SEIU General Chapter Meeting

May 9, 2019

1. 6pm Call to Order. a. Welcome and introductions given b. Tina reminding us to invite our co-workers to participate in the meetings. Either by Zoom or in person. c. Review and approval of minutes for 4/11/19 meeting is delayed to the next months meeting.

2. Presidents Update: The contract extension was approved by at least 80% of the membership. There is a new Executive Board. They will be hosting a meet and greet at 100 Oak St. on Wednesday June 12th for the membership to come and talk to. There will be food and music. The fall labor classes at Laney College will be History of Labor and Organizing your Workplace. The classes are good and very informative. We need our members to get to know the MOU and how to look information they need to contract questions. There was a NEO ( new employee orientation) today. Not on it’s normal schedule. There were 20 new employees and all signed up to be union members. And all signed up for COPE ( committee on political education).

3. Two new Stewards were sworn in tonight. Claudia Topete and Calista Brooks. Both are ACSO at Santa Rita. Both reading the Steward Pledge. After the pledge Tina gave them the steward pin and seiu cups. We will be having a meet and confer on May 16 for the Sheriffs dept. Sheriff Ahern has announced that Glen Dyer Jail will close to save money. This will impact 45 members total. Everyone will be moved over to Santa Rita Jail. 32 of the 45 members have never been trained to work at Santa Rita. The last formal training was back in 2002. Blake Huntsmen will set the meet and confer team to discuss these issue with management. The inmates have already started the shifted over to Santa Rita.

4. COPE: Oakland City Council is holding a series of Town Hall meetings for each of the council’s district’s. It started on May 8th and will continue until May 18th. The first one was for District 4 Redwood Heights. On Thursday May 9 from 6:30 – 8:30. District 7 Oakland Zoo Zimmerman Auditorium. On Saturday May 11 from 10am – 12pm District 6 at the Rainbow Recreation Center 5800 International Blvd. On Saturday May 11 from 2pm- 4pm District 5 Fruitvale Senior Center. On Thursday May 16 from 6pm-8pm District 2 at the Lincoln Recreation Center and on Saturday May 18 from 10am-12pm District 1 at the North Oakland Senior Center. Tina has not been able to go to the COPE meeting due to taking classes. She is asking for a volunteer to go in her place. If no one volunteers, she will appoint a member.

5. Elections Committee Update: Tina Tapia will be General Chapter President again. Susan Lumpkin will be Secretary and Treasurer. We will have some money for the treasury some time in the future. Everyone on the ballet was an incumbent.

6. Staff Update: Angela-Having several meet and confers happening at the Library, GSA, ACDSS. Zone 7 in salary negotiations. They did not get the contract extension that the rest of the membership got. They are paid by the Water District and not from the County. Angela is excited about the new stewards. Everyone should know their own rights and take the steward classes for their own knowledge. They do not have to be a steward if they are not interested.

7. Open Discussion: Member Judy had to join the union on her own. Her position in the County Council did not offer her the choice of joining the union at time of hire because her position was listed as confidential. She had to go to the union several times for help in order to clear up issues at her work place. They were not given MOU’s when hired. She had wanted to get moved to a different division but was ignored for several years. She was told that she did not have the seniority. But was also told that seniority had nothing to do with not being moved. She went to the union. A meet and confer was arranged and set. County council had sent their top person to the meeting. The outcome of the meeting was that she was able to get moved to a new division. -The gardeners were told to clean up the homeless encampments by their supervisors. There were needles, human waste, etc.for the last 5 years. They were provided not hazmat suits for protection. -If a worker has had no evaluations in their personnel file that is not always a good thing. Evaluations help show if the worker is doing good or not. If an issue arises this can help to show that they worker was in good standing before. -Can you have someone with you in a meeting if it is not a disciplinary meeting? This was asked by a member. She had a meeting with her manager and they learned that she was exploring other job options for future planning. The manager offered to change her schedule and said some things that made her feel a little uncomfortable. Angela said you can stop a meeting. Tell them that you are uncomfortable with how this discussion is going. -Another member brought up about bereavement leave time minutes. She was told by HR that her leave time had elapsed even though she still had several hours left to use. It does not say in the MOU that you only have so many months to use this time. She was told that it was in the Admin Code. The MOU should overrule the Admin Code.

7:03 Meeting adjourned

In Attendance: Tina Tapia General Chapter President, Angela Osayande SEIU Rep. Susan Lumpkin General Chapter Secretary and Treasurer. Phillip Brown Chief Shop Steward, Elizabeth Raphael, Barbara Hamze, Claudia Topete, Calista Brooks, Mike Rana, Agnes Wu, Judy Martinez, Alexandria Gutierrez, Celina Guerra-Martinez, Sergio Mendoza