UTILITY WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA

AFL-CIO, LOCAL 483

EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

January 20, 2007

VALENCIA, CA

Meeting called to order at 9:00 AM

Flag salute: President Dennis Zukowski led the flag salute

Roll Call:

Officers

President, Dennis Zukowski

Vice-President, Roy Bozarth

Secretary-Treasurer, David Brown

Trustees:

Mike Minor

Brain Burdick

Joe Pena

Area Officers:

Bill Kimble

Bruce Cline

Robin Downs

Gary Lerch

Carol Cipolla

Alberto Montano

Tony Arnold

Absent:

John Seward, (Newly elected, but not official sworn-in)

Guests:

Robert Smith

Saul Salomon

Jess Carbajal

Junious Greene

Tony Arnold, from Pico Rivera, was sworn in New Area officer.

Special Order of Business-Playa Del Rey:

The Executive Board first order of business was to hear testimony from Robert Smith, Saul Salmon, Jess Carbajal, and Junious Greene. The four union members from Playa Del Rey, appeared before the Executive Board to express their displeasure with the representation they had received from Gary Lerch, the current Area Officer. Each witness was given ample time to express their displeasure and give example of how Gary failed to live up to his oath of office. After the testimony of the witness, and Gary’s rebuttal, E-Board went into closed door section to discuss what they had heard. A vote was taken from E-Board members. Executive Board felt the witness did not provide any evident of wrong, and voted unanimously leave Gary Lerch in office The Union members were advised a letter would be sent to them, stating the E-board decision.

Secretary-Treasurer report: Reading and approval of the minutes. The minutes from, August 12, 2006 meeting, in Ventura, CA, was e-mailed to all members of the E-Board prior to today meeting. There were no questions or correction to the minutes. Motion was made by Bill Kimble to accept the minutes. The motion was seconded by Brian Burdick. The motion carried.

Financial Update: Secretary-Treasurer handed out the financial reports for the periods ending September 30, 2006, and December 31, 2006. Motion was made by Robin Downs to accept the financial reports. There were no questions or comments on financial statements. The motion was seconded by Roy Bozarth. The motion carried.

Trustee report: Last night, the Trustees audited the books and records for six month period ending December 31, 2006, and issued the following report: “The books and records look good.” Trustees asked questions regarding some of the credit card expense incurred during the Washington conference, and a late fee of $29.00. All questions were satisfactorily answered. The trustees would also like to see all the clearances issued by Dennis. It was suggested, a copies of all clearances should be given to the Secretary Treasurer. Secretary-Treasurer will keep a b binder of all clearances and will reconcile the lost time wages to the clearances. Motion was made by Roy Bozarth to accept Trustees report. Motion was seconded by Gary Lerch. The motion carried.

Report on Inter Union Gas Conference Robin Downs:

Talking to the other unions, it was clear, contracting out is the major issue they all are facing. The thing that impressed me the most was the relationships that are built, with the other unions. We had breakfast with Richard Levins, author of the book, ”Middle Class-Union Made”, and Carl Woods, former CPUC Commissioner. Mr. Levins was a guest speaker at the conference and a gave a impressive speech on how the unions made the middle class of America. Mr. Woods agreed to take us around to meet individual from TURN. Marti Harris is going to hired Carl to handle Local 132 rate case.

Contracting Conference by Roy Bozarth and David Brown:

David: the conference was a mix bag for me. I was glad to see the national final recognize contracting out is a major issue with the Locals. We, as a local, have been fighting contracting out for many years. What I didn’t heard or see and I believe it is a large component in order eliminate contracting, is contract language.

Roy: After the contracting conference meeting, the locals from the Gas Company met with the Mike Langford, President of the National, Samuel Mc Knight, attorney for the National, and presidents from 522, and 132, along with Sam Weinstein and Barney Garcia.

The meeting took place to see if we solve the issues raised by Marti Harris regarding how the Joint Steering Committee votes. Local 132 wants to switch to a per capita voting system instead of the current per rata vote, and wants to start fund to pay for the cost of fighting arbitrations. None of the other locals are interested in changing.

We have scheduled a meeting with National next week in San Clemente. National made it clear, if we can’t fix it, they, would use their power to solve the problem. President Langford asked the locals to come up with a solution. We have scheduled a meeting with National next week in San Clemente.

Transmission Safety Report by Robin Downs:

Cathodic Protection will now be left on during tie-in. Currently there are no written procedures regarding leaving AC current on.

Management was under on the impression that you could operate a crane on private property without certificate. Wrong! You must have a certificate to operator, or have an operator with a certificate standing by.

Management is looking at putting a manual together for all new employees coming into Transmission, to review. The new manual would be at all bases. It would not be a training manual, just an F.Y.I.

