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| December 2013 | Vol 1, Issue 6 |
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| Greetings! |  The Holiday season is in full swing, with Thanksgiving and Hanukkah already over and more celebrations and parties yet to come. We hope that everyone has a fun and safe end to the current year and we look forward to good things in 2014.
Below you'll find a full update of the last Membership meeting as well as an important question for our time: Do you know what Santa is up to? |
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| Where's Santa? | 
Since there's been a Santa Claus, kids have wondered when he was going to arrive at their house with his bag of gifts. Because of a typo in a sales ad, since the mid 1950s, NORAD has been providing anxious children with updates on Santa's location, first through a phone number, then through email and the web, now with Facebook and Twitter @NoradSanta. So many people want to know where Santa is right now that even Google has gotten in to it with their own Santa Tracker. If the Reindeer had a union, they might have a problem with this. Workplace monitoring is nothing new. Take a close look at any technology usage policy from most any company and you'll discover that an employee has zero expectation of privacy when using company electronic resources. Email will be tracked and may be read. Website visits are being tracked and phone calls may be monitored. This can extend to video recording and electronic control of access on company property. Where you are and what you are doing, while on company property, is subject to surveillance of pretty much every kind imaginable. But what about when you're not on company property but are doing your duties as a driver, whether in a company vehicle or your own? What about when you simply have company property, such as a smart phone or laptop?  At MG&E, they have begun monitoring the location of the delivery trucks, using a rather kludgy and ill-designed approach of "pinging" the radios in the trucks, often causing drivers to lose contact with dispatch while the "ping" is occurring. When Cliff Murray, the Chief Steward at MG&E, met with the company they told him that GPS would be used about 80% for dispatching purposes, but if an issue came up that could be disciplinary, they could not ignore it. But what does that mean? It's still not clear what information the Company intends to gather. We know that other utilities have used this technology to monitor employees' whereabouts, driving habits (speed, braking, etc.) and have used this information to discipline employees. But if a driver is doing their job, what's the problem? Hey, kids just want to know where Santa is. What's the big deal? There are two problems with this. The first one is simple and is something that the Union can work to prevent. That is the problem that those monitoring our locations may not know how to do our jobs, but they think they do. Santa should get here faster. Santa's manager might use that tracking data to decide that he could "improve efficiency" by dictating to Santa how to do his job. Police cars in Boston are being fitted with GPS trackers. What happens when an officer gets second guessed by a supervisor for being parked "too long" in one spot? What happens when a hacker gains access to the GPS information and knows where the patrol cars are at any one time? Or is it really just a case that the cops don't want their stops at the donut shop recorded and used against them? One might think that it does not matter if their employer knows that he goes to Starbucks every morning before work or that they spend Sundays at his girlfriend's house. This line of thinking misses a larger point. If someone has the ability to know the real time location of a person around the clock, they are able to create a mosaic of that person's life. They learn everything about that person, much of which is highly personal and private in nature. To a greater extent, when an employee knows that his boss watches his day-to-day activities, he might think twice before he takes part in certain activities. For example, if one's boss was a vigilant Republican, an employee might choose not to go to the Democratic National Convention. Tracking location affects autonomy.
Finally, most employees may not know the full extent of tracking going on. There is, as of this time, no Federal statute outlining what degree of tracking must be disclosed to employees. Many of us carry smart phones provided by our companies. Not only does it make us more available to be contacted at all hours of the day and night ("The Great Speedup"), thereby messing up a good work/life balance, but it can also be used to track where we go and what we do, and the company has no obligation to disclose this inconvenient fact.
Surveillance is part of the working conditions that must be bargained in the contracts. The Company may have every right to track how its resources are being used, but we have the right to know that such tracking is being done and how that information might be used. As employees, we have to assume that our usage of Company resources is monitored and tracked and act accordingly. Please note: we have every right to contact the Union on any issue we choose. We have the right to use Company resources to do it, because the Union is our representation with our companies. But, the Company can monitor those communications if they choose.
We prefer to communicate with members using personal instead of work email accounts for that reason. For those of us who work at CUNA Mutual Group, you can see that the Union website is blocked. Emails to and from the union could be just as easily blocked. If you feel you must contact the Union while at work, using a web-based email program such as Gmail, Charter, TDS, etc is less likely to be blocked. The Company may be able to ascertain that you logged into such an email service, but they won't know the contact of the email. But better yet, we need to use our lunch breaks to call or wait until we get home to email the union office.
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| November's Quarterly Membership Meeting | 
Thank you to all who attended the Quarterly Membership meeting held the third Wednesday in November. We made quorum and then some. With enough of the membership present, the business of the Union could be conducted -- that's how transparency is done. Business included reports from the Chief Stewards of the various bargaining units, a report on the finances, and nominations for Executive Board positions.
