrudes on the privacy rights of all members, and the tests that are used do not measure impairment or inability to do the job.
Contract enforcement
1) Grievances filed: A total of
2,287 grievances were filed in the last Triennium;
Sept. 2000 to Aug. 31, 2001 ..... 821
Sept. 2001 to Aug. 31, 2002 ..... 867
Sept. 2002 to Aug. 31, 2003 ..... 599
Total .....................................................2,287
2) Arbitrations. The total number of grievances which have been arbitrated or are pending arbitration as of September 1, 2003, is 74, as compared to 78 for the 1997-2000 triennium and 83 as reported at the 1994-1997 three-year period. Of the 62 grievances which were approved for arbitration and are now closed, 19 were settled prior to the conclusion of the arbitration proceedings, 22 were lost, and 21 were won.
2 were lost, and 21 were won.
• 21 won/22 lost (48% of arbitrations won) in the 2000-2003 triennium;
• 13 won/11 lost (54% of arbitrations won) in the 1997-2000 triennium;
• 15 won/9 lost (63% of arbitrations won) in the 1994-1997 triennium;
• 12 won/18 lost (40% of arbitrations won) in the 1991-1994 triennium.
Safety and health
Each unit should strive to have a safety and health committee. It shall be advisory to the Unit Executive Board and the agenda of the UEB meetings should include Safety and Health. The Unit’s safety and health committee should provide advice and make recommendations to management on safety and health matters. All contracts should include a section on safety and health.
It is important to make it clear that where Union members are part of a safety committee: that the committee only makes recommendations, that it is not authorized or obligated to discipline employees for safety violations, and that ultimately, the actions taken are the employer’s responsibility and not the Union’s.
Recommendations:
1) The Union should use the improving economic conditions in the State to roll back concessions given in earlier years and to push for better contracts.
2) The Union should develop a more structured process of “debriefing” all negotiations, where the negotiation strategies used are reviewed and an analysis of their effectiveness is reported. Other units can then learn from the experience and determine what strategies might be best suited for their unit or industry.
3) The Union should constantly monitor activities of the State Legislature to keep track of new laws which may affect our collective bargaining agreements and use the information and experiences in contract administration to improve our labor laws so that they work in concert with and further bolster the provisions in our collective bargaining agreements.
4) The Union should delete “Favored Nations Agreements” from contracts as they are re-negotiated.
5) The Union should negotiate substance abuse policies that limit testing to safety sensitive jobs or require clear and convincing evidence of impairment due to substance abuse, that make a rehabilitation treatment program available after the first violation, and that requires submission to a rehabilitation treatment program after the second violation with a last chance agreement. The Union should confirm that it is concerned about providing its members with a safe working environment and is therefore willing to agree to a substance abuse policy, as provided in the sample form approved by the Local Executive Committee.
6) The Union should continue its commitment of money and resources to reduce and eliminate backlogs in the grievance handling process wherever it may be to provide members with swift resolutions to their grievances.
7) The Union should address safety and health concerns as they arise, whether they are in the form of substance abuse policies, workplace violence policies or laws regarding the privacy of health care information.
8) The Union should continue to negotiate to include union shop language in all contracts, and oppose attempts by employers to impose open shop language.
9) The Union should negotiate to include no-subcontracting clauses in all contracts; or if not possible or where subcontracting language already exists in the contract, the Union should negotiate to amend such language to require a subcontractor to hire all bargaining unit members displaced by subcontracting and to require the subcontractor to provide the same wages, benefits, and other contractual rights provided in the collective bargaining agreement (including, but not limited to, seniority) to the displaced employees.
10) The Union should negotiate to include successorship language in all contracts that: (a) requires prior notice to the Union of any sale or similar management change; (b) requires that all employees be hired by the successor; (c) requires that the successor recognize the Union as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for the employees effected; (d) requires the successor’s assumption of the existing contract as a condition of the sale or transfer; and (e) do not require the Union to post a bond or other security as a condition to enforcing the successorship clause and assumption of the contract by the successor.
11) The Union should, when a contract is about to expire, always negotiate for an extension of at least the union security and grievance procedure provisions of the contract; and where an extension is not possible, to aggressively enforce the status quo.
12) The Union should protect the individual rights of its members by negotiating (if applicable): (a) surveillance camera policies that provide that no disciplinary action can be taken based on what is revealed by the cameras; (b) search policies that require the presence of a Union official when a search is performed; (c) lie detector test policies which conforms to the requirements of state and federal laws; (d) the impact of all new technology (including, but not limited to, biometric finger-scanning technology) so that such use will not
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is provided, daily subsistence will be no more than the federal formula.
5) Clarifies that the Titled Local Officers can make donations on behalf of the Union, but in amounts not greater than $3,500.00.
6) Clarifies that current officers or members who are covered by the Staff Pension Plan, but who would have received a higher benefit from their original employer’s pension plan, will get the higher pension amount. However, for new employees it is understood that they will get the Staff Pension Plan benefit only.
7) Clarifies that if someone takes any portion of their pension benefit in a lump sum, they shall not qualify for paid medical coverage.
8) Updates plane reservations policy to conform to the current situation.
9) The refund of the first month of Local dues to the unit is suspended except for newly organized units.
Affordable prescription drugs for ILWU retirees
The Twenty-third Convention of the ILWU Local 142 strongly supports efforts to ensure the affordability of retiree health benefits for existing and future retirees by approving the following:
1) Authorize the LEB to establish the ILWU Local 142 VEBA Trust for the following purposes: (a) to assist existing retirees with purchasing group medical and prescription drug coverage; and (b) to establish postretirement benefits for future retirees with a minimum of 9,000 participating members.
2) Establish the VEBA trust by January 1, 2004.
3) The post-retirement benefit for future retirees will be established effective January 1, 2005, provided the number of units which ratify this resolution have a total of at least 9,000 members that will contribute to the VEBA Trust.
4) No later than November 1, 2004 and thereafter, the Union will collect monthly contributions of $3.00 per dues-paying member from those units which have agreed to fund the post-retirement benefit for future retirees.
5) Authorize the LEB to be the appointing authority for the Board of Trustees for the VEBA Trust.
6) Authorize the liquidation of ILWU’s interest in Union Insurance Service and designate those liquidated monies to be paid directly to the VEBA Trust to avoid any taxable consequences to those monies.