Chapter 324 Updates – Budgets, Furloughs, and Elections
I wanted to provide the membership with updates on a number of key issues, both at the statewide and chapter level.
California and CSU Budget
The State of California is not any closer to a budget for Fiscal Year 2009-2010, which officially began today. Rumors of IOUs to be distributed to state employees have been circulating. Please keep in mind that Education workers have their salaries protected under Title V, so while our brothers and sisters throughout the state may be subject to more harsh attacks and reductions by the Governor, we will still receive our paychecks. Each day of delay by the legislature and the Governor to resolve the budget crisis will cost California state programs further budget cuts. On a personal note, this high speed game of chicken between the Governor and the California Legislature is not helping us figure out where we have to go to survive this budget crisis. The biggest difficulty we have for resolving the CSU Budget crisis is getting our questions answered.
Here’s a link to the CSUEU Budget Central website:
http://www.csueu.org/Home/StateandCSUBudgetCentral/tabid/902/Default.aspx
Furlough Bargaining and Voting
The CSUEU and CSU have officially entered bargaining for furloughs as an option to mitigate layoffs. The newly elected bargaining team took the advisory vote to heart and are exploring this option with the CSU. I have forwarded all your questions to CSUEU. These excellent questions and ideas will be used as part of the bargaining process. I am proud to say that the CSUEU Board of Directors voted this weekend to require any side letter generated by this furlough bargaining effort to be ratified by our membership using a special process. This special process will require us to hold a meeting for discussion and voting within a week of an agreement being reached, similar to the previous advisory vote. We will make sure to have more food for this important meeting.
CSUEU received some criticism from other groups and our own membership on “rushing” to choose furloughs. The magnitude of the budget cuts have fluctuated from three to six percent in January 2009 to an astounding 14% after the May 19th Special Election. Chapter 324 believes we have had the best possible reaction to a desperate situation. We have ensured that the members were as informed as possible throughout the process and that our members will have the right to vote on anything bargained by the CSU and CSUEU to help close the budget gaps. Remember, members will be able to vote the proposal either up or down before anything is agreed to between the CSUEU and CSU.
We have provided links to other Union responses for comparison here:
CFA – http://www.calfac.org/allpdf/newsreleas/2009_pressrel/PR_063009_FurloughResponse.pdf
SETC – http://www.setc-united.org/CSUHome.htm#Layoffs
Here is a link to the CSUEU Furloughs FAQ:
http://www.csueu.org/Home/StateandCSUBudgetCentral/FurloughsFAQ/tabid/928/Default.aspx
Channel Islands Budget Cuts
We are still not sure what will become the overall cuts to the Channel Islands budget. In order to begin addressing individual campus cuts, the final cuts to the California budget must be determined and each Union needs to negotiate any furlough options as they see fit. Once completed, the CSU Board of Trustees will need to approve any plans to complete this process. I suspect the CSU Presidents will reconvene to discuss the overall cut once we have a firm number and options (furloughs and/or layoffs) on the table.
To this end, I have requested to Dr. Rush that a special committee is formed at Channel Islands to address the budget cuts. This committee would be comprised of the CSUCI senior-level management and union leadership. Everyone should be working together so we are reviewing the same information and making the right decisions. We feel our union should have a seat at the table during these times to represent the interest of the employees as well as the interest of the University.
CSUEU Board of Directors Meeting
The CSUEU Board of Directors met this past weekend for our quarterly in-person meeting and biannual election of statewide officers. The Board voted unanimously to cut member dues by a corresponding percentage if furloughs are bargained and ratified by the membership. The board felt it was important to show solidarity with all represented members should furloughs become a reality.
Members from across the state expressed their frustrations with our budget situation. It is amazing to work within an organization that recognizes dissent among its members and works to understand and include alternate perspectives. The frustrations stem from the lack of knowledge that everyone seems to have about the budget crisis. And while it was hard to be criticized after all the work we had done on a short timeline, I believe these concerns only highlight the frustration we all feel.
I also wanted to highlight that our own Roy Park, Unit 9 Representative, was elected to serve as a Member At-Large on the statewide Bargaining Unit 9 Council. He will be picking up where I left off and will advise the Bargaining Team on issues relating to Unit 9 employees. If you see him around campus, be sure to congratulate him on his election and thank him for serving our chapter and our union at the statewide level.
Unit 7 Representative
Nick Fuentes was recently reclassified into Unit 9, which required him to abdicate his position as Unit 7 Representative. While we congratulate him on his well-deserved reclassification, we are now missing a Unit 7 Representative for our chapter. If anyone in Unit 7 is interested in stepping up during these uncertain times, we would greatly appreciate it. I will send a separate email to Unit 7 personnel with a second request for volunteers. We can only do this if we all work together.
Chapter Website
Tom Emens has made strides in re-launching our chapter website. If you have any suggestions for content or features for the website, please forward that feedback to Ana Rosa Durán, our Communications Chair at ana.duran@csuci.edu. We want this website to serve you and your needs.
Questions / Feedback
If you have any questions or feedback concerning this update or our chapter, do not hesitate to contact me using the details below. We want to hear your feedback, both good and bad, so we can continue to better serve and support you, especially now.
Joseph Dobzynski, Jr.
CSUEU Chapter 324 – President
a: Broome Library, Room 2470
p: 805.437.3279
c: 805.453.3244
Furlough Voting Results
I wanted to provide you with some information about furlough voting among the chapters.
