Article of the Month

Article 66.3! Check it out!

Bargaining Surveys

Hey ODOT - Bargaining Surveys are making their way around the state. They are due on September 30th, so the rush is on! If you do not have a paper copy but have ideas please go to the form online and fill it out. We will be discussing these surveys September 27th in Roseburg, so please sign up for that meeting ASAP!!! Look forward to meeting with you all.

Labor Day Picnic (ODOT Style)

SEIU 503,

Thanks to phenomenal service and support, we had a wonderful and successful Labor Day picnic. This year we decided to grill food in our area of the park for those SEIU Members and their families in attendance. Over 900 people were served hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, chips and sodas.

Because of the generosity of ODOT Local 730, Homecare Workers Union Local 99, Oregon Commission for the Blind Local 585, NWREL Local 905, some lucky members received prize gift cards, totaling $470.00, for Gas, Groceries, Home/Hardware, and Household goods. I would also like to extend thanks and apologies to those Locals who wished to make donations but (due to no fault of their own) were unable to do so.

I extend the utmost appreciation to Tammy McGee, Kermit Meling, Dennis Wineburg, (All members of ODOT Local 730) as well as their families (and mine!) who gave up their Holiday to staff this wonderful event!

Regards,
Jason Kramer

Statewide Officer Elections

Hi All,
Here is everything you ever wanted to know about the SEIU, Local 503 Statewide Officer elections: http://www.seiu503.org/local503/nomineesbod/9swoc/Default.aspx

2008 General Council

Now that I have caught up on my sleep (some 13 hours!!!), I wanted to share my experiences of this years General Council. I am very proud of the members who served on committees this year; Mike Scott on Employee Representation, Shirley Wait on Constitution and Bylaws and Donna McKeever on Membership Affairs. They did an awesome job considering the resolutions they received to cover. There were over 70 resolutions presented to the five committees this year. Constitution and Bylaws had the lions share of 24 and Membership Affairs had the next highest of 17. Both of these committees took the longest to get through their resolutions. Mostly due to amending the language submitted. They also had some of the most contencious resolutions submitted. Many resolutions were trying to deal with Joe Dinicola and his past actions. The Union attorney made it very clear that resolutions can only deal with future issues and if any of the resolutions past as written could be used for Joe to sue the union again. Since the union has already spent some $300,000 on the lawsuits Joe has brought, no one moved any of the resolutions that could cost us even more money in defending the union against Joe.
There were some resolutions passed that will clean up language in the C & B's or the Administrative Policies and Procedures (AP&P) as they are practices that are currently taking place. Not much discussion took place over those resolutions. There were others that had several discussions, both in committee meetings and on the floor of the council. Due to rules established and voted on at the beginning of the council, no dicussions concerning the resolutions lasted over 30 minutes. This was a major improvement over the council from 2006 where one topic was discussed for over two and a half hours! Fortunately, not all resolutions were brought out of the committees to the floor. Even so, there were still 59 resolutions that were brought to the floor for consideration. The rest were held in committees, which basically means they died in committee.
There was great discussion concerning a Member Resource Center. This center is currently being used by Home Care to assist their members to get answers concerning their contract and help stewards with guidence on issues. This center will now be looked at by a steering committee to expand in phases to other SEIU members. Phase one is scheduled to be online no later than September 30, 2009. It is anticipated this project will take five years to be fully implemented for all members of SEIU.
As this was only my second time representing ODOT at General Council, I only had my previous experience to draw on and compare to this years event. While at times General Council can be a frustrating event, it is an experience that I enjoyed and will likely run to be a delegate again for the next council and the next council. It is my desire to continue to do the work of our members and represent ODOT in the union and the business of running the union. Thank you for voting me back in as a delegate.
Thanks, Mike