UNIT 7

AVP Darrell Parrish

623-204-7419

 

 

October 27,2013

I know it’s been long overdue, but now for sure is time for a unit report.

I would like to start off by saying to those of you that are sensitive people, Im not sorry for what Im going to say but I am sorry that it upsets you. Some of this report may not pertain to individually as it may pertain to the Union as a whole. Because I don’t know HOW you voted, this is not directed at anyone individually but I do know HOW MANY of you voted.

As you all know, the t/a has been voted in and we now have a contract through 2017. Our local voted down the contract with approx. 534 no votes to 490 yes votes. Its good that we had more people vote this time than on the 1st proposed t/a.   Funny that on the first one we had about 677 no votes and on this one we have over 100 less.

When I go to yard visits, I consistently hear complaints about the contract or someone talk about how weak the union is.  Many times I agree with much of what I hear. I too am under the same contract and am affected by it just like you.  Just because I’m a local officer doesn’t mean I agree with it or am not affected by it.  But here is the thing I would like to address right now.  Our WEAK union!

 We tell people all the time that WE ALL make up the union. Its true, we all get a say in what passes and doesn’t.  And I agree that our Union (us as a whole) is weak!  Here is why.

Our t/a negatively impacts EVERYONE!!  Past contracts would benefit the inside at expense to the outside, or vice versa.  This one benefited NOBODY!  It has less of an impact on some than others.  If you are single with no kids or health issues, you are gonna make out better than most.  But that is not the majority of our workforce.  So I would bet that at least 90% of our union didn’t believe this was a good contract. So why does it pass with a 60% yes vote?

 Let’s look at just our locals votes on the first t/a.  About 677 no votes and 300 and something yes votes, with 1/3 of us not voting at all.  Am I supposed to believe that the 300 and something yes votes really all believed this was a good contract? No.  So why did they vote yes?

Now let’s compare those numbers to the new numbers of 534 no votes and 490 yes votes.  Really? We get offered the same piece of crap and now 130 of those that voted no to begin with now vote yes?  It just magically looked like a good contract to them?

 Here are my thoughts on why people voted the way they did, just my opinion.  Those that voted NO, did so because they didn’t believe this was a good contract and were willing to strike. But some of those no votes were only because they thought it would pass as it did on past contracts.  Those that voted yes, did so because they didn’t believe this was a good contract but didn’t want to risk going on strike. And those that didn’t vote, mostly didn’t believe this was a good contract but didn’t want to risk going on strike by voting no, so they didn’t vote at all figuring it would pass as it did on past contracts.

 Then let’s talk about the votes on the second t/a.  I am not surprised at all of how it ended up. I told people how this would work.  So the first one gets voted down and now we are left with a last/best offer from the company and the threat of a strike is much greater if this doesn’t pass.  Many of the original NO votes get switched to YES and more of the people, who didn’t vote, voted YES.

So let’s talk about the WEAK union.  Yes we had a very strong vote to strike locally by those that voted.  But saying you are willing to strike when not really faced with a strike is pretty easy to do compared to when it may be a reality.

If you voted yes to this contract because you really felt this was beneficial to you, then the following does not apply to you. But be honest with yourself on why you voted yes. How beneficial is the new contract really?

 Voting Yes on the 1st and 2nd t/a was WEAK!  You didn’t believe this was fair yet you still voted it in because you didn’t want to strike. That is a weak union!

 If you didn’t vote on either of these t/a’s because you were afraid to go on strike, that was WEAK! If you felt it was a good contract, you would have voted YES but instead you chose not to risk voting it down. That is a weak union!

 If you originally voted no on the first t/a and then voted yes on the second, that was WEAK! The increased risk of a strike changed your mind on whether this was a good contract?  That is a weak union!

 For those of you that voted no on the first one and stood by your vote on the second one I thank you. I didn’t want to strike as much as the next person, but if the first t/a wasn’t good enough and they come back to me with the same thing with different wording, then the second one isn’t good enough either.