CSUEU Board of Directors Teleconference
Yesterday afternoon, the CSUEU Board of Directors met in closed session to discuss furloughs as an option to meet the cuts to the CSU budget. The meeting lasted from 2:00pm to 4:00pm, during which time we reviewed the results of the phone polling, the web survey, and each chapter vote. I am pleased to announce that the CSUEU Board of Directors voted unanimously to pursue furloughs as an option to close the CSU Budget. More information is available in the link below. Feel free to cross-post this email and the notice below.
Link: http://www.csueu.org/Home/tabid/53/ctl/Details/mid/424/ItemID/432/Default.aspx
CSUEU Chapter 324 Furlough Vote
The final results of our chapter vote were 128 to 10 in favor of furloughs as an option to mitigate layoffs. Almost 93% of our chapter membership voted to take on a portion of this budget crisis to preserve as many positions as possible. It speaks to the special relationship that Channel Islands has among its employees and to our willingness to work together within our chapter, within our university, and throughout the Union to come together during this crisis. I also believe it marks a turning point in the American labor movement, where we would come together rather than protect ourselves. It is amazing the sense of community and cooperation validated by this vote. I am honored to serve you all.
Next Steps
The CSUEU Board of Directors will meet in person this weekend, beginning Friday, June 26th, 2009 and lasting until Sunday, June 28th, 2009. I will be attending as president for Chapter 324, but I will be accompanied by Santos Ortega (vice-president), Michelle Willinsky (treasurer), Evelyn Taylor (secretary), and Roy Park (Unit 9 Representative) to vote for the statewide Union positions. We will also be discussing the next steps and bargaining considerations for furloughs as an option. I will report back next Monday with any information we pick up.
In Union,
Joseph Dobzynski, Jr.
CSUEU Chapter 324 – President
CSUEU General Meeting Follow-Up
Hi everyone!
First and foremost, it was great to see so many people attend. It is an honor and a privilege to serve you during these uncertain times. I apologize for the lack of food and water towards the end – we will make adjustments for future meetings as we weather this crisis. CSUEU and Chapter 324 are committed to seeing as many as possible through this crisis.
General Meeting Presentation
Click here to download the presentation given at today’s meeting. I apologize for running over. We had very good questions and I hope I gave adequate answers. We still have more questions than answers and way too many contingencies. If you have further questions, please let me know! I am including my notes from the end of the presentation below.
Voting Timeline
The results of the vote will be tabulated on Friday, June 19th, 2009 @ 5:00pm. No interim vote counts will be given until everyone has a chance to vote. It would be unfair to influence anyone’s decision on this important matter. I will send an email after the tabulation and we will work with our Communications Chair to ensure everyone receives the official count. I am committed to voting at the CSUEU Board of Directors meeting on Monday based on a simple majority (50% + 1) of this vote.
Employee Assistance
Chapter 324 has started discussions with the University and other campus Unions to find ways to support employees in the coming year, regardless of how this turns out. We are open to any ideas you might have to save money during these times. Every dollar is going to count as we move forward.
The ideas include:
- State Employee Discounts – Negotiating discounts with local businesses and organizations on basic items. Some programs exist, but we want to focus on what people need.
- Purchasing Power – Leveraging bulk purchases from local businesses for distribution, including agreements with local farms and grocery stores.
- Potlucks – Holding regular potlucks throughout the year to keep everyone informed and to feed as many as possible.
- Bulletin Boards – Creating ways to post “Need It / Got It” lists to make use of items sitting in our garages or storage closets. You can bust clutter in your home and help a fellow employee.
- Carpooling – Identifying ways to carpool to save on gasoline and parking costs.
- Tips to Save Money – Shut off your lights, turn off your power strips, take shorter showers… whatever we can put together to make better use of what we got at home and at work.
Things to Report
We also discussed a number of practices that we would like to hear about in these uncertain times.
These include:
- Informal Volunteering – No one should be asked or required (that’s “volun-telling”) to volunteer their time for the good of the University. If you hear about these practices, please notify a member of our executive board immediately. You should not be penalized for not volunteering on campus. You should also not receive preferential treatment for donating your time either.
- Workaholics Anonymous – As a recovering workaholic (with occasional lapses!), I know the mental burden we place on ourselves to do the best job we can. Many times we do this to ourselves. Sometimes we need to talk to an administrator to adjust and prioritize the workload.
- Exempt Employee Abuse – Exempt employees will be targeted to ‘put in the extra effort’. This is understandable in emergency conditions, but if it consistently happens to someone on campus, we want to hear about it. We will prevent this abuse in both the furlough and layoff options.
- Working Out of Classification – Many of you were promised re-classifications for duties assigned outside of your classification, if only the budget would agree. We now know the full extent of the budget cuts. If you feel you are working outside of your classification, please let an executive board member know. The contract is clear that one of two things need to happen: (1) you should be reclassified with the appropriate salary increase into the higher classification; or (2) you should have the duties outside your classification removed from your workload. We can’t help you through this if you don’t let us know. We are not paid to do work outside our classification, nor should we be expected to without due compensation.
More information will follow as the votes come in. I want to thank you all again for attending today. We will hold other meetings throughout this week to give everyone a chance to vote.
In Union,
Joseph Dobzynski, Jr.
CSUEU Chapter 324 – President
CSUEU Bargaining Unit 9 – Member At-Large