Local 34 Banner August 2005
http://www.afscmelocal34.org/ AFSCME Council 5, Local 34, Hennepin County Social Services and Related Employees
From Our President, Jean Diederich
ANNOUNCEMENT
Brother Wes McGee sent a letter of resignation for his position of Paraprofessional Chief Steward of Local 34. That resignation was accepted by the July 6, 2005 GA. A motion was passed to hold a special election at the August 17, 2005 Executive Board meeting to fill this position.
Qualifications for this position are to be a dues paying member of Local 34 for the past twelve months and holding a job class in the paraprofessional ranks. If you are interested in putting your name forward for this election, please contact me by no later than noon on Monday, August 15, 2005.
A motion was passed to appoint Shannon Wesley as the Acting Paraprofessional Chief Steward with commensurate pay effective May 1, 2005 based on her doing the work related to that position since that time. Thank you to Sister Wesley for her willingness to step forward and assist our Local to continue serving our members.
Health Insurance Update
The RFP (Request for Proposal) has been sent out and the Labor/Management Health Care Committee is waiting for a response. The committee members will most likely be meeting weekly during the month of August to review the submissions by the insurance providers. If you read through the Union contract proposal, you should have noted that we did not make a proposal on health insurance, noting that we would wait until the County had a plan in place. Sisters Anita Selin and Mary Kay Popko, Brother Doyle Juenke, our Business Agent Matt Nelson, and I will be very busy reviewing the information from the providers along with the other members on the committee. I would like to thank two unsung heroes who should receive commendations, Paul Cegla and Val Tetzlaff, from Benefits, for all the hard work that they put into this process behind the scenes. It is only because of their work and the work of their staff that we are even this far in the process. They will be doing much more time-intensive work before this is over.
Early Retirement/Resignation Buy-Out Incentive
The Local voted at the July 6th GA to approve the usage of this program by our members. If you have thought about using the program and have not yet contacted Human Resources to explore the advantages, I would suggest that you do so quickly, as the 45 day deadline of August 22, 2005, is fast approaching. Please see the news article elsewhere in this issue.
Negotiations
We had a very nice attendance at the kickoff rally on July 18th. If you were not in attendance, you missed an extremely uplifting and exciting event. Cliff Poehler, Treasurer of Council 5 and a Public Defender from Local 2938, served as our "keep this event moving right along" and did a wonderful job in that role. Eliot Seide, Executive Director of Council 5, gave a rousing speech about our role in providing quality services to the residents of Hennepin County and how the work that we do makes a lasting difference in their lives. His message resonated with every union member present. Brother Jim Appleby from the County Attorney's office and sisters Solveig Nilson from the Library and Monica Jochmans from our Local all gave impassioned speeches on the services we provide to document the basis of our respective fair and equitable contract proposals. Speeches by Commissioners Peter McLaughlin and Gail Dorfman lifted our spirits as they acknowledged the quality of our work and the important role we play in keeping our County as a leader around the country for the services we provide with dignity and respect.
A HUGE round of applause goes to the Action Team for the fine work that they did in making this rally a success. It takes a lot of work to get any event off the ground and this one was definitely well done. Please join me in this THANK YOU! to that team.
The rally was a nice segue into our opening of negotiations later on in the day. It was almost anticlimactic but for the opening remarks given by Steve Marincel, Business Agent for Locals 552, 2822 and 2938 (see the full text of those remarks elsewhere in this issue). They set the tone and tenor of our proposal - that we ask to be equitably recompensed for the work that we do, while putting the Employer on notice that we are determined and unified in our desire to reach a fair contract settlement. The majority of our first meeting was spent presenting the proposal to the Employer and answering questions for clarification. Our next meeting is scheduled for August 15th when the Employer will provide us with their first counterproposal.
Local 34 t-shirts
You may have seen some of your fellow members styling Local 34 t-shirts in bright yellow, lime green, gray or white with our snake logo on the back. We have a limited number of those t-shirts left and would like to get them to you to wear in support of the union's activities. Wear them grocery shopping, banking, garage sale-ing, neighborhood activities to get the word out about how important unions are to the financial viability of the community. Wear them to political rallies/events. To paraphrase Nike "Just wear them". If you would like one, please send me an e-mail with your size and color choice. We do not have all colors in all sizes so please list several choices. We have Small, Medium, Large, XLarge, 2XLarge, 3XLarge and a few 4XLarge on hand. Again, first come, first served. August is a wonderful month for vacations and I hope that every one of you has the opportunity to enjoy some time away from work this month.
Jean
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“When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him." - Bayard Rustin, Black American civil rights Activist, 1910-1987
From the Desk of Local 34 President, Jean Diederich:
Ad Hoc Committee on Contracting Out – Alice Menge
Report to the Local 34 General Assembly, 07/06/05
Information received on 6/27/05 from the Social Worker assigned to contracting cases indicates that 450+ cases in Aging and Disability Services are in the process of being transferred to contracted vendors. Those cases include TBI, EW, and CADI waiver cases, which had previously been assigned to service coordinators who are being moved to assessment positions. Cases that were previously receiving courtesy case management in other counties are also being called back for transfer to contracted vendors (the reporter did not know the number of Hennepin County clients living in other counties). The social worker also reported that beginning July 1, the transfer staff would begin transferring approximately 60 MR/RC cases to contracted vendors. Social workers in charge of transfers further reported that all of the contracted vendors are actively hiring, to accommodate the projected number of transfers still to come. Management has not shared the “projected number” of transfers with staff in Aging and Disability Services.
