Welcome to Unit 1

I KNOW IT HAS BEEN AWHILE SINCE THE LAST UPDATE AND I KNOW YOU ARE ANXIOUS TO HEAR WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON. UP UNTIL JUST RECENTLY ALL HAS BEEN VERY QUIET. HERE ARE A FEW THINGS THAT I WANTED TO LET YOU ALL KNOW THAT WE HAVE BEEN WORKING ON.

WE HAVE BEEN WORKING DILIGENTLY WITH BOB DARGY AND DENISE DIETZ TO REDUCE THE HEADCOUNT ON THE LATE SHIFT.

IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN THAT AND DENISE HAS SAID THAT THERE WILL BE A REDUCTION ON THE WEEK OF 4/24 SCHEDULES. SO LOOK FOR THAT COMING UP.

WE ALSO WORKED WITH DENISE TO CHANGE THE HOURS OF THE ESCALATION TEAM AS TO ACCOMMODATE THE CALLS THEY ARE CURRENTLY TAKING. SO HOPEFULLY THE NEW TOURS WORK BETTER FOR THEM ALSO. THE COBROS CENTER HAS BEEN EXTREMELY BUSY ON SATURDAY’S, SO PLEASE IF YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO WORK DO YOUR BEST TO GET HERE. LAST SATURDAY 4/15 THERE WAS 10 CALL-OUTS.

WELL LOTS OF CHANGES IN THIS WORKGROUP. LAST WEEK THERE WAS AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THE CURRENT AART WORK THAT COCAT HAS BEEN DOING WILL BE GOING BACK TO THE EMPLOYEES WHOM INITIALLY DID THAT WORK. THIS WORK WAS PREVIOUSLY DONE BY MANAGEMENT EMPLOYEES.

SO AT THIS TIME THOSE MANAGEMENT EMPLOYEES WILL NOW BE CONVERTED TO OCCUPATIONAL WORKERS, AS WELL AS 12 INFORMATION SPECIALIST WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN SURPLUSED WILL BE MOVED INTO THAT WORKGROUP, SO THEY WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP THEIR JOBS.

SO, ON OUR END NOT SO GREAT BECAUSE 20 COCAT CONSULTANTS WILL HAVE TO GO BACK TO DESK. BUT GREAT THAT THE 20 COCAT PEOPLE GOT TO COME BACK AS CREDIT CONSULTANTS, THAT 12 INFORMATION SPECIALISTS GOT TO KEEP A JOB & WE GOT 47 ADDITIONAL MEMBERS OUT OF IT.

WE ALL KNOW THAT THIS IS NOT WHAT WE WANTED TO SEE HAPPEN, BUT I BELIEVE THAT THE UNION DID THE BEST THING THEY COULD WHEN THE COMPANY APPROACHED THEM AND SAID THAT THEY WERE MOVING THE WORK NO MATTER WHAT.

THE COMPANY, STEPHANIE, AND MYSELF ARE IN THE PROCESS OF WORKING OUT ALL THE KINKS IN HOW TO GET THE 20 CONSULTANTS INTEGRATED BACK.

DENISE IS SUPPOSED TO PROVIDE NEW TOUR FORMS TO THE 20. WE WILL BE WORKING WITH THE RAS TEAM TO PUT ANY ALREADY GRANTED ENTITLEMENT TIME INTO THE CALENDAR, AS WELL AS PUTTING ANY TIME THAT YOU ALL HAVE ON THE WISHLIST BY SENIORITY (IF IT WAS FROM ORIGINAL CANVASS) OR BY THE DATE AND TIME REQUESTED IF AFTER ORIGINAL CANVASS.

DIANE, MYSELF, AND STEPHANIE WILL BE MEETING FRIDAY TO DISCUSS COACH ASSIGNMENTS AND THE TRAINING PROCESS. AS WELL AS THE BACKFILL PROCESS AFTER THE 20 HAVE RETURNED TO THE REGULAR CREDIT CONSULTANT ROLE.

IT HAS BEEN MADE CLEAR THAT SOME ARE EXTREMELY UNHAPPY ABOUT THIS. I WOULD ASK THAT YOU ALL REMAIN PROFESSIONAL; THIS IS A PLACE OF WORK. I WOULD HATE TO SEE ANYONE GET IN TROUBLE.

