Region 2 Bargaining Update #15Virtual Session 3/16/2022 This is what union power is about: strength in unity… After the Courts offered a take-it-or-leave-it offer of no wages and other onerous proposals, they decided their strategy was going to be arguing over whether to allow our members to attend as observers during the bargaining session. There was upwards of over sixty members statewide who connected via Zoom to support the Region 2 interpreters. The courts’ team stated that they were “intimidated” and that the Union had “crossed the line!” The Region’s team was so unsettled they threatened to cancel the bargaining date unless the Union limit the attendees to ten Region 2 observers. Lamentably, this wasted three hours of precious meet time today, as the Region went into isolation to caucus five times over this one issue. In good faith and in an effort to move the bargaining forward, we agreed to Region 2 members only, and that they be visible on camera at all times. We finalized and signed off on four tentative agreements (attached): Article 16 – New Employee Information and Orientation. The MOU articles that we worked on today are: Article 8 – Discipline and Discharge. In Article 8 the Union is proposing that employee interpreters have the right to remove any negative disciplinary write ups after a period of time. Presently suggested, and exactly similar to clauses in Regions 1 and 4, is that after a two-year period without further disciplinary incident, the employee may have the record removed from their personnel file. This was rejected outright, even though the two largest Regions have it as standard in their MOUs. The explanation given is that “it’s not good HR policy to remove any disciplinary record from anyone’s file.” Additionally, the Region further explained that “it has a prophylactic effect to deter future violations.” Geez, even ex-felons get off supervised probation after an average of three years! 1. Any benefit not specifically covered in this article will be tied to the largest non-managerial bargaining unit. Stay alert, there will be mobilization meetings scheduled for next week. Plan to attend and lend a hand! The next bargaining session dates are still to be determined, aiming for the month of April … we will inform as they become known. In unity, Region 2 Articles - Tentative Agreements
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