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Win at Shelton CSO

After the job action at noon on April 9th to urge the Legislators to fund our health care, a CSC supervisor decided that her workers were lobbying on government time on government property. She requested that they fill out a form reporting this action to management.

We were on our lunch hour and actually on McDonald's property, with the building between us and the CSO. Not on even leased state property!!

The quick action of shop steward, Shelly Anderson (kudos!), nipped this right in the bud. She texted me quickly, knowing I was in a meeting with the top brass of DSHS and the Union (See 'HRSA saved' article).

WFSE Vice President Sue Hendrickson stopped that meeting and said "We have a situation going on right now at the Shelton CSO" and explained what was happening. Glen Christopherson, director of HR said "That's not right." and immediatly turned to Teri Beck of LRO and told her to take care of the issue as soon as we were done with this meeting.

WOW! Did it get taken care of!! The supervisor was called by her District Administrator, then she also called the worker and apologized stating the supervisor "didn't understand the form". End of that game!

The Green Machine in action! Do NOT be afraid to report retaliatory action or inappropriate requests. WE HAVE A VOICE!! Use it! Upper management has never been so open to direct line communication than they are at this time. They have acknowledged that WE are their subject experts and want to pool our knowledge to create an even better delivery system. We all know there are problems but they can be fixed with your input!

Speak up, my brothers and sisters! Speak up!!

Meeting with Management Scheduled for Jan 28th

Management has agreed to meet with the WFSE CSD leadership group on January 28th, 2010. We need your offices statistics on production, errors, problems, what's working, what's not working and we need your input as soon as possible. Thank you. If you are not comfortable with posting here, please click on one of the moderators names and e-mail us. This is your opportunity to make a difference and mold the future of CSD.

Cost Saving Ideas for Sec Dreyfus

Secretary Drefus is looking for cost savings ideas from the floor. That's YOU! She wants to hear from line staff what ideas you have to save the Department money. We are looking at additional layoffs so any ideas you have from saving a dollar to saving a billion, let's hear them.

As this is not a duty specific blog, I have put it in the break room cuz where do we do most of our brainstorming? On break, just jawing with each other.

Please let us know your name and location so we can contact you if we need further information. Thank you!

Great UMCC meeting today 12/10

Your leadership team for all of DSHS met with all the directors of the different divisions today and Secretary Dreyfus. The budget was discussed (oh, scary) and different ad hoc committees. One thing that I heard loud and clear from Secretary Dreyfus is she wants to hear from US. She wants our input on cost savings ideas and participation in change processing. So, all you idea people and happy bloggers, please post your ideas and thoughts on changes.

Also, an agreement was signed today for the creation of the ad hoc committee on the SDR and call center issues... we need to hear from you so we can take your input to management!!

TYPE ON!!!

Advice for if you are falling behind

The following is an excerpt from my local's flyer about what you should do if you are overwhelmed at work with your job duties. Considering the nature of this blog, I thought I'd repost it here for the viewing of all. For those of you who are shop stewards, please add comments, even if you disagree, clarifying the finer points of staying out of trouble--

What do you do when your employer, either by "reorganizing" your work place or simply by not hiring enough coworkers, gives you more work than you can accomplish? How should you act to protect yourself?

1.) Follow the plan at your work site- The union can protect you from getting into trouble for falling behind, as I will explain below, but we cannot protect you from getting in trouble for refusing to do what you are supposed to do. Just because you disagree with your orders, it does not mean that you can decline to follow them.

2.) Realize that you are not responsible for the entire system- You do not have to stress yourself out, work unpaid overtime, take work home, or hurt yourself in any way. You owe your employer 40 hours of solid effort each week; no more, no less.

3.) You have the contractual right to two 15 min breaks per day- If you are not getting the chance to take a breather, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, then the union can represent you and make sure that you do. Asking employee's to skip breaks is a serious violation of our contract. Speak to a shop steward or contact the union field office if this is happening to you.

4.) Use email to tell your supervisor why you do not have enough time to complete all your assignments- Most employee's who are falling behind are scared to admit it, when really the opposite strategy best protects you from discipline. There are two reasons for this. First, you are less likely to be disciplined if you are a good employee, and good employees give feedback. Secondly, we want to be able to challenge any discipline later taken against you by pointing out that you had already determined that there was a problem and asked for help. By using email, you automatically make a record of your request.

5.) Use email to ask for help in prioritizing what work you should do first- Just like with #4 above, this protects you by making a record of your request for the guidance necessary to avoid problems. You deserve a good answer from your management on this point, since it should be part of their planning anyway.

6.) Get representation if your management wants to meet with you about falling behind- Chances are that if your have followed #1 through #5 this will not happen, but if it does, then you have a right to representation. Your right to representation in a meeting with your management starts when you feel that you may be the subject of discipline in the future. They cannot deny you this representation, and they must take reasonable steps to work out scheduling conflicts with shop stewards. Once again, use email to make a record of your request for time to contact a shop steward, and then contact your local field office and ask for help.

Help us give the blog a name.

Okay, one of the fun things about putting our CSD Blog together (for me) was thinking of what to call it. We deserve to have a cool name. It is, after all, OUR Blog.... So, coming soon, we will have a Name the CSD Blog contest-with a real prize that is not limited to--hey, we won't even include--a DSHS box of pens from the CSD supplies cupboard!!! Hoo-Freakin-Rah!

Better give it some thought, I have a jump on you, I have three pages of ideas...some are pretty sickish type wrong, others are pretty silly but some, well, you will want to begin brainstorming now.