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11-2-01 2001 Membership Meeting Report: A slightly-smaller than usual turnout of the Officers, Executive board, Grievance Committee, and Trustees met in Orlando 10-18 through 10-21-2001. Five Executive Committee Members of Michigan Attorney Local 3069 participated as well, together with our Local's Council 66 representative, Peter Nickles. Events of September 11 and later likely contributed to the reduced turnout. Nevertheless, those in attendance contributed to a lively and productive meeting. President's Statement President Ralph Johnson (Janesville) opened the meeting with a review of his first year in office emphasizing that the initial year of his term was spent re-invigorating the administrative capabilities of the Local. Some highlighted achievements included a report of a healthy treasury, increased and enhanced communications from the Secretary and Executive Committee to the membership, the near-completion of a constitutional amendment process, a completely revised and enhanced website, and a renewed emphasis on the field activity structure. President Johnson's administration will focus on two major matters in the upcoming year - developing a more effective approach to workload grievances, and attempting to engage the membership to develop new leaders and development of more cohesiveness as we approach the next bargaining sessions in Spring 2004. Grievance Report Grievance Committee Chairman Roger White (Texas) reported a lower than usual volume of grievances in the past year but with a relatively high success rate for the Local in grievance resolutions. Only 12 matters were raised or addressed in the past year. Several are still pending including the Kathleen Perry arbitration which was held 10-31-01. Three Family Medical Leave Act matters were all resolved in the grievants' favor. Two discipline matters were resolved against the grievants and one, scheduled for arbitration; Van Sickle (Defiance), was settled by compromise. Three workload matters were processed - one favorably resolved for the grievant, and two others remain pending, with relief obtained but not sufficient yet to resolve the complaints. One of these is the Florida office grievance. Resolutions A small handful of resolutions of the Executive Board has already resulted in policy grievances being filed against the Plan regarding health insurance and workload-related matters. Michigan It is expected that the two attorney unions will continue to meet to develop positions for the next set of negotiations. Tentative plans are already in place for an early 2002 meeting. Florida Workload Matters: The new Florida staff office has been beset with workload pressures almost from the beginning. An unexpectedly high intake purportedly is the major cause, although inadequate attorney and staff training is likely a contributing factor. Workload and ethical grievances are pending. The Local has put great pressure on the Plan to address these issues and some success has been achieved. An additional staff attorney has been hired and an office manager hired. A large handful of Plan managers have been sent to the office to provide training. Some limited overload was implemented. Nevertheless, the problems persist. The Local is continuing its pressure on the Plan to either hire more staff or to increase overload referrals and to provide additional training and computer system support. The Local clearly sees this as a test case of the existing CBA provisions. If, despite all the Local's pressure and the Plan's insistence that it is doing all that it reasonably can, no adequate resolution is obtained, the Local believes it will have a compelling basis to advocate for more stringent and objective caseload regulation provisions in the next CBA. The AFSCME 3357 Executive Board met recently in Orlando, Florida, and unanimously voted to file the following Policy Grievances: Improved facilitation of attorneys work product: a) comprehensive orientation for new attorneys in that there is a perception that new attorneys in this program are immediately thrown in to way more than they can handle. b) training for all support staff in that there is a perception that we are getting increasingly untrained support staff. c) a resolution that attorneys ethics and knowledge of local practice take precedence over Scrivener and other forms currently mandated. There is a perception that there is greater concern over whether forms created for use by an office are used than whether they are content correct. d) a resolution that the telephones are to be answered by live support staff phone answerers during office hours. Those offices where clients have direct unscreened access to the attorneys through voice mail have created impossible working conditions, which ultimately leads to lowered client satisfaction. A resolution for the Plan to provide a written health insurance coverage booklet within the next 30 days. The self insured status of the Plan makes it imperative that we know the specifics of our coverage. At the present time there is no way to know what, if anything is covered until the claim is submitted. 11-01-01 - M.J. VanSickle Arbitration: This arbitration was settled on a compromise basis upon consent of the grievant, Union and Plan. 11-01-01 - Kathleen Perry Arbitration: This arbitration was scheduled to be heard in Cleveland on October 31, 2001. Information will be posted when available. The Trustee Election is complete. Phil Hart (Illinois) has been re-elected to another 3-year term expiring in September 2004. Twenty-one total ballots were split 11-10 with Catherine Gloeckler getting 10 votes.
Printed pocket-sized copies of the C.B.A. are being mailed to all members this week by Recording Secretary, Cindy Tuczynski.
This arbitration has been rescheduled to October 30, 2001. Kathleen
Perry Arbitration:
WebMaster Report: Log analysis reports available to us indicate the following visitor traffic on the site since it was revised in mid-December 2000: August: 62 visitors per day -- a high of 134 on August 22nd July: 56 --a high of 127 visitors on July 30th June: 40 May: 45 April: 43 March: 40 February: 40 January: 37 December 2000: 27
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