E-NEWS FROM LOCAL 2111 - FALL 2009

NOTICE:
Applications are now being accepted through March 31 for the
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for the 2010-2011 school year - click for info.

See the 2010 Beirne Poster

SPECIAL:

YOUR CWA LOCAL'S RESEARCH INTO CAMPUS WORKS, INC. -
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK AT CCBC

H A C K E D!

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT IT NOW

NEW BULLETIN BOARD AVAILABLE NOW.

(MEMBERSHIP MUST RE-REGISTER)

A MESSAGE FROM YOUR PRESIDENT

John Bachelor

The Blueberry Muffin Method of Madness

Welcome to CCBC, home of taxpayer expenditures.  Now like any good leader, it would be unkind of me not to note the accomplishments of the current administration.  We have an improved relationship with the county’s elected officials.  We have increased the budget to nearly unheard of heights.  We’ve transitioned to a new pay scale.  That’s what we are paying for as taxpayers’, better management of our assets (students, jobs, etc.).

Management has not accomplished this alone.  We are a very large part of making ends meet, especially so when you look at doing more with less.   Jobs that sit unfilled at the CCBC really effect students and student life here at the CCBC. 

Large expenditures of taxpayer dollars really need to be scrutinized closely by the electorate.  Decisions that put public assets into the hands of private corporations have produced questionable results.  At a recent board meeting, a board member queried a senior member of the staff in regards to a contract extension for one of these contractors.  Their question seemed relevant and to the point, and I’ll paraphrase “when this contract is over, will we have the ability to continue  doing this work ourselves because this seems like a lot money to be spending considering we have people here that can do the job?”.  The response seemed to reflect upon all the things that this contractor had done and would do for us in the future.  It seemed to this worker that the question really was not answered.

Another example of this (and I’ll use one that seems simple and to the point) has to do with food service and questionable business sense.  I reside here at the Essex compound and have daily contact with employees of another large corporation that contracts with the CCBC.  Here’s the scenario…recently the “food “contractor had a retired pastry chef working for hourly wage at the compound cyber cafe.  This individual arrived at work each morning at 5 and baked up a storm of goodies.  Now the contractor bought the ingredients and the employee provided the skills to produce these wonderful delights.  Sales were more than steady.  Now I asked this individual what it costs to make a blueberry muffin and what they sold it for.  The price to make the muffin was $.33.  The price they sold the muffin for  was about $1.85 (if memory serves).  That’s $1.52 profit.  That profit is split by the contractor and the CCBC.  Fast Forward. 
The employee informs me that a beef between management types on the contractor side of things develops and, as a result, she’s no longer making homemade items.  They are being purchased by the contractor in bulk.  They are clearly inferior products.  How do we know this?  Sales plummet. Profit margins shrink and there is increased spoilage.  Products that are made in house had larger profits, less spoilage. 

Now I don’t know about you, but that makes no sense.  It also makes a point in demonstrating that when you have control over your own house you can make adjustments that make good business sense.  When you give up on control of portions of your organization, you leave yourself exposed to the contorted whims of corporations that have no community ties to your organization.  We need to make every dollar count and use good business sense and encourage that kind of behavior.  We seem to be just “satisfied” that instead of splitting $1.52 profit we are ok with splitting $.80.  There needs to be better oversight of these contractors and our tax dollars.

…in solidarity…
Jb

CURRENT CONTRACT:

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STEWARDS SOUND OFF!!

We Don’t Work for Free!

CWA 2111 is conducting an investigation in preparation for a possible complaint to the Wage and Hours Division of the US Department of Labor. This action is in response to management’s continued abuse of our membership in regards to overtime. Failure to compensate a classified employee for all hours worked is a violation of both the Collective Bargaining Agreement and Federal law! The Union needs to hear from members who have ever been required to work additional time, without compensation. All information will be held in confidence. 

The institution is required by contract and by law to pay classified employees for all hours worked up to 40 hours per week. When the hours exceed 40, the employee has the option of being compensated by receiving compensatory time or with an overtime payment. Compensatory time and overtime payments are determined at the rate of time and one half the employee’s regular rate of pay. It is the employee’s choice, not management’s, on the manner of compensation.

It is management’s responsibility to prevent overtime if it does not want to pay. However, the college cannot sit back and allow supervisors to gain the benefits of an employee’s overtime work than claim the hours were not authorized and refuse to pay. By law, employees are required to be compensated for hours worked if the supervisor knew or should have known that the employee was working overtime.