WELL MY GOSH THERE HAVE SO MANY THINGS JUST RECENTLY THAT HAVE COME UP… WHERE TO START…

FIRST, LETS START WITH THE NEW 15-MINUTE HEALTH BREAK ISSUE. IT HAS BEEN COMING UP MORE AND MORE THAT SOMEONE WHO TAKES A 15-MINUTE OR MORE HEALTH BREAK THEY ARE WRITING YOU UP AS UTN. SO WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF GRIEVING THIS. IF THEY HAVE CHANGED THE PROCESS THEN THEY NEED TO BE NOTIFYING US.

AS OF LATE THERE HAVE BEEN NUMEROUS PEOPLE PLACED ON DISCIPLINE, SUSPENDED, AND TERMINATED FOR PERFORMANCE. SO BE AWARE THAT THEY ARE REALLY STEPPING IT UP. WE ALL NEED TO DO OUR VERY BEST TO MAKE ALL THE NUMBERS THAT THEY ASK YOU TO. WE ARE FIGHTING THE BEST WE CAN, BUT SOMETIMES IT FEELS LIKE WE ARE FIGHTING A LOSING BATTLE.

STEPHANIE, BARBARA, & MYSELF WORKED WITH BOB DARGY TO MAKE A REDUCTION IN THE AMOUNT OF CONSULTANTS WORKING ON A GIVEN SATURDAY. BASED ON DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED TO HIM BOB AGREED TO REDUCE THE SATURDAY HEADCOUNT BY 20 REGIONALLY (FROM 146 TO 126). THAT EQUATES OUT TO 10 PEOPLE IN PHX, 5 PEOPLE IN ST. PAUL, AND 5 PEOPLE IN SEATTLE. HE AGREED TO DO SO FOR 1 MONTH & SEE HOW IT GOES. IF IT GOES WELL WE COULD SEE IT CONTINUE OR MAYBE REDUCE MORE.

WE ASK EMPLOYEES BY SENIORITY (BASED ON WHO IS WORKING ON A GIVEN SATURDAY) IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO OPT OUT OF WORKING. WHETHER YOU SAY YES OR NO YOUR NAME IS CHECKED OFF THE LIST. THEN WE MOVE ON TO THE NEXT PERSON. WHEN AND IF WE HAVE GONE THROUGH THE WHOLE SENIORITY LIST, WE WOULD START ALL OVER AT THE BEGINNING.

Tardies: The company stance is that they give us the tools we need to log in on time. So, if you forget your badge or lost your badge, and you are tardy, the company will not back down from that. The grace period before being marked tardy is 4 min 59 seconds.

Schedule Change Trial: If you don't have a copy let us know. Many of you have expressed that you weren't aware of all the options. Just keep in mind that it is based on regional service level, not just Phoenix. Many issues have been raised because a schedule change can be denied at 6:30 am because St. Paul is not meeting service level. They have made some changes to the St. Paul schedule to fix this. This trial has improved attendance and may roll out to the other centers

OUR NUMBERS IN THE CMC ARE FALLING FAST.. WE KEEP LOSING PEOPLE TO SHORT TERM DISABILITY DENIALS, LONG TERM DISABILITY, AND RETIREMENT.

BUT ON A LIGHTER NOTE, WE WOULD LIKE TO SAY CONGRATS TO SOME WHOM HAVE MOVED ON TO BIGGER AND BETTER THINGS BY MAKING IT TO RETIREMENT:

IF I HAVE FORGOTTEN ANYONE I AM REALLY SORRY.. BUT GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF THEM AND CONGRATS…

THE ONLY ISSUE WE ARE REALLY STRUGGLING WITH ARE THE REQUEST FOR RECORDS FROM THE COMPANY. THEY DON’T SEEM TO GIVE US WHAT WE WANT OR NEED. MY HOPE IS THAT OVER TIME WE WILL LEARN TO WORK TOGETHER TO HELP THEM UNDERSTAND WHAT OUR RIGHTS OUR AS BARGAINED FOR EMPLOYEES.

