Local 1539 MCF-Rush City, MN

Congratulations to the new AFSCME board members.

The following new board officers will take office on July 1st.

President: Kathy Chinander

Treasure: Matt Watrin

E-board officers ( Two year term): Eric Leigland and Paul Gammel

E-board ( One year Term); Nathan Steinle

Special thanks to our election committee. Good job Pete, Heidi and Will.

Fall convention will be September 25-27, at the Sheraton Hotel-Bloomington. Mark your calendars!!!! Upcoming State Negotiations Assemblies on:November 21and 22nd at the Ramada MOA - January 17th at the Ramada MOA

We were at the capital this week and although things are moving slowly we were able to accomplish some corrections related issues. On Tuesday the Mall Of America expansion was being discussed and on Wednesday the main session was regarding the Delta and Nortwest merger. Most of the legislative reps were in these sessions or were back at their respective districts.

On Tuesday we meet with Julie and she gave us our assignments. We talked with Representative Kalin and Senator Olseen regarding correction issues. Senator Olseen stated that he would like to sponsor legislation that would add K9 units to all facilities. We discussed the fact that we are short staffed. Both Kalin and Olseen will visit our facility on June 3rd to talk with our membership. Both stated that they would enjoy attending our local meeting in June.

One very important event took place regarding legislation that was being proposed in committee to allow more private prisons to open such as Appleton. Representative Deb Hilstrom added language to prevent this. This is a huge win for us. We thanked Representative Hilstrom for her work and would encourage you to do the same. Her number is 651-296-3709. E-mail, rep.debra.hilstrom@house.mn

Administration is going to change our local website access in the institution. We will now be able to only view this from the computers in the training area, the watch center work station and from the work station in finance unless you have a higher access level.

Day On The Hill was a successful event this year!! We discussed concerns and issues that we have at Rush City with our local Senator Rick Olseen and Representative Jeremy Kalin. Our local Representatives will be making a visit to Rush City in May to talk with staff. More information to come......

We are going to make some changes to the way we conduct our new AFSCME employee training. Mark Baker will be our union training officer. Mark will instruct all new employee classes. Mark is our training officer for new staff.

To get new people educated about our union we will start a Union Mentor program. (The one hour class is not enough time for new staff). and we need a better showing at our local meetings from our new staff. Once I receive the list of new AFSCME staff I will assign a Steward to mentor the new staff. The Steward should make contact with the new staff and help them with any questions they may have, remind them of the local meetings, or any voting that may be coming up, check in from time to time to see how they are doing.

Eric or Mark will check with the stewards assigned to the new staff to see how this program is going. If you have any questions contact myself or Mark Baker.

Admin is looking at removing some of the Mylar on the officer bubbles as well as replacing the bubble door glass so you can see in. This issue has many staff concerned regarding staff safety. We will discuss the issue at our next L-M meeting to try and convince them of other solutions. Contact Eric Langworthy if you have any questions.

MN Advantage Co-Pay Question

One of the most frequent questions we have gotten since the beginning of 2008 concerns prescription drugs that cost less than the co-pay at the appropriate tier. In previous years, the member would pay the actual cost of the drug or the co-pay whichever was less.

Beginning in 2008 at certain pharmacies (notably Walgreens and CVS) members are being charged the full Tier co-pay even if the actual cost of the drug is less than that co-pay amount.

Tier 1 co-pay $10 Tier 2 co-pay $16 Tier 3 co-pay $36

We have verified with the pharmacy benefit manager (Navitus) that Walgreens and CVS have insisted that this provision be part of their contracts with Navitus. Since Walgreens and CVS are big enough players in the pharmacy world they had the leverage to do so. It is obviously pure profit for Walgreens and CVS to do this.

Members in this situation may want to consider switching pharmacies and letting Walgreens and CVS know why they are making the switch. They can locate another pharmacy that doesn’t charge the full co-pay by calling the toll-free Navitus Customer Care line at 866-333-2757.

