July 21, 2011
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Gilbert Johnson
WSEU Local 82
FROM:
Shannon E. Bradbury
UWM Labor Relations Coordinator
RE:
WSEU Labor/Management Minutes for July 19, 2011
WSEU Local 82
Michael Maass (BC)
Gilbert Johnson (AS)
Stan Yasaitis (AS)
Two additional BC unit employees
Three additional AS unit employees
Two Technical (T) unit employees
UWM
Shannon E. Bradbury
Jerry Tarrer
Kurt Hennemann
Colleen Murphy
The next meeting will be held Tuesday, August 16. Please respond to items from your area
by Friday, August 12.
The meeting began at 9:10 a.m.
I.
NEW BUSINESS
A.
UWM Student Union Custodial. The union noted that there have not
been any staff meetings for custodians in UWM Student Union custodial in
many months. As a result there is very little communication between the
groups of permanent custodians and the student workers, and this is leading
to the perception of inequitable treatment. Local 82 offered to facilitate a
meeting if that would be helpful. The employer will attempt to enable the
unit to start regular meetings.
B.
Facility Services Issues. Mail Delays. The union once again stated that
the mail sent to custodial staff is often many days late in arriving. This is
not a problem with Mail Services, but is due to the fact that the custodians
must receive their mail through the supervisor. The union has brought this
issue to this forum on many previous occasions. Interim Director of Facility
Services Jerry Tarrer started that he would look into the mail delivery
process being used in Buildings & Grounds.
Pay Errors. An attendee to the meeting stated that her pay had been short
three pay periods in a row. This is due in part to the fact that the employee
tried to use leave time she had already used up, and the new HRS payroll
system won’t substitute leave when mistakes like that are made. In-house
time keepers do not process payroll anymore. This led to a more extensive
discussion of HRS and the new timekeeping/payrolling procedures.
Employees will be expected to track their own leave usage, but the union
feels that this does not work very well for those employees that can’t look at
the UWS Portal on work time. They feel that the pay statements are so
detailed as to be confusing, and the communication about what has
changed has not been good.
The union wants to know what training supervisors are getting in tracking
the leave usage of their subordinates. Mr. Tarrer explained that supervisors
do not yet have access to that information.
The union wants the employer to train employees in how to use the UWS
Portal, and how to read the pay statement.
Absenteeism Policy. The union again suggested that the employer adopt a
“uniform” attendance/leave abuse policy. With the elimination of the
union contracts, the parties may have the chance to adopt a lot of policies
in the coming months.
C.
Union Meetings in August. The union would like Facility Services to
help facilitate the attendance of custodians at the August 9 Local 82
membership meeting. They feel that simply too many people still do not
know what is going to happen to them, with the health insurance and
retirement contribution increases coming in August. They will try to get
through most of the agenda between 11:30 a.m. and noon, and they would
like to see 100 people in attendance. They would also like Facility Services
to make attendance at the August 19 “Managing Stress in Challenging
Times” workshop easy for custodians.
D.
Horticultural Technician. The Horticultural Tech from the greenhouse in
Biological Sciences asked to have her classification and pay rate reviewed.
She noted that the state has not surveyed her classification for many, many
years, and that she is not paid for the use of her personal car to make trips
to the WATER Institute. She says that with the cuts coming from
increased benefit contributions, she could actually make more per hour at
Starbucks. The Department of Human Resources will look at her
classification and see if she is correctly classified and whether the State
would be willing to survey the classification.
E.
Employee Development Complaints in UITS. An attendee to the
meeting expressed his disapproval of an Employee Development Plan
recently implemented by the Department of University Information
Technology Services (UITS). The program involves reading a portion of a
book, “Strengths Finder 2.0” and taking an on-line test to determine one’s
strengths. The Department also wants to meet with employees informally
quarterly to discuss goals and performance.
The employee believes this is “pseudo-science” and that he should not have
to participate. He believes that supervisors are receiving bonuses, or DCAs
for implementing this program. The employer explained that the
Discretionary Compensation Adjustment (DCA) program, has been
suspended since 2008, http://oser.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=7125.
The union wants to know if this professional development is being used
instead of evaluations, how it will affect the employee’s evaluation, and how
it was chosen over other professional development tools. They asked what
the information is being used for, and what privacy controls are in place for
the information generated. They questioned whether it constituted
psychological profiling.
II.
OLD BUSINESS
A. Health & Safety
1. Completed or Ongoing Projects
LIB WB05
NWQ 1932A: H21E
NWQ 1932B: H53E
NWQ 1932E: basement
NWQ 1932F: B1B, B1C, B10B, B11A, B11B, B14, B29, B31, B38A,
B61, H54, 113, 154, 181, 189, 196C
NWQ 1932G: B14
2. Pending Projects
EMS W190
NWQ B1
WATER west end project
More information is available at:
http://www4.uwm.edu/pps/Usaa/ASB/asbestos.html
3. Building Inspections. Associate Director of University Safety and
Assurances (US&A) Colleen Murphy announced that she was in the midst of
accompanying a building inspector on a tour of the campus. She said that the
inspector was from Code Enforcement for the City of Milwaukee (instead of
the Milwaukee Fire Department) and that he was very thorough.
4. Engelmann Sewer Project. A lateral sewer pipe outside of Engelmann Hall
collapsed, and that was the source of the flooding problems in the building.
Ms. Murphy noted that the sewer project, which has the water to the building
shut off, would take at least another week.
B. Tuition Reimbursement. At last month’s meeting, FAA Personnel
Representative Linda Woods indicated that the figures on Tuition
Reimbursement usage are included in the Affirmative Action plan. The union
asked for a more specific link to that information, because the figures were not
readily identifiable in the plan.
C. Training and Education Programs. Some of the training requested by the
union has now been scheduled.

Managing Stress in Challenging Times: How to Help
Yourself, How to Help the Ones You Love, and When to Ask
for Help, August 19 presented by Jonathan Kanter, Associate
Professor and Director, UWM Depression Treatment Specialty
Clinic;

Retirement Planning: ETF and UWM Benefits Options,
August 2
https://www4.uwm.edu/employeedev/longview.cfm?eventid=43
565 and August 4
https://www4.uwm.edu/employeedev/longview.cfm?eventid=43
566 , presented by Amy Pamperin of the Department of Human
Resources;

Retirement Planning: Emotional Transition into Retirement
Presentations - 2-Day Series, August 11 and 18,
http://mydevelopment.uwm.edu/longview.cfm?eventid=43785 ,
presented by Theresa Bellone and Sarine Schmidt.
The programs are open to the campus, although the union was invited to
do their own marketing campaign to alert their membership.
The meeting ended at 11:17 a.m.
III.
Cc:
NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, August 16 in 122 Engelmann Hall, 9:00 a.m.
Michael Lovell
Mike Reck
Linda Woods
Sue Weslow
Steve Butzlaff
Colleen Murphy
Dev Venugopalan
Andrew Nelson
Bob Grieshaber
Christy Brown
Johannes Britz
Sherry Goggans
Gail Dukes
Amy Otis Wilborn
Michael Schmit
Kim Wesley
Cathy Kroeger
Erica Paczesny
Amy Pamperin
Karen Massetti Moran Latonya Perryman
Jonathan Kanter
Geoffrey Hurtado
Erica Mendez
Jerry Tarrer
Steve Ellison
Scott Peak
Linda Bettler
Lana Dyer
Deans/Division HeadsPersonnel Reps