Reports from the Stewards MG&E - Cliff Murray, Chief Steward There are seveal issues/grievances we are currently investigating involving: discipline in the Call center, work moved to non-union workers, medical sick leave usage issues, a wide variety. We're working through those. Other issues being discussed with management include Health Insurance and GPS tracking in Company vehicles. On the Health Insurance issue, the Company will be meeting with the Union on December 16th to discuss creating subcommittees to meet on an ongoing basis to review the unfolding healthcare market leading up to the 2015 contract negotiations. The Company met with members of both our Unions to explain / demonstrate new GPS technology they are developing. There were several issues the Unions brought up in the meeting, testing will continue, and another meeting will be scheduled once more data is available. See the main article in this newsletter for a larger discussion of workplace monitoring. WOCCU - Diane Martin, Chief Steward This bargaining unit has been dealing with issues of work load. The Company has been allowing positions to remain unfilled, moving some work to the DC office, and those who are left here in Madison are being asked to do the same amount of work with fewer people (see Issue 3 of this newsletter for more on The Great Speedup). One win in this situation is that the Union got the Company to agree that one of the laid off workers would be granted severance and 30 days with pay. That means, instead of having to come in everyday knowing that you're going to be let go, this person got pay and got to stay home and have space to make the decision about what comes next. One big issue for this bargaining unit is that Diane, WOCCU's Chief Steward for seven years, has decided to retire. That's going to be a huge change for that unit, not having her steady and wise leadership. The unit is a small, tight-knit one. We're looking forward to someone within that unit stepping forward to take on the duties of Chief Steward. CUNA Inc - Shawn San-Roman, Chief Steward At the time of the meeting, they were looking forward to voting on their next contract, which passed overwhelmingly. The bargain with CUNA Inc shows how it should be done. Both sides wanted the contract talks to go smoothly, both groups treated those sitting on the other side of the table with respect. They started this bargain in September and finished in November for a contract that didn't expire until the end of the year. Neither management nor the workers have to face the uncertainty of working without a contract! Good work to all! The discussions were -- of course -- largely centered on health care costs. Because of the changes coming due to the Affordable Care Act, specific changes in health care coverage will be discussed next year. For the first time, represented employees will be eligible for a Year-End Bonus, based on CUNA's overall performance. These are discretionary and non-guaranteed bonuses that are occasionally distributed to non-represented employees.
In all, we again ceded ground on benefits, but we were able to extend some of the vacation time losses into this contract, while non-represented staff will need to give back some vacation time at the beginning of the year and salary ranges will be increased for the first time in three years, reflecting the improving economy.
For the first time in a long time, our largest unit wasn't the one with the most grievances pending! Most have been dealt with although there are several small issues still to be decided, including some changes in "bumping" for laid off employees.
Changes are coming to CUNA Mutual Human Resources and Labor Relations. Brenda Page, head of Labor Relations left some weeks ago; the head of HR, David Sargent, is leaving at the end of the year; and Jeff Post, CEO, is leaving by July. We don't know how these changes will impact the working relationship between the Union and LR, but we're hopeful that CUNA Mutual will return to the union-friendly organization it used to be.  Financial Updates The finances of the Union are, for the first time in several years, looking to be in decent shape and stable. This has been an expensive year, with contract negotiations going on at CUNA Mutual Group and CUNA Inc and, as always, the need to support members facing discipline. The Executive Board treats our money carefully, making decisions on how best to spend it to support the greatest numbers of members in the face of Companies that opt for arbitration instead of discussion and drawing out negotiations instead of good-faith bargaining, adding to our legal costs. With careful management, we have paid off our loan to the International and are operating in the black. Executive Board Nominations
The Board opened the floor to nominations to fill the positions whose terms had ended. There was discussion about the duties, time commitments, and obligations of being on the Executive Board. The question was asked of outgoing members if they had any desire to continue in the roles. All of them stated their willingness to continue in their positions. The one vacant position was filled by a nomination from among those attending. No position had more than one nomination, so a Membership vote isn't necessary.
Your Executive Board Members are:
President - Kathryn Bartlett-Mulvihill (Local 39)
Vice President - Paul Ledin (CUNA Inc)
Secretary Treasurer - Lori Richardson (IBEW 965)
Recording Secretary - Sharon McCluskey (CMFG)
Trustee 1 - Phil Miller (CMFG)
Trustee 2 - Nancy Dietzman- Mills (CMFG)
Trustee 3 - Karen Maund (CMFG)
Sargent-at-Arms - Debi Eveland (Local 39)
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Together WE are the Union and together WE make our workplace better, safer, more fair. Thank you for a great 2013 and we're looking forward to 2014. Lots of work ahead, but together we can accomplish great things. From all of us, to, well, all of us! Happy Holidays.
In Solidarity,
OPEIU Local 39
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Copyright OPEIU Local 39. Content written and/or edited by David O. Engelstad
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