A list of pharmacies is also available by going to the Navitus website at www.navitus.com and clicking on “Find a Pharmacy” under “Members”. This will not have the specific information about the co-pays but members can call the pharmacy directly to ask the question.

Your AFSCME union is looking for Three members who would be interested in working on the Election committee. This committee would organize our June elections. The committee would run the nomination process as well as running the election process on June 3rd. (Committee members must have June 3rd off). This is a funded position. If interested please contact Eric Langworthy by March 3rd.

Our local union is looking for people who would be interested in being on our Good and Welfare committee. If your interested or have any questions, please contact Eric Langworthy.

On 12/24/2007 at 11:17 AM, Sandy O'Hara wrote:
Erik Rasmussen and Teri Hable did a very good job in pointing out the various view points from the sub-committee at our L/M meeting. We appreciate the work that all did on the committee and understand both viewpoints. At this point Management will review each temporary vacancy and make business decisions based on staffing needs. We have checked with other facilities on how they are handling temp Sgt. vacancies and each is reviewing/evaluating based on the needs of the facility.

In addition, we are still evaluating/considering a promotion behind a lengthy military leave of absence for a sergeant, rather than reassignment/work out of class. We have done this in the past and it seems to have worked out well. We hope to have an answer for you next week. Thank you.

>>> Eric Langworthy 12/21/2007 10:45 AM >>>
I would like to pass on the Feedback we are getting regarding the issue of Re-assignments / WOOC. The membership would like to see our current process stay in place. A few years ago we tried the process that Mgt. is currently purposing and that did not work, which is why we changed. I don't want to see us take a step backwards and go through the same issues we had years ago. We suggest that if Mgt would like to change the current system, that we go with Mr. Wilmes's suggestion that he presented regarding our Vacation process. If this is a big concern with our Admin team then it should be dealt with at the DOC L-M level. The main concern we hear from Admin is consistency and this would be a prime example of an issue that should go to the DOC L-M committee to maintain consistency through out the department. To follow up from labor's stand point, our suggestion is for Admin to take the issue to the DOC L-M committee.

The purpose of this report is to educate Local 1539 members about the arbitration process.(read more)

We have the new contract books if any staff wants one please contact Eric Langworthy.

The issue of officers being allowed to enter into trades as stated in the contract will be going through the Arbitration process. This process should start in December. More information to come............

We want to share this E-mail with you regarding the issue of officer shift exchanges. Staff are very concerned with the changes trying to being implemented by mgt. I am instructing all staff to notify us if they receive a denied trade slip or if they do not get their trade slip back in a reasonable time frame. All denied shift exchange slips will be filed at a 3rd step. All slips that are not approved in a timely manor will be filed as a class action grievance.

If you have a trade slip that is denied or still being held, contract me as soon as possible. As of right now continue to put in 8 hours on your time book regarding a shift exchange.

All officers received an E-mail from Warden Feneis stating the changes to Shift Exchanges. The memo go's against our contract. The appointing authority can not change the interpretation to our contract. There are no changes to the shift exchange language in the new contract. The appointing authority can not make changes with out going through contract negotiations or by purposing an MOU and having the approval of the union. This has not happened.

Warden Feneis stated that the department has worked hard with the union to make the shift exchange process successful. This is not true, we did not have any input regarding this new policy. This was forced upon staff without the union's approval. We will be challenging this through the grievance process. If you have a trade that is denied contact a union officer. If you have any questions, please give me a call, Eric.