Now let me tell you something else I think is weak. Those of you that choose to opt out of the union because this got voted in, I think that is weak also.  Unfortunately, it’s those of us who are really passionate about our union and what it stands for that feel the most disappointment when something like this happens to OUR union.  And many times, the people that drop their union card do so because of how passionate they are but feel let down. I feel just as you do. But dropping is not the answer.  The answer is to get more of the people that don’t really care, to be just as passionate as us.  If you, passionate union members drop your card, then all we have left are the weak ones to vote for the rest of us. And the contract after this will be even worse. We need you to get others to be pissed off at the company’s offers more than they are scared to go on strike! We NEED the people who are pissed at this result, the ones that are passionate soldiers, to continue being pissed and rise up more soldiers! 

Those of us that voted no would have expected the ones that voted yes to support a strike and walk the line if the decision went that way.  But now that it went the opposite direction, we have to live with what we have been given by the Yes votes and do whatever we can to be prepared for the next contract.

 So in closing, I will ask this.  If you voted yes on this contract, please don’t come to me in the next 4 years and complain about what this contract has given you.  Those of you that didn’t vote, I ask the same only because you were content to let it go either way.  Those of you that voted no on this contract, I welcome any complaints or discussion about this contract so contact me with any ideas you may have to get this WEAK union back to where it was and what we expect it to be!

Darrell Parrish
 Unit 7 AVP

 

UNIT 7 ELECTIONS

Area Vice President Darrell Parrish

A Unit 7 meeting will be held to nominate and elect Area Reps for Area’s 1 and 2.

Nominations will be taken from the floor, or in written form, at the Unit meeting. All written nominations (the nomination and/or the second to the nomination) must be on file with the Secretary-Treasurer’s office. The nominee must be present to accept the nomination, or have a signed letter on file with the Secretary-Treasurer stating they will accept the nomination. All letters must be sent by certified mail to CWA Local 7019 C/O Secretary Treasurer, 1615 N 36th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85008 and must be received by 4:00 pm on February 14, 2012.

DATE: Wednesday, February 15, 2012

TIME: 7:00 pm – 7:30 pm

LOCATION: CWA Union Hall - 1615 N 36th Street

Nominations will be from 7:00pm – 7:15pm

If necessary, voting will be from 7:15pm – 7:30pm

 

 

November 2011

Hello all,

It’s been awhile since my last Unit Report. It was fairly quiet for a few months, but with the merger and upcoming contract negotiations, things are starting to come up again.

At our last Unit Meeting a couple days ago, many of these topics were discussed. Just a reminder, we have unit meetings the first Wednesday of EVERY month at the local hall located at 1615 N. 36th Street.  The meetings start at 7:30pm, so if you are working late it still gives you an opportunity to make the meeting.  Below are some of the topics discussed, and a brief highlight of the discussion.

GPS-  We can’t have technicians getting complacent about their GPS. We are still having technicians being disciplined for going home during work, morning hour long coffee breaks, and out of route issues. We also heard the company may be doing random audits to check for speeding. That is still being looked in to.

DSL Training-  The company is starting to train I&M techs to do DSL work. We currently have a grievance in the works for this. A couple things you need to understand is first, the technicians getting trained are NOT going to be Broadband techs after training.  Second, if you want the company to open recs for Broadband, having I&M techs trained to do DSL is not the way to do that.  What need would the company have to open recs, if I&M techs are doing the work anyways?

Prism TV-  Looks to be a pretty good product. Phoenix is the flagship for this.  If it doesn’t work here, the company will not roll it out anywhere else. I feel this is very important to get done, and done correctly. If this works as expected, we should hopefully see hiring of new technicians in the next couple years.

Contract year-  This next contract negotiation will be interesting to say the least.   CenturyLink has never negotiated a contract for so many people at once.  We have information cards getting passed out at yards to update your email and cell phone/home phone.  This will be important in getting contract updates to our members.  Please fill them out, or call and ask for one to be delivered to you. 

Strike Vote-  VERY Important!!!   We need EVERYONE to vote!  The outside technicians are notorious for not voting. And personally, I believe our vote is most important. As fellow AVP Ron Fagan put it, OUR jobs can’t go anywhere.  The company can’t have some guy from another county do our job.  They can’t shut down a technician “center” and move it to another state.  The company pays attention to how we vote.  If only 30% of us vote, they know we are not solid.  So, to help make sure everyone votes we are planning to have one person at a yard collect the strike votes. Then they will either deliver them to the hall or I will pick them up myself.  Again, this is very important and we will be discussing this topic in more in depth at the monthly meetings.