Employees have been told not to pull pins on fire extinguishers, during fire watch on tie-in. The new procedure coming out will instruct everyone, the pins on at least two fire extinguishers will be pulled. Speaking of fire watch, employees must be trained in order to perform fire watch on tie-ins.

Union has a right to get information on training of contractors’ employees have received.

Language is becoming a safety issue. Contractors are using more employees who are not proficient in English.

Are you required to notify your supervisor what prescription drugs you are taking? Supervisors have been instructed not to ask employees if they are on prescription drugs.

Mark Amendola was appointed to the Safety Committee.

There is a problem with jobs being started before Lock out Tag Out is complete. OSHA regulations require Lock-out Tag-out to be completed before the work starts.

The minutes from the Safety Action Congress meeting are working their way down. Dennis should receive minutes soon. When he gets the minutes, Dennis will forward then to Robin.

New law on the book: You will need at least a Class “B” license to operate heavy equipment and a Class “A” license to transport heavy equipment.

Storage Safety Report by Roy Bozarth:

Near Miss reports are starting to coming in like they should.

There were three near misses at Goleta.

Storage’s new letter, “The Well Head”, may have to shut down. The new letter is put together by Carol Cipolla. Management is not willing to pay overtime to employees who put news letter together. Most of the work on new letter is done, after work and on days off.

Production valve on Miller 4 well at Goleta unintentionally shut in. An investigation revealed a contractor removed the cover on the electrical box and tied in an extension cord. The cord shorted out tripping the breaker. Without AC to charge the battery, the battery died causing the well to shut. . It was also learned, a supervisor knew the contractor tied into our electrical panel and didn’t do anything it. Management is putting together electrical safety training program.

Old Business:

Secretary-Treasurer wants permission to order 50 XLarge T-shirts. A motion was made to allow Sectary-Treasure to purchase additional T-shirts. The motion was seconded. The Motion carried.

The Union has received the requested 401k information, from the Company. The Company did not find any problems regarding the issues, the Union was raised. Gary Lerch still has all his pay stubs and will put break down on a spread sheet to support his claims.

New Business Dennis Zukowski, President:

We are falling behind in our Grievances. We need a grievance over sight committee to handle all grievances. The amount of work required for the rate case, don’t leave enough time to do other things. I am asking for a motion to set up a grievance committee. The Area Officers will handle the first step grievance. The Oversight Committee to handle all second step hearings. All pending grievance will be review by the Oversight Committee.

Motion to set up grievance committee was made by Roy Bozarth. The motion was seconded by Billie Kimble. The motion carried. Tony Arnold, Roy Bozarth, and David Brown will be the new committee members.

Rate case: March first will the first appearance before the CPUC. A meeting is schedule for February 16, with the Company, to discuss the up coming rate case.

Labor charge was filed over physical activity test. Union met with Sue Bosworth, Labor Relations Manager. She stated, “We are not charging anything, we are just looking at jobs.”

The National Constitutional Convention will take place in Cincinnati Ohio beginning June 27, 2007.

FYI, the use of recorders during Executive Board Meeting is not allowed. Also, it is against the law to secretly record someone without they knowledge and permission.

Question: If two individuals put in a bid for the same job, one employee is in the line of progression and has twelve years seniority and the other employee has thirty years and not in the line of progression, who get job? The CBA states the individual in the line of progression will get the job over someone bidding from out side the progression.

Area Reports:

Blythe: Contractor doing warrant work at the station.

Blythe station is back online.

Taft: Lots of individual looking to retire.

Employee injured his knees by move away from snake. D.M.S., Disability Management Service, turn him down for MRI. Employee did to therapy. Therapy didn’t help, in fact, it made the problem worse. Employee is schedule f or surgery in six to eight seeks

Pipeline Technician’s bid was rejected because he is in heavy job and he bided for a medium job

Rich Gonzales is retired.

Pico Rivera: There has been a management change.

The move from Olympic Base to Pico Rivera is permanent. Someone from Labor Relations will be coming out to talk about travel time.

Management wants to have some of the employee job site report. If the job reporting is put into practice, when does start time begins? What about over time for exceeding normal drive time and excess mileage?

Valencia: In our last Shop Committee, we requested 10 hrs work days. The decision on the ten hours days was put off until February.

Employee can’t park his truck at his house because of CC&R employee is looking for alternative location to park his truck.

Honor Ranch: Employee was harassed by his supervision. Employee took notes on each occasion he felt he was harassed. After mine months went to supervisor

Thompson Contracting Company is doing a lot contracting at Honor Ranch.

Beaumont: New fresh air packs training coming.

Newberry Springs: Everything okay. I have been to Instrument Specialist training New instructor, at training, is down to earth. He’s a very good instructor.

We had our Safety Stand Down. Dave Taylor was there.

Next Meeting: April, at Laughlin, Nevada

Motion to adjourn was made Billie Kimble. The motion was seconded by Joe Pena.

Motion carried.

Meeting adjourned at 2:50 pm