UE Local 170

Why the Public Workers Union matters

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:08:42 -0500

Public workers are professionals. We take great pride in the work we do serving all of the people in this state. Public employees help our communities stay healthy, safe and educated and yet public workers in West Virginia are often ridiculed in the world of public opinion. While the public workers maintain the quality of life for all of the people in this state, wages for public workers have not kept pace with inflation, benefits have been cut and management decisions are routinely blamed on the work force.

Representation for a public employee starts when we take a professional attitude and seek to resolve a problem. It takes more than a simple willingness to stand up for compliance with the laws and rules of this state. Public employee professionalism means advocating for meaningful solutions to our problems. When a public employee is faced with noncompliance with the state civil service system regulations or if we raise a concern about other violations of the law or rules by the agencies or departments we work for, if we object, we have to appeal to a corrupt grievance process. Unfortunately what happens next is more often than not a reprisal.

Retaliation is common against public workers who stand up to bad managers. Because speaking out almost always results in reprisals, public employees need the representation a member run union provides. Harsh treatment, arbitrary work schedules, the imposition of corrective action plans, leave restrictions and other attacks against public workers are frequently the result of an employee who voices a concern.

Because we encounter situations where a state agency is violating the law or a state regulation, there needs to be a framework an employee can use to help resolve that problem without being ruthlessly attacked by management. When a public worker goes alone to resolve a problem with management it almost always results in retaliation and negative if not severe consequences to the concerned public employee. This pattern of retaliation is why a strong member run union is critical to restore and protect the rights of public employees in the work place.

Shop density, where a significant number of the employees in the work place belong to an employee union, helps to restore the rights of the employees because management knows the workers will not allow the mistreatment of the rank and file. This principle of union solidarity is the best way for workers to balance the power when management is out of control.

A member run public employee union is important because by working together we have an intimate understanding of the work we do. Working together we know each other and we know who the managers are. With this detailed understanding it is a union shop that is able to react quickly to defend an employee who is being attacked by a bad management decision.

Our most effective form of representation is a workplace with a solid base of union members. As a statewide union we have the added benefit that no single agency can retaliate against a union shop, because the network of union employees state wide will react to expose the retaliation and work to hold those managers accountable for any wrong doing.

A good steward requires more than just documentation and record keeping. The CORE functions of a union member are to communicate with each other, organize together and represent the employees effectively. Effective representation means problem solving. Because the grievance process is so dysfunctional, resolving problems in the work place without filing a grievance is crucial to promoting professionalism in our state government functions.

As public workers we have the legal right to representation. A member run union such as ours gives us the organizational structure to effectively represent the public workers in a variety of areas. In addition to aggressively fighting grievances, this union is fighting for WV OSHA compliance and enforcement. We are pushing for legislation to address the lack of caseload standards in the DHHR program areas and in the state hospital system. We are also asking for a modest Cost of Living Adjustment, enhanced seniority rights and the repeal of the authority to involuntarily transfer employees.

We continue to demand accountability of the PEIA Finance Board, such as requiring them to have a quorum of its members at each required public hearing. We continue to demand an end to PEIA benefit cuts and cost increases, which is significantly offensive when our pay remains frozen and among the lowest in the nation.

We oppose measures that limit and restrict the rights of public workers. We want the protection of seniority rights and the recognition of our dedicated public service.

We are very concerned about an alarming trend in some state agencies to implement restrictive sick leave policies and policies that infringe on the employees right to keep our health care information private.

We continue to investigate the ongoing privatization of our public services and we continue to demand that the cost benefit analysis be conducted as required by law, when these privatization plans are adopted.

We know that the only way we can have effective representation is through the organization of public workers statewide. A key part of effective organizing is steward training, providing union members with the information we need on the variety of ways we can represent public employees effectively.

To help our union shop stewards lead our state forward, the WV Public Workers Union continues to hold steward training workshops because we know an educated union member is an effective union member.

The next Steward Council Workshop will be held at the WV Public Workers Union Hall, Saturday, February 6, from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm. Additional workshops will be scheduled this spring and summer and will be announced in our newsletter, through our chapter organizations and the schedule of workshops will be posted on the calendar pages of this website as soon as the schedules are developed.

2009 a Public Workers year in Review

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 10:12:39 -0500

2009 a Public Workers year in Review

In February, Governor Manchin promised to share the budget surplus with state employees. According to the state tax office public workers earned the 2009 budget surplus because of massive statewide staffing shortages.

