January 7, 2010 – Furlough Lawsuit update

We received a January 28th date to start our briefings on IUOE’s Furlough Lawsuit. Providing this goes as scheduled, we hope to have our case heard in court towards the later part of February 2010.

January 6, 2010 - DWR Federal requirements for Homeland Security

IUOE Director, Local Business Representatives and a DWR member met with DPA and DWR to discuss the new Federal requirements on DWR employees with access to DWR critical infrastructure assets or associated information. There is another meeting scheduled as we have requested additional information to insure the privacy and security of our members in their current jobs.

Jaunary 5, 2010 - CDCR Lay off meeting

IUOE Director and Business Representatives met with DPA and CDCR today to discuss the upcoming Layoffs. We worked diligently to secure a plan that will provide the least amount of impact on our members.

January 5, 2009 - IUOE State Unit 12 - New Years Holiday (Premium) Pay

IUOE has filed a Grievance on behalf of all employees who worked New Years and that are covered under our BU 12 MOU.  IUOE State Unit 12 is seeking reimbursement of Premium pay as per Article 9, Section K (Holidays)  and Article 22 (Entire Agreement).  We are presently awaiting a response from DPA.

January 1, 2010 - New Mileage Reimbursement Rate

Per the current MOU, Section 12.1, F1 a & b , IUOE’s reimbursement rate is tied to the IRS Fed rates. Effective 1/1/2010 the new Mileage reimbursement rate will be changing to the NEW Federal Rate of 50 cents per mile. The Fed’s dropped this 5 cents per mile from the 2009 rate of 55 cents per mile. For more information go to: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=216048,00.html

 

December 28,2009 - IUOE State Unit 12 - Christmas Holiday (Premium) Pay

IUOE has filed a Grievance on behalf of all employees who worked Christmas and that are covered under our BU 12 MOU.  IUOE State Unit 12 is seeking reimbursement of Premium pay as per Article 9, Section K (Holidays)  and Article 22 (Entire Agreement).  We are presently awaiting a response from DPA.

 

November 23, 2009 - IUOE State Unit 12 – New Director

IUOE State Unit 12 is pleased to announce Mr. Tim Neep will be the new Director of Bargaining Unit 12 effective 11/23/2009.

Mr. George Swift will be working for Local 12 as the Unit 12 Coordinator in Pasadena. George will still be on the Negotiation Team, and will remain available for Unit 12 as an Advisor.

Tim Neep has been serving as the Assistant Director for IUOE State Unit 12 for the past couple of years, and has full working knowledge of the present issues surrounding the Bargaining Unit. We feel confident that our members will benefit from his open communication and continued dedication.

November 13, 2009 - Veterans' Day Grievance

IUOE has filed a State Wide Grievance in regards to Article 9 - Preimum Pay (One and one half times the hourly rate for working on a holiday)for the Veterans Day Holiday.

November 9, 2009- The Governors' attempt to stop our Furlough Grievance

IUOE has been officially served the Governors complaint to try and stop IUOE from being able to Arbitrate the Furlough Grievance.

November 5, 2009 The Governors’ attempt to stop our Furlough Grievance

The Governor has filed a complaint against IUOE to try and stop IUOE from being able to Arbitrate the Grievance against the Furloughs. (The case was filed in Sacramento Superior Court on 11/3/2009; however IUOE has not yet been served with a copy to date.) IUOE’s Attorney feels that this is a flawed attempt to squelch legal avenues that have proven successful in many other States throughout the U.S. To read the “Summary” (189 pages) copy of the lawsuit, click here.

October 21, 2009 - Endorsement for CalPERS Trustee

IUOE State Unit 12 is proud to support JJ Jelincic for CalPERS. This is important to all CalPERS members. JJ Jelincic has 23 years at CalPERS and currently is an Investment Officer. JJ Jelincic has been a Negotiator for Health Care Benefits, President of California State Employees Association (CSEA) 2003 - 2007 specializing in Pension Protection and Health Benefits. JJ Jelincic has the knowledge and expertise to understand the financial complexities of pension investments and health benefits, and political skills needed to protect our CalPERS investments. We strongly encourage you to cast your vote for JJ Jelincic, a friend for Labor. CalPERS

October 15, 2009 - Berkeley Study on Furloughs

The University of California, Berkeley released a study on “the High Cost of Furloughs”. Based upon the data from the Office of the State Controllers, the net savings to the State of California for a 3 day per month furlough is approximately $236 million to the General Fund. By contrast the net savings for only a 1 day per month Furlough is estimated to be $256 million to the General Fund!!! As noted in the “Alternatives” section of this report, the State of California would realize $20 million more than if they implemented only a 1 day a month Furlough. Click here to read a full copy of the report.