An employee may be entitled to overtime pay without even knowing it! Here are just a few examples. Hours worked are calculated on a weekly bases, not by the pay period. In other words, each week stands alone. An employee who works 45 hours the first week of the pay period, and 35 hours the second, is entitled to five hours of overtime,  at time and one half, for the first week. Management cannot shift the five hours of overtime worked the first week into the second week. A lunch period that is interrupted by management becomes time worked.  A phone call made by a supervisor to an employee at home to ask a question about work becomes time worked. A meeting held during the lunch period where management provides the meal is time worked. It is not the employee’s lunch break; it’s a meeting with food.  A weekend event an employee is required to “volunteer” to work, because it may impact their evaluation, is time worked.  When an employee is required to eat at his or her desk to “watch the phones” it is time worked…. even if the phones never ring.

Union stewards have heard many creative excuses and misconceptions from supervisors who have denied overtime to our members. Here are some of the more outrages examples:  “I thought educational institutions were exempt from paying overtime,” “Theatre workers are not allowed to get overtime,”  “We believe the work should have been done during regular hours therefore we don’t have to pay overtime if it takes longer,” “Overtime is optional at the college, “and “The employee is lucky to have a job and should be happy to work extra hours.”

Of course, the most common excuse is: “There is no budget for overtime.” Regardless of whether there is an overtime budget or not, if a classified employee works the hours, he or she gets paid! If an employee is working extra hours without compensation, management is steeling the employee’s time! Union members or any classified employee, who has been denied overtime in the past, should contact their union steward, or Phil McClusky at 443.840.1181. Our members don’t work for free!

 

YOUNG TRADE UNIONISTS GROUP

Pat Beard

I attended a Leadership Conference with the AFL-CIO and they spoke about starting a Young Trade Unionists group. The purpose is to get younger members involved in leadership roles in their local unions. You may or may not be aware that all of your leadership in CWA Local 2111 is either in their fifties or sixties and won’t be around forever to ensure that CCBC adheres to our contract. Younger leadership is needed.

They hosted their first social night on Monday, February 1, 2010, which was filled with card games, board games, food, refreshments, and solidarity at the Metropolitan Baltimore AFL-CIO Headquarters at 2701 West Patapsco Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21230. The plan is to have a meeting the first Monday of every month.

For more information, you can call Cory McCray at 443 604-9962, send an e-mail to info@ytu.org, or go on-line at www.youngtradeunionists.org

 

The following article describes the impact of the taxing scheme in the senate version of the current health bill that will be decided by conference committees of the U.S. Senate and House shortly.  Please contact your  elected representatives immediately to ask them to remove this unfair tax from consideration.

A LESS THAN HONEST POLICY

by Bob Herbert
Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times, December 29, 2009

There is a middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate’s version of President Obama’s effort to reform health care.
The bill that passed the Senate with such fanfare on Christmas Eve would impose a confiscatory 40 percent excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans, which are popularly viewed as over-the-top plans held only by the very wealthy. In fact, it’s a tax that in a few years will hammer millions of middle-class policyholders, forcing them to scale back their access to medical care.
Which is exactly what the tax is designed to do. 
The tax would kick in on plans exceeding $23,000 annually for family
coverage and $8,500 for individuals, starting in 2013. In the first year it would affect relatively few people in the middle class. But because of the steadily rising costs of health care in the U.S., more and more plans would reach the taxation threshold each year. 
Within three years of its implementation, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the tax would apply to nearly 20 percent of all workers with employer-provided health coverage in the country, affecting some 31 million people. Within six years, according to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, the tax would reach a fifth of all households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 annually. Those families can hardly be considered very wealthy. 
Proponents say the tax will raise nearly $150 billion over 10 years, but there’s a catch. It’s not expected to raise this money directly. The dirty little secret behind this onerous tax is that no one expects very many people to pay it. The idea is that rather than fork over 40 percent in taxes on the amount by which policies exceed the threshold, employers (and individuals who purchase health insurance on their own) will have little choice but to ratchet down the quality of their health plans. 
These lower-value plans would have higher out-of-pocket costs, thus
increasing the very things that are so maddening to so many
policyholders right now: higher and higher co-payments, soaring
deductibles and so forth. Some of the benefits of higher-end policies can be expected in many cases to go by the boards: dental and vision care, for example, and expensive mental health coverage. 
Proponents say this is a terrific way to hold down health care costs. If policyholders have to pay more out of their own pockets, they will be more careful  that is to say, more reluctant  to access health services. On the other hand, people with very serious illnesses will be saddled with much higher out-of-pocket costs. And a reluctance to seek treatment for something that might seem relatively minor at first could well have terrible (and terribly expensive) consequences in the long run. 
If even the plan’s proponents do not expect policyholders to pay the
tax, how will it raise $150 billion in a decade? Great question. 
We all remember learning in school about the suspension of disbelief. This part of the Senate’s health benefits taxation scheme requires a monumental suspension of disbelief. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, less than 18 percent of the revenue will come from the tax itself. The rest of the $150 billion, more than 82 percent of it, will come from the income taxes paid by workers who have been given pay raises by employers who will have voluntarily handed over the money they saved by offering their employees less valuable health insurance plans. 
Can you believe it? 
I asked Richard Trumka, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., about this.
(Labor unions are outraged at the very thought of a health benefits
tax.) I had to wait for him to stop laughing to get his answer. "If you believe that", he said, "I have some oceanfront property in southwestern Pennsylvania that I will sell you at a great price." 
A survey of business executives by Mercer, a human resources consulting firm, found that only 16 percent of respondents said they would convert the savings from a reduction in health benefits into higher wages for employees. Yet proponents of the tax are holding steadfast to the belief that nearly all would do so. 
“In the real world, companies cut costs and they pocket the money," said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America and a leader of the opposition to the tax. "Executives tell the shareholders: ‘Hey, higher profits without any revenue growth. Great!'" 
The tax on health benefits is being sold to the public dishonestly as something that will affect only the rich, and it makes a mockery of President Obama’s repeated pledge that if you like the health coverage you have now, you can keep it. 
Those who believe this is a good idea should at least have the courage to be straight about it with the American people.

