Dear Friends,
Some of you may have read recent emails from a member that questions the actions of LCCEF leadership. This is the third time in recent weeks a message was sent to members about these issues and we will seek to address them below. We invite you to address questions that you may have directly with LCCEF leadership.
Please consider the logic in such unsubstantiated claims. If current Union Leaders, as Classified Employees, were to act with no regard to the cares and needs of the Classified Unit then we would be harming ourselves. In short, there’s no logic in that idea.
Unfair Labor Practice (ULPs)
The former ULP was not upheld because there was no evidence to substantiate it. We agreed we should have been better at communicating and we agreed to announce that on the Union website. For the first few months Lisa filled the interim manager position we left her on our website listed as COPE Chair (on hiatus). We also announced her on hiatus status at a General Membership Meeting and attempted to recruit a temporary replacement. A second part of the ULP pre-hearing agreement was to remove her from the website entirely, which we did. These solutions were agreed to by both parties.
Mr. Baldwin asked to be reimbursed for his $300 ULP filing fee. We refused as we felt the only point that held merit was that we could have done a better job of communicating to our Members. If Mr. Baldwin is convinced he had a case against us we believe he would have pursued it. It is unclear why he continues to bring it up as if the ULP was substantiated when it was not.
We received notice of a new ULP just before the holiday break in 2018. Mr. Baldwin publicly shared details regarding a former member’s discipline, which we consider a breach of confidentiality as this case began when Mr. Baldwin was still LCCEF President. We will not discuss the details except to state that this case has a lot of history prior to the current Executive Council term which began January 1, 2018. We represented this employee, we had the full support and assistance of AFT-Oregon and we believe this ULP is also without merit.
Bargaining
All bargaining sessions, past and future, are open. Any member can attend and nothing is kept secret from the membership. In addition we involved 10 members in the process who were not officers. We believe that is a very new development. Information regarding COLA and steps was posted using Additional Documentation at the bottom of the Bargaining page from last spring. We also invite you to read the most recent Internal Monitoring report which shows the COLA and wage adjustments for all 3 groups, Classified, Faculty and Managers.
LCCEF Leaders Becoming Managers
We have addressed this several times. To be clear, Lisa Rupp is interim manager for Public Safety. A hiring process has been active for the Director of Public Safety for months now. Lisa has had ample opportunity to apply but has stated she does not want the management position. She has not been serving as a Union Officer and has no access to LCCEF email or LCCEF internal documents. We are suffering without her help. (If you would like to contribute to your union by filling the now vacant COPE Chair position, contact any LCCEF Officer.)
Pat Griffin was hired into his new position as Programming Manager through a competitive search process up against stiff competition. It was not a positive thing for LCCEF Leadership to lose him but we think he will make a fine manager.
General Membership Meetings (GMMs)
We learned through AFT-Oregon that our local was holding far more GMMs than any other local. Since organizing and holding these meetings takes a great deal of energy and planning we are choosing to use our website and weekly communications to provide you with more timely information than we could through either monthly or quarterly meetings.
We will continue to request that questions during GMMs be held until the end of the presentation. Our rationale is that questions asked early on will likely be answered if we can get through the entire presentation. If time runs out before all questions can be answered during the meeting, note cards will be available on each table to submit your question to union leadership to be answered through the union website as soon as possible.
As for election “shenanigans” and “cover ups” … What shenanigans? What cover ups? This is clearly an implication of something devious and secretive creating doubt and distrust. Nothing has been substantiated. After the election several candidates and members (8 total) sent a letter of complaint about the election process to AFT-National. The Elections Committee held an investigation into the issues, and concluded that we need to rewrite our election policies and procedures for clarity within our Constitution and ByLaws. The Constitution Committee have been working on that project since August 2018. The Elections Committee filed their findings with LCCEF and this can be viewed by members on request.
What has the current leadership done in the last 2 year?
This team has only been in office for 1 year, having begun serving on January 1, 2018. In that time a few of our efforts include:
- organized and held several membership drives
- recruited 153 new members
- participated in the Member Organizing Institute (MOI)
- participated in trainings, winter school, and conferences
- recruited over 50 members for various committees and work who are not officers
- 17 members actively involved during bargaining 2018, 10 who were not officers
- insurance extended for 15 months instead of 12
- worked on over 100 labor issues, resolving 63% of them, 37% are still active
- created a google team drive as a repository for internal LCCEF docs to pass onto the next leaders
- began rewriting our 47 year old Constitution and Bylaws
- invigorated the use of the Transfer list, moving 13 members to new positions
- Created a weekly newsletter that includes up to date information about our union, member benefits, contract education, our union by the numbers, current events and more
- a searchable website as the repository of all Union related information
- work on contract language impacted by Janus
- work on assessing and redesigning the College Governance System
- work on Classification and Compensation Study
- achieved a consensus college annual budget for 2018/2019
- work begun on the college annual budget for 2019/2020
- held an Officer retreat to plan for 2019 in December, 2018
Questions that come up frequently are; why does Mr. Baldwin continue his defamation of LCCEF Leadership? What does he want to accomplish? We don’t know.
We did invite Mr. Baldwin to work with us on 4 separate occasions, but been refused. It does seem very strange behavior coming from a past president. If his efforts are truly attempts to discredit the current Union Leadership, then success of those efforts might show up as disbandment of our Union. Because divisiveness is destructive to all Unions. The essence of the word Union is Unity, not division.
We, your Union Leaders, will continue investing our energy and our personal time on your behalf despite slander, libel, and efforts to discredit us. We invite you to ask us anything, and better still, join us in the efforts to make Lane a great place to work. We believe in YOU. That’s why we do this.