News

Update from the Union

It has been a little over six months since the local has been put in trusteeship. During that time, CWA District Staff and the 1133 Executive Board have been working diligently in a number of areas to put the local on a stronger path for the future. Listed below are a few of the areas that we have been focusing on.

Local Bylaws:

The bylaws that were in place had not been updated since 2008. We have spent significant time reviewing and revising the bylaws. We are hoping this process will be finalized in June.   The most significant change we plan to implement is an increase in the number of chief stewards, so that each Executive Board Member will have at least one chief steward to help with office coverage.

In addition, we are looking at splitting up the Executive Board by bargaining unit, so that we will have designated board positions for the RN unit and designated board positions for the STC unit.  

Local Finances:

Local finances continue to remain stable. We conducted an audit of local finances, and the local was given a number of recommendations that we are working on implementing. We will provide a detailed financial report at the membership meeting on June 8th.  

Local Policies:

The policies of the local were extremely outdated and had not been consistently followed for a number of years. We have been working to update all of the policies and add new policies that were needed. This process has been extremely time consuming, and we expect to be completed with this process in early June.

Stewards & Training:

We have held multiple steward training sessions and have significantly increased the number of Stewards. This means that there are more reps in the facilities to assist if you are in need of representation. If you are interested in becoming a Steward, please reach out to the Local!  

The Executive Board of Local 1133 has attended training sessions to gain the skills and knowledge to better serve the members. This included a weeklong training at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. We believe that these trainings have given local leaders the tools needed to strengthen the local.  

Grievances:

Coming into 2023, there were a number of outstanding issues. Here are a few updates:

  • STC Pay Grievances: We had a number of grievances regarding STC promotions and incorrect pay rates. We have clarified the language and adjusted a number of people who had been adversely impacted by the language. In 2025 bargaining, we will have to review the language and propose some improvements and clarifications to the promotion process.
  • Shift Differential: These grievances are in the process of being resolved. Due to a variety of factors, it took Catholic Health until April of 2022 to implement the new shift differential language. There are a small number of employees that are owed back pay. This requires us to manually go through employee schedules and Kronos to calculate the amount owed.   We hope to have this resolved by the end of the month. If you believe you are owed money, please make sure to fill out the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/M8SXL6N
  • Float Pool Differential for NAs: This grievance has been resolved and paid out. If you believe you are still owed money, please contact the hall ASAP!
  • Storm Disciplines: We have filed individual grievances for all members who have been disciplined related to the Christmas storm. All of those grievances were heard at Step 2 on May 11th, and we are waiting to hear back. Some of these cases may need to be taken to arbitration if management is unwilling to reduce the disciplines.
  • Storm Pay: A lot of work has been done by Executive Board members related to Storm Pay grievances. We reviewed the survey data and Kronos records. Information has been submitted to Catholic Health and they are in the process of reviewing the data we provided. We hope to have this resolved in early June.

Staffing Committee:

The Staffing Committees have been working hard on reviewing the backlog of complaints. We encourage our members to use the MIDAS system to report all staffing ratios that are not being met. If interested in becoming a staffing captain, please call the office. Please make sure you continue filling out the staffing forms if the ratios are not being met on your floor.  

Future Plans:

  • Service Market Adjustments: We received a proposal from Catholic Health to give market adjustments to a small number of titles in the Service group. The bargaining committee will be reviewing this week and we hope to have increases implemented quickly.
  • Membership Meeting Reminder: The next membership meeting will be held June 8th, 4:30pm, at the Irish Center.
  • Communications: Over the next few months we plan to work on improving communications and putting more regular updates out to the membership. If you would like to be involved in the Communications Committee, please contact the local.
  • Stewards: The next steward training will be scheduled in early September. If you are interested in attending, please contact the local. We will also be starting monthly steward calls in the next few months.

If you have any additional questions regarding this update, please feel free to contact me at the local at 716-828-1133 or via email at espaulding@cwa-union.org.
 

In Unity,

Erin Spaulding

Temporary Administrator