THERE ALSO SHOULD HAVE BEEN A LEVELING OUT OF THE EVERYONE’S RATE OF PAY. I KNOW THERE WERE SOME OF YOU THAT WERE AT $9.50, WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN BROUGHT UP FOR YOU, BASED ON LANGUAGE IN THE CONTRACT. IF YOU ARE STILL HAVING A PROBLEM PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

WE HAVE HAD A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF YOU ALL SIGN UNION CARDS, CONGRATS FOR THAT & WELCOME ABOARD WE ARE SO HONORED TO HAVE YOU ALL AS CWA MEMBERS IN OUR LOCAL.

WE HAVE HAD A LITTLE BIT OF A HARD TIME TRYING TO GET THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE VALLEY, TO GET EVERYONE SIGNED UP. SO IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO DID NOT GET SIGNED UP & NEEDS TO PLEASE LET ME KNOW. ALL OF MY INFORMATION IS ON THE UNION BOARD IN THE OFFICE. BUT JUST IN CASE…

BARBARA GONZALES FOR ORGANIZING THE SPRING BASKET FUNDRAISER IN THE MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM… SHE RAISED ALMOST $500.00 AS WELL AS DONATIONS.

THE COCAT GROUP FOR ORGANIZING THE BASKET DRAWING, THEY ALSO RAISED AROUND $500.00.

AND THE REST OF ALL OF YOU WHOM BROUGHT IN GREAT STUFFING FOR THE BASKETS. LABOR’S COMMUNITY SERVICE AGENCY WAS ABLE TO PROVIDE BASKETS TO ALL OF THE KIDS AND THEN SOME…

OUR NEXT ADVENTURE WILL BE THE BACK TO SCHOOL DRIVE STARTING SOON. SO LOOK FOR INFORMATION COMING UP ON THAT.

WE WILL BE HAVING A UNIT MEETING COMING UP IN MAY. THE DATE TO BE DETERMINED BY THE DELEGATE ELECTIONS.

THERE WILL BE A FLIER ON THE UNION BOARD BY THE END OF NEXT WEEK WITH ADDITIONAL DETAILS.

FOR THE DELEGATE ELECTIONS THERE WILL NEED TO BE 1 DELEGATE AND 1 ALTERNATE FOR EACH OF THE 2 AREAS WE HAVE.

1-30-2006

Well 2005 has finally come to an end and a new year has begun. I hope that 2006 can be a wonderful year.

The one thing that I know is on everyone’s mind are the issues around vacation time and how messed up it is. I agree and have been fighting with the company relentlessly to fix it. Let me give you a little background.

First the company waited until the last minute to negotiate the vacation slots. Then when they did, all they wanted to talk about was weeks, then day at a time. At no time was I informed that they had planned on changing the process of how it has been done in the past. At the last minute, they said that they wanted a clerk to do the canvassing instead of Shawn, and that they wanted people to turn in forms and not go desk to desk. I warned them that this process would not be successful. However, the company has the right to choose who does this work. They also believed that this would speed up the process. Well as we can all see that was not true When the RAS team came to us to negotiate day at a time, they really did not even know what they were doing. So we had to recess again so they could figure out what they were doing. When the CMC got canvassed, the clerk did the process correctly. Then the information got to another clerk to input vacation into the system, that clerk took it into his own hands to not allow people to schedule the week and the day. So, when he came to someone who had both, he only submitted the week, not the days without even speaking to the consultant as to which one they would prefer. Luckily, there were very few people that this impacted . For those whom it did impact, we went back and asked before granting one or the other.

Now for COCAT and COBROS. The clerk did this canvassing incorrectly.Denise gave her the wrong directions. So, in the case of these two groups and many employees complaining, I argued and forced the company to re-canvass these two groups. The RAS team and Mary Lowry agreed to do so. COCAT has been done. I called Michelle Martinez on December 29th and asked her to advise the group, and she agreed to do so. Now as far as COBROS, the same agreement was made, but now all of sudden Denise is back and she is not agreeing, so I am in the process of arguing with her to get it done.

Now the second issue is opening of the calendar. At the initial canvass, there is an additional 20% of time added into the vacation calendar per the contract. Some workgroups remove that 20% once canvassing is over, which they can do. The CMC have not done that in the past, but, for some reason Denise felt that she could not grant any vacation time until this was done. Once again, I had to argue with her about this, and of course she disagreed with me. Denise never got back to me before she went on vacation which she committed to do. So, I came back to work Thursday and it still had not been done. Anna Agreed to open it up until Denise returned and we could speak with her. We spoke with Denise yesterday and again had to argue with her to open it up. I believe she finally did, after we contacted her boss.