>>> Joshua Page 8/9/2007 7:35 PM >>> Hi Sid and Tim, I hope you're doing well. I've received four messages from officers who are angry because they think I have their personal information (mailing address). I suspect they did not receive or read the email that AFSCME sent out. I fear that I didn't make it clear enough in my cover letter that AFSCME mailed out the survey. I'm hoping that you and other union activists can spread the word to folks inside the institutions that AFSCME mailed the survey on my behalf--and that I do not have anybody's personal information. Also, I would greatly appreciate if you guys would send out another email that clearly states that AFSCME sent out the survey and did not give me officers' addresses. I think such a note would clear up the confusion. Thank you so much, and sorry to be a pest. Thanks, Josh Joshua Page Assistant Professor University of Minnesota Department of Sociology 909 Social Sciences Building, 267 19th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455

Policy 103.2215, increase in uniform allowance effective now

The above policy has been revised to reflect a $50 increase in the uniform allowance for correctional officers; and uniformed staff in MINNCOR, Food Service, Physical Plant, Education/Vocational, Support Services, and other positions as deemed necessary by the appointing authority. The revisions are contained in procedures A. 1. and B.1.

Per the unit 8 contract: "Employees who have obtained advanced approval of vacation shall not be permitted to cancel or alter their approved vacation unless notice is given at least 15 calendar days prior to its scheduled commencement". This will take effect immediately.

Links to CCJC's web page at http://www.ccjc.org/

Compensation Adjustment; Each year, an agency receives a compensation adjustment to their budget. This covers cost increase for staffing at every level, and the fact that a dollar is worth less than the last two years. Basically, this an inflation adjustment to the budget for what has already happened. Currently, there is also the salary supp proposed to assist with what is coming. The rate is at 2% in the House, and 3.25% in the Senate. Apparently someone has decided to replace on from the other, which would cause the same budget issues as in the past. If the proposed reduction were to take place, it would come directly out of the budget, and the additional dollars from the supp may be inadequate to cover. The short story, less money in the budget equals less staff, i.e. lay-offs.

From now on all supervisors will make a notation in the comments section of the employees time sheet when they are going to make any changes to the staff's payroll. Staff will need to check this so they can find if any errors are made, and get them corrected in the same time period. More...

We received the message below from Erik Skon regarding the meeting minutes from the DOC Uniform Committee meeting held on 1-3-07. Please see the attached document for Mr. Skon's and Mr. Benson's input.

Overtime Shift Any employee can sign up on either list and if they rescind it prior to being offered an overtime list, there is no consequence.

If the employee is signed up on the more than 24 hour list, they can still cancel when asked, but if they do that more than twice, they are off the list for remainder of that two weeks. There is still no consequence for the daily sign up.

When an employee is offered an overtime assignment and accepts, regardless of which list is used to make the offer, that becomes their shift. Although there would be no accruals involved for failing to work the shift, the consequence would and should be the same as missing any other shift. There may be a legitimate reason or not, however, management has the right to treat the incident as any other scheduled shift or the refusal to work that shift.

Please encourage members of your corrections locals to visit our anti-privatization website at: http://www.gotgov.org/Corrections/Corrections.php They can: - Watch a video showing the chaos inside a private prison. - Learn why private prisons have been risky business for other states. - Read legislation to require publicly owned and operated prisons. - Read our testimony supporting these bills. - Ask legislators to support us.

DFL: http://www.dflcaucuses.org/

Green: http://www.mngreens.org/2006caucus.htm

Independence: http://www.mnip.org/caucuslocations2006.pdf

Republican: http://www.mngop.com/pf/

UNION AND COUNTY PARTNER TO IMPROVE CHILD CARE

The 2006 Electoral Process

AFSCME Council 5 Grassroots Lobby Alert

Council 5 State Negotiator's Report (bottom right on their site)

Adverse Weather Guideline

Hiring Restriction-184K

Attached are additional studies from Minnesota Citizens for Tax Justice regarding tax progressivity. Progressivetaxationbullet.pdf, Progressivity&businessclimate.pdf, GHSsuitsforMCTJ.pdf Check them out..Our union brothers and sisters in Legislative District 8B need your help!! Judy Soderstrom is in her second term as the representative from 8B and she has a ZERO AFL-CIO voting record.more

Rush City management is now hiring Intermittent hires. These retired staff will be working transport and hospital coverage shifts. We need to talk with these staff and convince them not to work. By working they will be affecting our 55 retirement. If they work, we stand a good chance of losing our early retirement. Take action now!!

Rick Oleseen