October 14, 2009 - IUOE Unit 12 Furlough Lawsuit

IOUE State Unit 12 has proactively been proceeding forward with it's own lawsuit against the State of California in the fight for its members to stop the injustice of the Govenors imposed furloughs on the State's employee's. Today, we filed an "Amended Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief" in the Superior Courts. To read a copy of this complaint click here.

October 12, 2009 -(SB- 240) Update

Huge Win for Caltrans !!

After a 3 year battle to get a SB - 240 passed, the Governor finally signed our IUOE supported Move Over Bill !!! A big Thank You to all of our members who called the Governor's office asking him to approve this law, and help make the roads safer for our brothers and sisters working on our Highways !

September 29, 2009 -(SB- 240) Update

SB 204 (Move Over Bill) is still sitting on the Governor's desk! We need your continued support by contacting his office and asking him to sign this important legislation before it's late. Governor Schwarzenegger's phone number (916) 445-2841.

September 28, 2009 -(Columbus Day) IUOE is recommending to our members to: Go to work on Columbus Day

Governor Schwarzenegger's Department of Personnel Administration's position is that Columbus Day is not a paid holiday and has stated that workers who do not show up for work will be docked pay and face disciplinary action up to and including discharge.

IUOE strongly disagrees with DPA because the State never bargained with the Union over this changes in Article 9 (Holidays) of our MOU. As a result, IUOE has filed a Statewide Grievance on this matter and will continue to fight for our members rights.

September 12, 2009 - SB 240 (Move-over Bill)

After a long hard fight, IUOE's Lobbyist Tim Cremins, worked until early hours of the morning to get approval from both the Assembly and the Senate to pass SB 240 (Move-over Bill). This Bill will require motorist that are approaching a Caltrans Vehicle that is displaying flashing warning lights, while on the shoulder of the road, to move over 1 lane if it is save to do so. This seems like common sense to most, but based on 2 recent accidents involving Caltran’s vehicles and employees who were struck with in the past 60 days, we need to take extra precautions to insure a safer work environment for our members. Mr. Donald Lichliter, a 27 year employee of Caltrans, was struck and killed on 7/23,2009 due to a motorist veering on to the shoulder of the road where he was working. And most recent, a Caltrans truck was struck on the shoulder of the road while supervising a crew on September 10th, 2009. This latest incident severely injured 1 Caltrans member while severing the leg’s of another individual. We feel strongly that neither of these accidents should have occurred and could have been prevented if we just had better laws in place to protect workers safety. The Bill has been forwarded to Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk for his signature in the next 30 days. (Last year, the Governor did not sign and approve a similar Bill.) We strongly encourage everyone to call the Governor’s office and insist that he sign and approve SB 240! Governor Schwarzenegger’s phone number is (916) 445-2841. Let your voice’s be heard!

August 29, 2009 - Updates from Unit 12 Director

A Penny Saved, A Dollar Lost

Dear IUOE Unit 12 Members:

Thank you to everyone that participated in the “Cut the Waste” campaign initiated by IUOE Unit 12, immediately after the furloughs started earlier this year. Many of the things that our members have been saying are now being addressed in a letter from Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg to Governor Schwarzenegger. Because furloughs are harmful to citizens, not cost effective, are hurting General Fund services in addition to Special Funded services, this is opening the state to lawsuits and may result in loosing good employees: Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass will introduce a bill today to reduce furloughs by one day and suggests that the legislature pass urgent legislation to buy-out a day of furloughs with an across-the-board reduction on the state bureaucracy. Steinberg’s letter goes on to suggest the following:

1. “This time, we ought to cut from the top down, not the bottom up.”

2. The Administration should get back to the bargaining table and hammer out agreements with the collective bargaining units.

We applaud both Senate President Pro Tem Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Bass for their effort to address this matter effecting state workers.

