September 22, 2011
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Gilbert Johnson
WSEU Local 82
FROM:
Shannon E. Bradbury
UWM Labor Relations Coordinator
RE:
WSEU Labor/Management Minutes for September 20, 2011
WSEU Local 82
Michael Maass (BC)
Gilbert Johnson (AS)
Stan Yasaitis (AS)
Two additional AS employees
UWM
Shannon E. Bradbury
Geoff Hurtado
Colleen Murphy
Kurt Hennemann
The next meeting will be held Tuesday, October 25. Please respond to items from your area
by Friday, October 21.
The meeting began at 9:07 a.m.
I.
NEW BUSINESS
A.
Facility Services Issues. Associate Vice Chancellor. Associate Vice
Chancellor for Facilities Planning & Management Geoff Hurtado attended the
meeting in his capacity as the interim Director of Facility Services (FS). He
explained that the Finance and Administrative Affairs departments that report
to him are Facility Services, Campus Planning, University Safety and
Assurances, and Parking & Transit.
Mr. Hurtado discussed his present plans for FS, including hiring 14 new
custodians, the positions for which will eventually be attached to the
Northwest Quadrant. He is also looking into staffing a second shift and
offering a “fall cleaning” overtime opportunity on a Saturday. He said that he
would ensure more supervisor-staff meetings.
FS Director Search The union inquired about the status of the FS Director
recruitment. Mr. Hurtado responded that a professional search firm is doing
the preliminary recruitment and the Search and Screen Committee will be
meeting in the next few weeks.
Supervisor Training. The union again stressed the need for training
supervisors, saying that they particularly need help in areas like civility and
respect in the workplace, and how to deal appropriately with difficult people.
Investigatory Meetings. The union complained that a day’s advance notice
of an investigatory meeting is too short a time span for the employee in
question to prepare for the meeting, and that people should have more time
from notice to meeting unless it is a bona fide emergency. Mr. Hurtado
suggested that this might be an easy request to grant.
B.
Upcoming Rules and Guidelines. The union again inquired about how the
University will deal with formerly-represented employees after the 2011-13
State of Wisconsin Compensation Plan is adopted by the Legislature. It is
expected that, for situations where there are no existing laws or administrative
code sections, that either the Wisconsin Office of State Employment Relations
(OSER) will create policy for the agencies, or delegate policy making to the
agencies themselves.
The union needs to know soon, how former stewards acting as “personal
representatives” in the discipline or grievance processes will be treated. They
want to know whether they will be allowed to conduct representation on State
time, and whether they will be allowed to use the phone for personal
representative business.
They also urged the employer to quell the rumors being spread about
supposed changes to leave and attendance policies once employees are all
nonrepresented. They say that supervisors are making assumptions
prematurely and spreading fear.
They also asked about the availability of attending union conventions, but the
employer expects that attendance at conferences, conventions and seminars
can and will be handled like any other request for conference attendance.
C.
Labor/Management Meetings. The employer announced that these
monthly Labor/Management meetings would end when the State unions
finally lose their bargaining agent status. The meetings may be reconstituted in
a slightly different format as employee meetings however, because allowing
workers to meet directly with management representatives has served the
University well over the years.
Meetings with the employer will always be on the employer’s time, but
meetings with AFSCME as a professional association may not be.
D.
HRS, AIMS and Unclassified Hiring. An attendee to the meeting stated
that for the most part, unclassified recruitments (faculty, academic staff, ad hoc
instructors, graduate assistants) are handled by clerical staff in the units, and
that the electronic recruitment system is difficult and not intuitive. She stated
that launching a recruitment requires too many forms and documents, and the
web site doesn’t answer her questions. She feels that the clerical employees get
rebuked for using the wrong forms, but that the checklist doesn’t cover
everything one needs to know. She asked why Human Resources itself
couldn’t just do all the recruitment activities itself, but that would require a
huge HR staff.
She said it was doubly hard for anyone who was supposed to act as the
“backup” for launching recruitments because there was no easy way to
practice.
II.
OLD BUSINESS
A. Health & Safety
1. Completed or Ongoing Projects
Chemistry 442
Library EB59
Theatre (40 locations)
WATER 179
2. Pending Projects
Mitchell attic
NWQ 1932F (Honor’s House) B38B
Sandburg West roof
More information is available at:
http://www4.uwm.edu/pps/Safety/Asbestos/index.cfm
3. Automated External Defibrillators. The union asked about the location of
the campus defibrillators, or AEDs. They are purchased by the individual
departments, but the University Police assist in the purchasing, do all the
training and are all trained themselves. There are defibrillators in all the
Police squad cars, as the Police are first responders. The Union would like
this information to be made more generally known.
AEDs are currently in the following locations:
Chemistry Building - First floor next to elevators
Union - Each floor near elevators (5) and at client services desk (1)
Norris Health Center – One in the Charge Nurse office
Klotsche Center - Seven inside complex
Sandburg Halls- One behind main desk
Kenilworth Square - One behind main desk
Cambridge Commons – One behind main desk
Riverview Residence Hall - One behind main desk
Great Lakes WATER Institute- One in ballroom and one on board the
Neeskay
University Police Dept – Eight, in each squad plus one in Police Dept.
(All Officers trained)
Libraries - One behind main desk
B. Blue Collar Staff Morale. The union noted that the implementation of zone
cleaning in FS eliminated some of the pride of ownership the custodians
took in keeping their own assigned areas clean and spotless. They feel this
was a real loss to staff morale.
On a related topic, the union complained about some recent issues related to
civility towards employees. They made reference to a Custodial Services
Program Supervisor in University Housing who allegedly cursed at workers,
and a one in FS that said she was going to whip people into shape. The union
is requesting civility training that employees and supervisors alike could take
together.
The meeting ended at 11:30 a.m.
III.
Cc:
NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, October 25 in 122 Engelmann Hall, 9:00
a.m.
Michael Lovell
Steve Butzlaff
Mike Reck
Colleen Murphy
Linda Woods
Dev Venugopalan
Andrew Nelson
Kurt Hennemann
Peter Rivera Gonzalez Brian Switala
Amy Otis Wilborn
Kim Wesley
Karen Massetti Moran Geoffrey Hurtado
Deans/Division HeadsPersonnel Reps
Bob Grieshaber
Christy Brown
Johannes Britz
Sue Weslow