Quarterly Membership Meeting Minutes – August 2014

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AT THE NEXT MEETING THESE MINUTES WILL BE APPROVED

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Minutes of the Regular Quarterly Meeting of The International Association of EMT’s & Paramedics of Local 167

August 21, 2014

Savage American Legion

Called to order by President Brett Hopper 1835 hours.

Minutes:

Motion to approve minutes from second quarter membership meeting on May 14, 2014 as submitted. Second. Motion passed.

Treasury Report:

Report prepared by Treasurer Bouthilet and given by President Hopper. The starting balance on 05/14/2014 was $23,424.74 and ending balance as of 08/21/2014 is 27,002.06. We have $25,321.72 in CDs as of 08/21/2014 and total of physical property is $1,616.94 as of 05/14/2014. Our grand total is $53,940.72 with all physical assets as of 08/21/2014. Dues are current through 07/25/2014. Most dues cards have been collected, including the new members in Glencoe and the recent academies. Our annual full membership audit will occur next quarter. Finance committee is still in a holding pattern due to chairperson's schedule. This is still in the plans, and we are still looking for at-large members to come forward for participation. If you or anybody you know would be interested in assisting the remainder of the finance committee in steering the direction of future investments, please let the Treasurer know. We will be looking at opening separate accounts for various funds during the upcoming quarter. With the increase in the Local per cap, the goal was to establish different funds, including a scholarship fund, amongst others. For ease of record keeping, it may be in our best interest to separate these monies from our general fund. Member Roers donated a projector screen which has been added to our physical assets (and works great!). Our fiscal year will be ending on September 31, 2014.

Motion to accept the treasury report as given. Second. No discussion. Motion passes.

**A reminder that if you change your FTE status to inform Bouthilet so the amount of dues taken out of your check can be adjusted. **

Communications:

Union Website/Facebook

Please log onto the website to stay up to date with what is happening. The address is www.iaep167.org. Ryan Dougherty is the new website administrator. If you do not have access please fill out access form and get it to any board member. We also have a Facebook page - IAEP R7-167. Like us to get updates about the union.

National Representative/Executive Board:

Brett Hopper serves as our National Representative. The national executive board meets twice per year, Brett attends these meetings. If you have problem with the way the local is running you can talk with Hopper or you can contact his boss Phil Petit at National. Hopper has also been elected to as a representative to the National Executive Board for IAEP. Representatives are elected every four years and it is a paid position. Any member in good standing can run for the position. Let Hopper know if you are interesting in either position.

Scholarships

Several scholarships are available for union members through IAEP, SEIU, and Union Plus. Members can find links to available scholarships on the union website (www.iaep167.org) on the left hand side links or on the Union Plus website (http://www.unionplus.org/union-member-benefits)

Union Plus Benefits

We have a benefit available to us as union members called Union Plus. It is very similar to MERC. It is a discount membership group. Where it asks for union name please use SEIU not IAEP, we are local SEIU 5000. http://www.unionplus.org/union-member-benefits. Also remember to check benefits for Allina employees on the AKN under employee discounts.

LOUs

The last LOU that was signed was number 12 for the Glencoe addition. It stated that all Glencoe members would become part of the local and included their pay scale.

Substation Issue

The posting location at 694/Lexington is technically considered at “substation”. Our current contract has language that defines a base, also known as a report to work location. The contract does not have language for a posting location or “substation”. Due to this, we are not able to file a grievance or force the company into purchasing a location. There is no grievable issue here. The company is working on a location of a “substation” in the 694/Lexington area. It is important to remember that we are fortunate to have “substations” at our posting locations. Most of the country sits at street corners for posting locations. We will be looking at adding the “substation” definition to the next contract during upcoming negotiations.

2014 L167 Picnic

The first IAEP L167 picnic is Sunday, August 24, 2014 at 1400. The picnic is being held at Island Lake Park in Shoreview. We are hoping for a good turn out and hoping to make this annual event.

National Convention

The 2014 NAGE national convention is September 9th through the 11th in Las Vegas. This convention takes place every four years. National By Laws state that we are able to send one delegate for every 500 members. Last meeting we elected to send President Hopper and Vice President Dougherty to the convention.

Committee Reports:

By Law Committee

The chair of the committee is Charlie Soucheray. At this time nothing to report.