August 13, 2009 - Updates from Unit 12 Director

IUOE State Unit 12 Memo –

To: Members of IUOE Bargaining Unit 12

From: George Swift - Director

Re: IUOE State Unit 12 updates

Special Funded Departments - Assembly Bill by Assemblyman Hector De La Torre. Assemblyman Hector De La Torre is writing a Assembly Bill that will support our Special Funded Departments in their fight against furloughs. International Union of Operating Engineers State Unit 12 is supporting the proposal from the Senator to eliminate the possibility of future furloughs from being executed against employees that work for Special Funded Departments. We are currently lobbying legislators in order to secure enough votes to support this important Legislation.

AB399: Assembly Bill 399 has been written to insure that the Furloughs do not negatively affect retirement. International Union of Operating Engineers State Unit 12 is supporting this legislation assuring that the salary reductions from the furloughs forced upon State workers will not affect their pensions. Although the Department of Personal Administration has told IUOE and other unions that the furloughs will not reduce pension benefits, our representatives believed that having legislature support will reinforce DPA’s statements.

Alternative Work Schedules: International Union of Operating Engineers has requested a Meet & Confer to bargain over the effect of changing employee Alternative work Schedules (4-10s, 9-8-80’s) back to 5-8-40’s. Many employees have adjusted their personal lives to the alternative work schedules. Issues regarding child care, car/van pools, etc. are of major concern to many members.

Unfair Labor Practice: Assemblyman Hector De La Torre is sending a letter to PERB demanding hearings on our pending Unfair Labor Practice. PERB has been dragging their feet for far too long and our members deserve answers.

Rural Health Care Equity Program: The current signed budget eliminations funding of the Rural Health Care Equity Program effective August 1, 2009. International Union of Operating Engineers is fighting to have this program reinstated as its members were covered under the Memorandum o f Understanding.  

 

Executive Order

June 10, 2009 Don't be a Pawn!

Letter from State Controller (May 29, 2009)

To read the letter from Mr. John Chiang, California's State Controller regarding the "State's cash condition", click here to read

Breaking News - March 26, 2009:

Issue #1: The Department of Personal Administration (DPA) and the Departments you work for has recently sent out information regarding Government Code 19844.1 and the change in overtime calculation. Under this change , time when an employee is excused from work because of, holidays, sick leave, vacation, annual leave, compensating time off (CTO), or any other leave shall not be considered as time worked by the employee for the purpose of computing overtime. DPA is planning on implementing this change effective the March 2009 pay period. This change will affect 18 out of the 21 Bargaining Units in the State of California.

Union Response: Operating Engineers State Unit 12 has recently filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge against the State of California. We believe that the State has to negotiate this issues with the Union and can not implement this change until then. Our recommendation to you is keep all copies of your payroll checks and a log book for documentation, then notify your Union Representative.

Issue #2: The Department of Transportation has recently sent out information to their Supervisors notifying them that if their employees worked overtime in a week that they took a furlough day they would be paid at the straight time rate and taxed at the overtime rate until they have met forty (40) hours of actual work or other leave usage time.

Union Response:We met with DPA and Caltrans Labor Relations regarding this issue and it was agreed that Caltrans would inform their Supervisors that this was incorrect and that Caltrans would do an audit for the furlough weeks and make the proper adjustments if the employees were taxed at the overtime  rate for straight time ours worked.  Caltrans believes this wont be corrected until next months payroll cycle.  We again recommend that you keep all your payroll information so that if it doesn't get corrected we can then address the issue.

March 2, 2009:

Unit 12 and it's team will be back at the table 3/4/2009 with the State to negotiate a contract. Our goal is to finalize a tentative agreement with the State.

The Governor ultimately is looking for a 10% cut from all State employees. The 2 day a month work furlough was put into place to force these savings. Our focus during these negotiations is to find other areas to cut in order to avoid the furloughs and the threats of layoffs.

