April 2008 Executive Vice President's Report

The Union for the Information Age

April 2008 Executive Vice-President's Report
by Stan Wylie, Vice President

Well Spring is here but you certainly can't tell by the weather… Very unpredicatable and at times very nasty. Kind of how I feel about the one of the companies we work for these days. It is obvious that they are letting more and more people go and with that come some changes and we will have to continue to work through them. Already in the last couple of days the company has tried to close vacation schedules, there is talk about changing member's shifts and tours. Who knows what they intend to do about the work. When they let 25 techs go a couple months ago I kind of expected to hear about some mandatory overtime etc while they adjusted. While I have heard of some it doesn't seem like it increased too much and mostly to deal with late repair tickets etc… With this current round of cuts and large cuts on many of the "inside" positions we will be keeping an eye out for that. We can only do so much! The burden of getting the work done is on management so employees may want to remember that if you feel management is putting to many expectations on you.

This may sound naïve but I always kind of expect management to be honest in their dealings with the union, and the last couple of months I have been severely disappointed in that regard. All I can say is document every conversation. If management is (hmm how to phrase this) less then honest or how about forgetful… then at least we have some notes to remind them of what was said earlier. It is really sad to have to cautious in every conversation to figure out if what is being said is truthful or not. It's kind of bizarre in that regard. The company routinely fires people for not being honest but yet when they are on the spot somehow their story always changes. Disgusting is a word that comes to mind.

I have been pretty busy keeping up with the grievances and while the workload has increased I put in the same amount of effort for each and every grievance. It is important that although we are busy that we take no shortcuts on representation. This applies to all of our stewards as well. They have been kept quite busy and I am thankful for all the effort they do. It is easy to get overwhelmed but trimming on our representational duties is not the place to take shortcuts. While the reason for a grievance or for discipline may be the same, the circumstances are always different. From that we must continue to evaluate and investigate each one and look for the company's shortcomings in their actions. Believe me there is always something. It may not be enough to win the grievance but it could be a point to argue.

Some things are going on in South Dakota and Qwest right now. While I can't necessarly put anything in print about it I would encourage folks to Google " qwest South Dakota 6 days” Interesting reading but only the beginning of the story.

With all the negative stuff going on the Local has continued to still provide volunteers for charitable activities in the community and we have continued to train new folks to become stewards. We have also been doing some refresher training to go over changes in process and what not. The local still has a good track record in regards to representation and we intend to keep it that way. Thanks to all who have volunteered and those who have taken on additional duties.