Senators Helmick, McCabe, Foster and Wells sponsored SB 519, the bill to furlough state employees with no due process, with no accountability on the Governor who would be authorized to implement layoffs at will and with no recognition of seniority for employees to be furloughed. Public workers gathered 1,500 signatures on a petition to stop SB 519 before the bill could even leave the Senate. Thanks to Senator Randy White who agreed to receive the petitions and was the only Senator to vote against this draconian excuse for public policy. Before the bill could reach the House of Delegates the Public Workers Union gathered over 2,000 signatures on the petition to defeat SB 519. With your letters, emails and phone calls SB 519 was dead on arrival in the House of Delegates.

Lou Dobbs and CNN covered the Governors $55,000 pay raise in a story called West Virginia the Welfare State. This aftermath of our 2009 Presidents Day Rally focused on the Public Workers Union push for a living wage for all state workers compared to the Governors $55,000 pay raise. CNN interviewed several employees who qualify for welfare while working full time at Mildred Mitchell Batemen State Hospital in Huntington. The report ended with the comment from the Governors office that if there would be a budget surplus it would be shared with the state workers. The reporters joked with each other at the end of the segment that if there would be a budget surplus, it was unlikely the Governor would share it with the state workforce. It is rumored that the Governor was so mad about this news story that he kicked the furniture in the Governors mansion and broke his foot.

Mildred Mitchell Batemen Hospital and other DHHR programs received scrutiny in the courts over inadequate staffing levels, compromised patient care and other citations related to failed management. In response the Public Workers Union is calling for the adoption and implementation of caseload standards for DHHR and state hospital workers.

West Virginia did end fiscal year 2009 with a $168 Million Dollar Budget Surplus. Governor Manchin then called a special session of the legislature and proposed a meager $500 bonus for public workers. The Public Workers Union opposed this bonus proposal because a bonus system is ripe for abuse and favoritism, a bonus this year is a pay cut next year and the lowest paid state workforce in the nation deserve a minimum of a $1,000 cost of living raise, a measure fully funded by the budget surplus. The House of Delegates at least attempted to make the bonus fair by funding the bonus proposal from the budget surplus and applying the bonus to public employees and retirees. Instead the Governor called the Senate to kill the bill; he killed the very bonus he had promised to state employees.

PEIA also worked hard in 2009 to prove that the state personnel management system is being destroyed by our so called state leaders. PEIA first proposed to eliminate retiree health benefits for all employees hired after a date certain. At the public hearings required to be conducted by the PEIA Finance Board, the outrage across the state was universal. PEIA voted to implement the plan regardless of the unanimous opposition to the plan.

PEIA then proposed to cut benefits, increase premiums, and double the out of pocket expenses and deductibles for covered employees and retirees. Again the outrage across the state was universal. Public workers called this plan a company store imposed pay cut. Even though required to conduct public hearings, a majority of the PEIA Finance Board members did not attend a single one of the public hearings in November. According to witnesses PEIA almost never has a quorum of Finance Board members at any public hearing. PEIA then voted in December to implement many of these measures regardless of the nearly universal opposition to the plan.

West Virginias Public Workers Union also exposed the toxic work environment in several DHHR offices in 2009. Perpetuated by a lack of implementation, compliance and enforcement of the 22 year old WV OSHA law for public employees, these sick buildings represent another serious problem of failing personnel management in state government.

For 2010, the Public Workers Union calls for all state workers to take charge of our places of employment through enhanced professionalism and union organization. Take pride in your work serving the communities in our state. Through our professionalism and union strength, public workers are changing the way the state does business by standing up to bad management and demanding accountability of our public employers. By making a positive difference in our work place we are improving the quality of life for all West Virginians.

We thank you, your union thanks you and the people of West Virginia Thank You for your public service.