As you all can see, this has been a nightmare of a process. If they had just stuck with the process that was already in place and working, none of this would have happened. But as we all know, they never want to listen to us. And now it has taken three times as much time.

I apologize if I have not communicated all of this to you sooner. I have just been focusing on getting the issues fixed as soon as possible

I also know there has been a big problem with the 2005 vacation time, in which the company was not administering it correctly. They did not know about peoples holiday PDP’s and when they were used. I am hoping now that the company realizes what they did wrong and 2006 will be right. I have advised the company per the contract they MUST have an updated vacation calendar available to all employees at all times.

Let’s talk about the year 2005 in retrospect:

We negotiated and implemented a schedule change policy (FLEX) this year. It seems to have been successful. It does hinder on reliability, and I think we are all at a loss as to how to fix it. I know there have been several employees who have returned from benefits or gone on long term disability. However, there are still a huge number of employees who have yet to return. And as we all know some of the managers in the center tried to get us to believe that this would force them to close out office, and gave al kinds of wrong information to try and get employees to turn in their fellow employees. Shame on them!!! All I can say is “YADA,YADA,YADA,--- PONDER THIS”

We have had a difficult year when it comes to the objectives the company has set. Like dollars per call and so on. At this point, I would say 90% of the employees meet those numbers. We will continually keep an eye on this and do everything we can to help our members attain these goals. However, the company has the right to set these ADVANCE \d 5.

We have welcomed approximately 90 employees to Phoenix from Tempe this year as well. Once again Phoenix has become the biggest CMC center with 212 employees. As of January 2006, the center should all be one.

We had some issues around Holiday Saturday’s in 2005. The most senior employees felt that they should not have been required to pick one and that it should be done by seniority. The company believes that each employee should be required to pick one to make it fair to all. Contractually Saturday’s are not done by seniority, but by rotation. It also did not help that the company waited until the last minute to tell us that we would be closed 12/24. Now, don’t get me wrong I was happy to be closed, but the decision should have been made much sooner. For 2006 we will need to come up with a better game plan. So, if you have any suggestions please e-mail them to me.

cmercer@cwa7019.org

pcmercer@cox.net

Also, very importantly, we went through contract bargaining. This was a long and hard process for us all. I know that there are many employees who are not satisfied with the outcome. But, we all have to have faith that the members that we voted in to negotiate the contract did the best they could with what they had. I, as well as many fellow members will never agree with some of those decisions, but need to do the best we can to make the best of what we got, to make the next three years successful. I guess it could have been worse. ADVANCE \d 5

Best of all the members of Unit 14, were loud and proud when it came to all the activities we asked you to do. And I can tell you that from the amount of times I got called into Dottie and Diane’s offices. So, way to be…

We also have gotten 90-100 new CWA 7019 members… Welcome to the employees of Cingular –Retail Sales Associates in the local stores to Unit 1…

If you have Cingular and happen to be in the stores, say “Hi” and welcome a new union member to CWA. Also, if you have Cingular talk to them about the CWA discount. And if you don’t have Cingular, consider changing your service to support your fellow union members. Remember to visit one of the many locations in the valley. And thank you to all the employees there who have been very welcoming to CWA as well.

A huge thanks to Jeremy Pebbles from the Dysart store and Lou Mackin from the Power Road store for stepping up to become new union stewards.

Last but not least we had the election of Union officers…

I am glad to say that the process is over. I am grateful to have been reelected and that I get to have three more years to serve the members of Unit 1. And have much respect for Stephanie Barlow. And I am ecstatic that she has stayed on as my Area-Rep. And I hope that she will continue for the next three years.

And as you all know my fellow members of 7019 have elected a new Executive Committee, as well as new members to the Executive Board. My hope is that all these new members of the Executive Committee have the ability to live up to all the commitments that were made to you all, and do it successfully.

I am however saddened to see three women who have dedicated their lives to CWA 7019, leave in the manner they did. But, as we all know the majority of people who voted, (which was a very small percentage of the Local membership), and this was their vote. You all will be dearly missed in the work of this local.

But, we will move forward in 2006 and the next three years, so let’s make them successful for all the members of CWA Local 7019.