December '07 Executive Vice President's Report

The Union for the Information Age

December 2007 Executive Vice-President's Report
by Stan Wylie, Vice President

I suppose now being December a look back at the year is appropriate. The Local set many goals for the year. One was to recruit more stewards and we have done that. Many members have taken the step to represent and I want to thank them for that.

We also wanted to do more ongoing training and we have made some changes in that regard. Typically now we incorporate some training at the monthly representation meeting so the AVP's and the Area Reps can share with the stewards they work with. That said I also recognize we have been a little slow to provide basic and advanced stewards training and that will be a high priority for 1st quarter next year.

We also wanted to improve our internal and external organizing efforts. While we may not see the fruits of that activity quite yet, we have done some training for the organizing committee and increased the size of that committee. We are also partnering with some other District 7 entities and are actively working on some opportunities. More to come on that later.

Another goal was to start a retiree chapter. We made the decision to work cohesively with the other locals in the state to start a statewide chapter and that has started and currently they are working on increasing the membership. With the upcoming bargaining at Qwest retiree's have a important stake as to how the agreement is settled in regards to retiree health care. I look forward to their support and also to supporting them in the next year.

We also wanted to become more visable in the community and I believe with the Community Services committee, the Equity committee, the Women's Committee, as well as the Mobilization and legislative Committee's we have reached that goal. We have participated in many more community events this year then previously and have worked together with many organizations to make a difference in the community. Almost all of this was done with volunteer hours so I want to really thank those who have worked on behalf of this local on many many events.

Improve member communication was another goal and again I think we have made some progress in that area but can certainly gain more ground in the area especially moving into next year. We have established some email trees to get timely information to our members personal email addresses and have also established some distribution networks in some of the work groups but certainly not all. So if anyone reading this wants to get on our email list or participate in our distribution network, please contact any steward or the Local office.

We also had several other goals that we have been marginally successful in… (like I always used to tell my boss when she would give me 3 pages of expectations.. Nice to have a goal… doesn't mean I will meet them all…) Those are Cope to 15%, More involvement in political and legislative issues I think we have done that but going into next year will be the big test. Fully functioning and active committees and I think we have exceeded that goal for the year from a participation standpoint now we can work on the administrative side of getting the reports on the website and being more visable to the membership. Not that we are not doing that now but we can always improve in that area.

Some key things to reflect on is the number of grievances for the local was almost double then last year. That is a pretty disturbing number in my opinion. Not for the fact that we filed that many just that management has made that many poor decisions to force us to go that route. It is clear (in my opinion) that for the most part management has quit caring about the employee and instead of working with them they just choose to discipline. I could go into detail here but honestly not sure it would be appropriate. I will just say nothing amazes me anymore…

I really want to thank all the Stewards and the AVP's as well as the Committee chairs & members for all their hard work this year. I know it has been a difficult year and I like to look at it as a test for the upcoming year. I think we are on track to be successful in bargaining and keeping our members well represented.