FROM CWA LOCAL 2111

The latest position of the Union on the healthcare bill, in regards to taxing our current benefits under the proposed “Cadillac tax” portion of the bill.  Please call the number at the bottom, they will connect you will your elected representatives.  Let those representatives know from you, that this is a crushing tax on the middle class, working families, and that you oppose it. Call 1-877-323-5246 or follow this link for more details.
http://www.healthcarevoices.org/news/articles/obama-tells-labor-leaders-theres-flexibility-on-benefits-tax/

 

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

By Pat Beard (from “The Union Workers Bible”)

Because you are a union member, you have many advantages and privileges. However, every mature individual knows that privileges mean responsibilities.
Your duties to your union are as follows:

1. Practice as well as preach unionism.
2. Your demands should be fair.
3. Judge your fellow workers by their actions, not by their color, creed, or religion.
4. Cooperate with your union representatives by giving then all the facts concerning a grievance.
5. Support your leadership by never doing anything that will lose respect for your union.
6.  

We cannot expect cooperation from the management unless we ourselves are unified, and all are willing to do their part.

 

CWA LOCAL 2111 MESSAGE BOARD

Your CWA Local 2111 has created a message board for members to discuss issues at work.  You must be a member of the Union in order to comment. On your first visit to the website, you will be asked to create a logon ID. As long as the logon ID is not your name, you can feel comfortable knowing that you can discuss freely and openly in total anonymity. Some discussions have already started.  For the main board, click here.

Please sign up and start discussing amongst yourselves.

 

INJURED AT WORK? DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT WORKERS’ COMPENSATION?

Please visit the Kahn, Smith & Collins, P.A. website for a variety of services for Union families.

UNION PLUS HOME HEATING OIL DISCOUNT PROGRAM

For union members and their families. A better way to buy heating oil.

As a union member you are eligible to receive:

• Average savings of 15 to 25 cents per gallon
• A free or discounted full service contract with parts and labor coverage
• 24 hour emergency service for your heating system
• Exclusive savings and discounts on heating oil equipment
• $50 of FREE heating oil when you join
• $10 discount on first-year membership (normally $25, it is $15 for you)

Call 1-800-660-0691 now to secure your exclusive heating oil discount from Union Plus or visit www.UnionPlusOil.org

CWA LOCAL 2111 E-NEWS

Remember, to please send your contributions and comments to Laura Pilat (LPilat@ccbcmd.edu) or Rich Barnett (RBarnett@ccbcmd.edu)

MOVING?? LET US KNOW!!

If you are moving or changing your name or your phone number or any of your contact information, please let us know. Even though you change your contact information with the college, that information is usually not shared with CWA. Returned and forwarded mail results in an extra expense and additional cost for the union. Please send your updated information to one of the union officers listed below. Thank you!

 

THANK A LABOR UNION IF YOU HAVE:

• Health Insurance
• Higher Wages
• Sick Leave
• Overtime Pay
• Pensions
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Vacations
• 8 Hour Work Days
• Social Security
• Jobsite Safety
• Ending of child Labor
• Increased Job Security
• Unemployment Insurance
• Family and Medical Leave
• Severance Pay
• Maternity Leave

 

The efforts of the American Labor Movement brought about all these benefits. Unfortunately most Americans take these benefits for granted.

 

YOUR UNION OFFICERS
President: John Bachelor
Executive Vice President: Norman McCullough
Secretary/Treasurer: Pat Beard
Vice President/Catonsville: Doug Frantz
Vice President/Dundalk: Mark Trojan
Vice President/Essex: Clarke Romans
Newsletter: Laura Pilat, Rich Barnett
Webmaster: Michael Redding

ARCHIVED NEWSLETTERS:

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