Local Member Meeting 8/9/04 - Minutes
General Membership Meeting
CUE Union Local #2
August 9, 2004
The Barn, University Club Room
In attendance were:
Mary Juma, President and UCR Rep, Statewide Executive Board
Sandy Oberlies, Vice-President
Ginger Schilling, Secretary
Terri Romano, UCR Rep, Statewide Executive Board
Chris Benoit, Staff Person
and CUE members for a total of about 15-25 people.
Not present:
Christina Cuellar, Treasurer
Connie McGrath, UCR Rep, Statewide Executive Board
The meeting started approximately 12:10pm.
Mary began the meeting by thanking the Election Committee (Dee, Maggie & Amelia) and announced our new Treasurer, Christina (who is on vacation and so couldn't attend the meeting.)
The next bargaining session is in Irvine on August 24-25. A group trip is planned and anyone who wants to come is welcome. The group will leave at 8am and return at 3pm.
Fact-Finding will take place on Oct. 24. Gerald MacKay is the 3rd neutral person. The issues to be discussed are wages, parking, library assistants.
There is a Regents meeting coming up.
Mary thanked everyone for coming and reminded them to sign in.
She also noted that the local is looking for people who have creative ideas on rallies, etc. to attract more attention.
Chris gave several "success of the month" stories. An employee who worked in a windowed cubicle was no longer allowed to close the blinds. The employee was uncomfortable with the blinds being always open. The employee tried to resolve it with their supervisor and their supervisor's supervisor unsuccessfully. Employee called Chris, she set up an informal meeting with management and they all sat down and resolved it together.
Another employee had had the same work schedule for 20 years, management changed it and refused to discuss it with the employee. Basically told them if they didn't like it, they could quit. Employee went to Chris and after several meetings with management, they managed to resolve the issue.
In a third case, an employee was given a lay-off notice. There is not much the union can do except make sure that the lay-off is handled properly. However, Chris met with the department and together they came up with an alternate solution so that the employee didn't get laid off.
She encouraged people to call her if they have a problem.
Terri asked for feedback on the guest speaker. Discussion.
Stacy gave a bargaining report. Bargaining is still in the Demand/Explanation phase. Each side presents their wants and explains why they want it. They discussed the first 5 articles last session. She handed out a copy of the bargaining report and encouraged people to come to bargaining.
Mary asked members to wear their tshirts etc. to show support for the current bargaining session happening in Oakland this week.
California's Governor will be on campus this Friday for a conference.
Mary reminded people to vote on the SW convention/constitution change proposal.
Mary presented a viewpoint for the proposal:
- the convention is a good idea because it involves more members in the process
Sandy presented a viewpoint against the proposal:
- conventions are expensive and there is nothing preventing us from having one now
- the proposal changes the quorom levels so that fewer people are needed to make big changes to CUE's constitution, etc.
- delegates are based on the number of members on campus so larger campuses will have more power