Important Political Update - March 23, 2009

Hopefully, you are aware that there is a special election coming up on May 19, 2009. I cannot express enough that getting these ballot measures passed by the California voters is critical to all State employees. It has been reported over the news that State workers jobs hinge on the May 19 ballot measures. What everyone is talking about is it will not matter if we have a contract or not. If these ballot measures don't get approved, it will mean that the State will not have the much needed revenue source it needs to pay the bills and will be broke. It also means that the State will not have a budget and we will be in worse shape after the election than what we are going through now. The men and women that make up the middle class needs to vote yes on all of the ballot measures. It does not matter if you are a Republican, Democrat, Independent, or one of the other political parties out there. If the ballot measures go down, potentially we all go down.

Negotiations Update - March 26, 2009

Now that the State has a budget we are working hard to try to finish up negotiations and bring a package to our membership to take a look at and vote on. We last met the State on March 2,3,4,5,6,7 trying to secure an agreement for you. The State has all of our proposals at this point and we are waiting for DPA to cost our proposal and get back with us to see were we stand on our issues.

February 2009: Contract Negotiations Update

As you all know, the Unit 12 contract expired on June 30, 2008, but you should be aware that under the current law as long as the State and the Union are negotiating, the contract remains in effect.

The current status of the contract negotiations is as bad as the current state of the budget. We have been told over and over that there is no money for any wage increases, and that the State needs us to help with the current budget problems by decreasing benefits and possibly raising State income taxes. In addition they have announced 2-day a month work furllow and are recommending reducing two holidays per year.

As the State faces a $40 + billion deficit, Schwarzenegger plans to reduce most of the state employees to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour to preserve cash until lawmakers reach a budget deal. State employees account for 11% of the Sacramento area’s work force and Schwarzenegger’s plan could remove $15 million each work-day from the area economy according to Jim Zamora, a spokesperson for Local 1000 of the Service Employees International Union.

IUOE State Unit 12, along with IUOE Locals’ business agents and numerous members met at the State Capital on July 24, 2008 to protest this appalling lack of due diligence in coming up with a balanced budget, and for the lack of compassion for the men and women who keep this great State of ours running day in and day out. The protest took place at noon and there were a few hundred State workers present. Three State Senators heard our voices from inside their offices and came out to address our concerns. Way to go State workers! Keep lifting your voices until they hear us loud and clear!

In our ongoing meetings with the Governor’s office, we have steadfastly taken the position that we will not support any agreement that takes money out of the pockets of our members and/or reduces their benefits. In fact, we believe that the State should be paying a larger portion of the health insurance cost in addition to wage increases for all employees.

At the present time, it does not appear that we are anywhere near close to reaching an agreement with the State.

Contracts

Click here to read the “Agreement between the State of California & IUOE covering Bargaining Unit 12, 2006–2008”

Holiday Schedule for 2010

On January 1st, Friday
 

On February 15th, Monday
 

On March 31st, Wednesday
 

On May 31st, Monday
 

On July 5th, Monday
 

On September 6th, Monday
 

On November 11th, Thursday
 

On November 25th, Thursday
 

On November 26th, Friday
 

On December 25th, Saturday * 8 hours of holiday credit.
 

Holiday Schedule for 2008

Article 9 of the Memorandum of Understanding for Unit 12 states the following:

1. With the exception of those employees covered by the Department of Water Resources rotating shift provisions in Article 8, all full-time employees shall be entitled one hundred and twelve (112) hours of holiday credit as provided in section “B” and “C” below, and shall receive additional holiday credits for any official holidays declared by the Governor.
    
2. The holiday credits for full-time employees shall accrue as follows:
    
• On January 1st, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On the third Monday in January, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On February 12th, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On the third Monday in February, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On March 31st, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On the last Monday in May, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On July 4th, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On the first Monday in September, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On the second Monday of October, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On November 11th, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On Thanksgiving Day, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On the day after Thanksgiving, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
• On December 25th, 8 hours of holiday credit.
   
3. On July 1st, all permanent employees shall receive eight (8) hours of holiday credit in lieu of a personal holiday credit.

 

AFLAC

We have had several complaints about AFLAC insurance. IUOE Unit 12 Central Division does not offer AFLAC insurance, despite anybody’s claims. This will not affect those members who are currently enrolled.

Mileage Reimbursement for Use of Personal Vehicles
for State Business for 2009

The reimbursement rate for use of personal vehicles has been reduced to .55 cents. If you drove your personal vehicle while conducting State business and were not paid at the increased rate, you should submit a mileage claim retroactively. Click here to visit the IRS website for more details.