Anyways, these were just a few of the topics discussed at the last meeting. If you would like to find out more in depth of what was discussed, show up to the next meeting. 

Once again, FIRST Wednesday of EVERY month.  1615 N. 36th Street.   7:30pm

Also, the AVP’s for Units 5, 6, and 7 have decided to start a Local Lottery.  Every month we will be putting money in a pot and at the monthly Unit Meetings, a name of a member of one of those units will be drawn. If the member is present, he will win the pot. If the member is not present, the money will roll over until the next month.

The winner of the last drawing was Mike Chavez. Unfortunately for him, he was not present to win.

Also, we had a fellow member donate a Netbook which will also be part of the winnings for the first person to win.  If you would like a chance to win, all you have to do is SHOW UP @

1615 N. 36th St. at 7:30pm on the FIRST Wednesday of EVERY month!!!!!!

Hope to see you there.

Darrell Parrish

opeiu30

 

February 2011

Hey everyone. The last couple months have been a bit interesting with the upcoming merger. A lot of speculation and questioning has been going on about what this merger will mean to us and our jobs. As of now, CenturyLink and our Local have not sat and met to discuss what the future holds.  But as new information comes about, we will get it out.   

One way to stay current is to attend the monthly unit meetings. These are held the first Wednesday of each month at the union hall located at 1615 N. 36th ST.  The time of these meetings is 7:30.  The last few meetings have had bits of new info each time. 

With this email I am sending you a list of grievances filed in our unit for 2010 and the results of those.  You will notice that QJD grievances started to drop off at the end of the year.  And so far in 2011, there have been only a handful of QJD write-ups.  I personally have my own ideas of how this is happening, but I don’t believe that the QJD target is somehow magically attainable.  I believe the merger has some input to why technicians haven’t been written up for QJD. 

Grievance SAT 2010

One thing that has been on the rise for write-ups is motor vehicle incidents.  We need to be careful out there. We are driving all day so caution needs to be had. Last year, we had no safety rodeo’s.  This was brought to the attention of management along with increasing accidents. Management has committed to getting these done soon. 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns you can call me at 623-204-7419. If I don’t answer, most of the time I will get back to you the same day. 

Darrell Parrish  

 

September 2010

Hello all,

We have had a lot of things happening the past few months. Probably the most talked about, the merger with Century Tel. We have met with Larry North and Frank Simonson to discuss QJD. There has been a termination for QJD. There are some recycled policies coming from management regarding repeats, quality, and QJD discipline. On October 6th, we will be having a Unit Meeting at the Union Hall. We will be discussing all of these topics and more. Please show up for this information. The address to the hall is 1615 N. 36th St. in Phoenix. The time of the meeting is 7:30pm.

Something has recently come to my attention and I think it should be shared with all the members. Let me first start by saying that as Union employees, you have higher expectations to do a quality job. You are expected to complete a job the way it was intended to be done. That doesn't mean do the bare minimum and leave the crap work for the next tech who goes out after you. It's not fair for another tech to have to finish your job, and it's not fair for another tech to have to put up with angry customers because you didn't want to take the time to do it right.

Now you can add one more reason to why you need to do it right the first time. I recently found out a technician in the east valley has been taking pictures of other techs work and sending them to management. Without contacting the tech to find out why the job site was left the way it was, he decided management needed to see this work. Sometimes there may be circumstances that prevent you from doing something which really should be done. But no attempt to find this out was made. If you run into an issue with another technicians work, talk to them yourself or have me talk to the tech. Once the tech has been talked to, it shouldn't happen again. If it does, then the tech cant say he didn't know. Let's get this problem taken care of before management has to get involved any more than it has.

I am also attaching a list of grievances filed and met on for the first half of this year. This same list should be hanging on your union boards. It will be updated shortly and passed out.

Once again, please attend the union meeting on October 6th.


In unity,

Darrell Parrish

opeiu30

 

 

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