Steward Report

Report given by Vice President Dougherty. We have filed 14 grievances so far this year. We are at approximately a 40 percent favorable outcome. One of the grievances was for the return to work policy and fit testing. This was filed for two members and has resulted in an update of the return to work policy and standardizing of the fit testing. Several may go to arbitration. We have had four to five terminations in the last six months. The grievance committee has chosen not to grieve some of these terminations. The most recent grievance filed was for the removal of light duty. Our current contract does state that the company will be offered light duty for injuries on or off duty (Article 30.2). We have filed a grievance for the elimination of the lead dispatch position and it is moving to the arbitration phase. We are considering this a layoff and major change in working condition. This is a reduction of $6-8000 a year in wages per lead dispatcher. We have asked that they keep this position until the end of the contract and remove the position during negotiations. Management has denied this solution. The number of overall grievances is up and the number of signed waivers has increased dramatically. This is most likely due to the creation of the Office of Professional Standards. Remember that you have the option of having a steward present at any investigational meeting as your witness.

We held a joint steward training with HCAPE Hennepin EMS and hope to continue this in the future. We have three new stewards that will be added to the steward list.

**Everyone should remember to request a union steward anytime they feel a conversation my lead to discipline with management. Stewards are there to be your witness and to make sure discipline is just and fair.

Old Business:

RoadSafe Activation

The RoadSafe meetings have stopped. They are looking at replacing the system with a similar product that has not been announced yet. This system will be cheaper than the RoadSafe system. At this time they still have no policy in place.

Contract Year

This is a contract year and negotiations will be starting around August/September. Please look for mailings and postings with information about meetings and submit ideas or concerns for the next contract to any board member or post them on the union website. The negotiation committee members include Brett Hopper, Ryan Dougherty, Steve Eiden, Mike Cox, Drew Boxrud, and Garrett Erdman. Garrett has replaced Michelle Poehler. All the committee members will be responsible to represent all job classes at contract negotiations.

Union Logo

We are looking into having t-shirts, decals and pins made with our local logo on them. There will be more to come on this soon.

Local Website

Ed Erickson was the website administrator for the union’s website. We did have a contract with him for $1500 a year for website hosting and maintenance. We have not received a bill from the administrator for the past two years. We did receive the bill for the past two years once we requested the website administration be transferred to Ryan Dougherty. We have sent an official notice to sever our contract with Ed Erickson and offered to pay $2200 for the past two years of service. We disputed the full amount requested due to lack of maintenance over the time period. He has accepted this and we are officially done with his services. Ryan Dougherty is the current website administrator. The website has been transferred to an account that is listed under the union so we will not have these issues in the future. Dougherty is currently working on the new website which he hopes to launch soon. It will include a calendar with union events, links to important sites and members will be able to register for the site on their own.

Employee Safety/Administrator Leave

There was discussion about employees that are placed on administrative leave and this not being expressed to employees. This is a safety concern and will be brought to LMC. We are still working with management about getting this information to all employees. Dispatch has been getting notifications of terminations and administrative leaves by email.

New Business:

National Convention

Hopper and Dougherty will be attending the national convention. They will be voting for the executive board as our delegates and voting on national by law changes.

Motion to split our votes equally between the two IAEP candidates and bullet vote for Hopper. Second. There was discussion about concern over not knowing anything about the two IAEP candidates. Hopper states that they won’t find out any information about the candidates until they get to the convention. Motion amended by maker of motion to state the original motion is our recommendation to Hopper and Dougherty and they can change the voting choice if they see fit. Amendment of motion seconded. No further discussion. Motion passes.

Most of the national by law changes are word additions and subtractions. The only big change that Hopper saw was the removal of absentee balloting. There are several locals that are small and unable to fund their delegates to attend the national convention for in person voting. Without absentee balloting, they would not be able to participate. Hopper will be voting against this. Check the website for further information and list of by law changes.

Open Floor Discussion:

Contract Negotiations

Motion made that negotiation committee not be able to bring back a contract with red lines or salary caps. Second. There was discussion about concern with placing hard limits on the negotiation committee. Motion fails and was done by hand count. Two votes for the motion and ten votes opposing the motion.

The proposed motion was changed to a recommendation to the negotiation committee to not bring back a contract including red lines or salary caps. This will be passed on to the negotiation committee.

There was also a recommendation that the negotiation committee not allow EMTs to be removed from Critical Care. This will be passed on to the negotiation committee.

The next meeting will be held at Wintegreens in Isanti, MN at 1830 on December 8, 2014.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn. Motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 2046 hours.