The Ad Hoc committee is requesting that Local 34 file a “class action” grievance on behalf of Aging and Disability Services staff, to protest the fact that our Union was not given formal notice of the plan to contract out case management. May it be noted in the filing of this grievance that at least one e-mail sent by management made it appear that John Herzog was a member of the contracting out committee when in fact, John had not been asked to participate on the committee, had no knowledge of the committee’s work, and is currently not a Union officer.
It appears that contracting out of our case management is already in full process and there is little hope of limiting the number of cases that will go—at least in the EW, CADI, and TBI work of Aging and Disability Services. The Ad Hoc committee however, has concerns about how the contracting will ultimately impact both our clients and our staff.
At a time when “Client Choice” has been a mantra in discussions between DHS and County programs, clients who are being transferred to contracted case management are not being given a choice. They cannot choose to retain a county case manager, and they are not being given a choice of contracted case vendors.
Turnover of staff in Aging and Disability Services has been - until recently - very limited. Consequently, the depth of experience and expertise of County staff, by virtue of years of service, has to be far superior to that of staff only now being hired by contracted case management. Our clients will lose the benefit of having a primary case manager who has many years of experience in waivers, community resources, and case management. Limited turnover of County Staff in the past resulted in few client transfers among County case managers. The new system of County assessment and transfer to a County service coordinator - and then an eventual transfer to contracted case management - will result in a loss of continuity of service and care which is always detrimental to our clients.
Some supervisors in the CADI, TBI, EW, and AC programs of Aging and Disability Services have shared with a few staff members their opinion that in 2006 there will be no service coordination (case management) of waiver cases by County staff. It is expected that the only cases which will remain with County case management will be a small number of clients who do not qualify for a waiver and would be social services-only (formerly Services to Seniors and Services to People with Disabilities). That sea change in the way we have historically managed waiver cases would result in the elimination of most service coordinator positions. Management counters with the argument that our work will be assessment, and that contracting out was necessary to preserve those assessment jobs. However, management has not stated how many of those assessment jobs will be needed once the current backlog of clients have been assessed, and those new cases moved on to contracted agencies.
Given our State and National political and economic climate, it’s unthinkable that County management has not done strategic planning which would include estimates of staffing levels needed for the next five years or more. Our department has recently recruited social workers and public health nurses to fill vacancies. Some of those new employees have left other long-term jobs to join Aging and Disability Services, and the possibility of future layoffs precipitated by the County’s current plans to contract out a huge portion of our work poses a threat to the security of those employees and their families.
We all know there are few guarantees in life. Most of us who have chosen to work for the County do so not for the guarantee of security, but because we have a real commitment to public service. Unlike private agencies and vendors who can pick and choose their client base, County Employees are the strongest component of a safety net for all the citizens of Hennepin County. Unfortunately, employees in Aging and Disability Services are now experiencing new feelings of distrust and unprecedented levels of low morale caused by a top-down-only form of management and rumor substituting for real information. Despite the stress of a difficult system, and the huge concern we now have for the future of our clients and our employees, Aging and Disability staff continues to understand that we have a duty to provide the best service possible for our clients. Management must be reminded that they have a duty to that staff.
07/06/05 - Local 34 Ad Hoc Committee on Contracting Out
Eliot Seide: “We’re on the Frontline, not the Bottom Line” - Negotiations Rally, 7/18/05
Meeting Schedule for 2005 General Assembly/Executive Board Meetings
August / 3rdGA- HSB 112 / 17th
E-Board- HSB 110 / September / 7th
GA- HSB 112 / 21st
E-Board- HSB 110
Good & Welfare
To all my Brothers & Sisters of AFSCME Local 34,
Thank you for the plant. I received it on the day after my surgery and it really brightened my day! Thank you.
Chalmers Davis
Lisa [Durkot, Good & Welfare]-
Thanks for sending Mark [May] the flowers from the Union. They were beautiful and an unexpected surprise. They really cheered him up and made the dreary hospital room brighter. Thanks again.
Lynn Hoff, Child Protection Investigations
The Local approved the use of the Retirement/Resignation incentive package at our GA. Here is the Intranet web site for this program: http://hennote1.co.hennepin.mn.us/HR/Intranet/GenlInfo.nsf/a7788e9b6717396f86256bf8006d78de/6c70a3b3a889cb5f86257029004f74ef?OpenDocument
Retirement/Resignation Incentive Program 2005
The County’s voluntary Retirement/Resignation Incentive Program is designed to reduce the number of potential employee layoffs. The program is offered to non-organized employees who – as of their retirement or resignation date – are on County payroll in a paid status and have at least eight years of full-time-equivalent continuous service (16,640 hours). For a detailed description of your eligibility for the Program, the benefits it offers, and other important information, see the items below.