2010 Policy Objectives of Public Workers Unioin, UE Local 170

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:25:38 -0400

2010 Policy Objectives of UE Local 170, the West Virginia Public Workers Union

1) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for statewide recognition of the seniority rights of all public workers, by requiring consideration of seniority as a qualifying factor in all promotions and lateral transfers, and to provide security of tenure in all involuntary transfers and layoffs as may be provided for by law, rule or executive order.
2) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for an annual cost of living raise based on the actual rate of inflation for both current public workers and retired public employees, to exceed any cost increase for health insurance as passed onto public workers and retirees.
3) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for the end of the questionable freeze on pay raises and to allow merit raises for public workers as currently provided for in law.
4) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for a minimum living wage for all public workers in this state of not less than $10.00 per hour or $20,000 per year.
5) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for collective bargaining rights for all state workers, Provided that no public worker shall be denied the right to chose to join a union of their choice and proportional representation shall be afforded all employee organizations.
6) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for an end to all mandatory forced overtime and an end to overtime without pay or appropriate compensation for hours worked outside of the normal work schedule. Flex time utilization shall be provided for at the rate of time and a half and all un-utilized flex time shall be paid at the standard overtime rate of time and a half for all hours worked outside of the normal work schedule.
7) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for the immediate implementation of, and statewide compliance with the WV Occupational Safety and Health Act (enacted in 1987) to protect the health, safety and welfare of public workers on the job.
8) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for the establishment of adequate safe case load standards for all offices of public employment, including state hospitals, in the offices of health and human services, and in all potentially dangerous work environments such as those found at the Division of Highways and the Department of Environmental Protection.

9) The West Virginia Public Workers Union supports employee flex time work schedules (4 ten hour work days), Provided that adequate and appropriate staff levels are maintained in order not to compromise employee safety, employee benefit utilization and the functional operation of any participating agency.
10) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for a moratorium on all privatization plans related to the delivery of public services. Privatization results in higher costs to the taxpayer and reduced quality of services for the communities we serve.
11) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for the removal of administrative conflicts of interest in the Public Employees Grievance System by moving the grievance process from the executive branch to the judicial branch of government.
12) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for the adoption in state law of specific penalties for all managers, supervisors and other agency administrative personnel for any insubordination act of retaliation, reprisal or bad faith related to any grievance or any other negotiation with public workers, or public employee retirees.
13) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for no further benefit reductions of employee and retiree health insurance coverage and an end to any increases in premium and deductible costs for health care currently covered by any employment insurance plan.
14) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for the repeal of the law providing for the involuntary transfer of public employees, because the law as written provides no check on the potential abuse of this executive power.
15) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for the end of any form of gender based discrimination and that the principle of equal pay for equal work shall be applied in all offices, agencies and political subdivisions of this state.
16) The West Virginia Public Workers Union calls for the Division of Personnel to announce by official notice to all covered public workers and their supervisors and managers, that all public employees have the absolute right to have an employee representative in any meeting with management that could result in any form of discipline.

UE Local 170, the West Virginia Public Workers Union
1591 Washington Street East, Charleston WV, 25311
(304) 699-4401 www.uelocal170.org
Representing Public Workers all across West Virginia

Say No to the Furlough!

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:20:00 -0400

While we recognize that the state has the same responsibility to be fiscally responsible that public workers have, given the track record for protecting state emplyees rights and wages, giving any Governor the power to furlough public workers, under the terms of ignoring seniority rights only encourages the further abuse of executive power.

Print the petition and mail it to the Union Hall Office in Charleston.

The petition reads:

Say No to the Furlough!

We, the undersigned, oppose passage of Senate Bill 519 as an unwarranted expansion of executive power and an attack upon seniority and grievance rights of public workers.

Steward Training Schedule

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:06:03 -0500

Steward Council Workshop Training Schedule

Saturday, March 28 at 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Location - UE Local 170 Union Hall
1591 Washington St E, Charleston
Steward Basics - Representation and Organizing

Saturday, April 18 at 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Location - UE Local 170 Union Hall
1591 Washington St E, Charleston
In depth grievance workshop

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONISM IN WEST VIRGINIA

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:32:27 -0500

Comments to Division of Personnel

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:03:32 -0500

The following comments were approved by the UE Local 170 Executive Committee for submission to the Division of Personnel for the public hearing on the proposed pay plan changes. The public hearing is scheduled for January 15, 2009 at 2:00 p.m.

Union members and interested public workers may use this letter for talking points or you may copy and sign the letter and submit it to the Division of Personnel during the public comment period.

WV Public Workers Union History

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:56:12 -0500

On September 19, 2006, three West Virginia State workers took annual leave and met in Charleston for a drive to Pittsburgh. The trip would be the foundation to forming what is now known as the West Virginia Public Workers Union, UE Local 170.

Steward Training January 6

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:24:15 -0500

Steward Training on the multiple roles of the active union member - as an employee representative - as a shop steward - as a front line defender of an employee and the rights of employees at work.
This Steward works hop will be after the Capitol Chapter meeting Tuesday January 6 at 6:30 pm. Chapter meeting at 5:30 pm. Everyone is welcome.

Chapter Meeting

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:00:46 -0500