UTILITY WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA

AFL-CIO, LOCAL 483

EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

April 16, 2005

The Hyatt

 Valencia, California

 

Meeting called to order at 9:10 by President Dennis Zukowski.

Flag salute immediately following.

 

Roll Call:                   

 

            Officers:                       Dennis Zukowski-President

                                                Roy Bozarth-Vice President

                                                Lisa Guidry-Secretary-Treasurer

 

            Trustees:                       Erhard Hofmann

                                                Michael Minor

                                                Brian Burdick

 

            Area Officers:               Bill Kimble

                                                James Simeon

                                                Robin Downs

                                                Bruce Cline

                                                Dave Brown

                                                Gary Lerch

 

1.      Gary Lerch was sworn in as Area Officer from Playa Del Rey.

 

2.      Secretary-Treasurers report:  I did not have much to report except that our per-capita dues are current.  The trustees have requested that we remain current each month.  Also, as a result of having to pay less in the category of loss time wages and in the area of legal fees the local’s funds are on the rebound.  Motion to accept Secretary-Treasurers report made by Erhard-1/Roy-2.

 

Reading and Approval of minutes:  Minutes accepted.  I did not capture who made and seconded the motion.

 

 

3.      Trustees Report:  Mike Minor requested that we donate to charity electronic devices over 5 years old.  The equipment should be given to the trustees and they will give the receipts to the Secretary-Treasurer for record keeping.  During the last audit in February 2005, three quarters were done at one time due to a previous oversight pertaining to bill payment through our bank.  Trustees found one under-paid voucher issued to Dennis.  There was also an error on the semi-annual report which was noted 3 cont’d- and corrected during audit.  Trustees are requesting that credit cards be paid in full each month.  Motion to accept Trustees report made by Bill-1/Roy-2.

 

 

4.      Pipeline Safety Report-Robin Downs:  Robin reports that hitting stationary objects is a rising problem.  The safety congress is taking place next month, more statistics will follow.  He is looking into having Keiko from Field Ergonomics, visit bases to show proper stretching techniques.  Line 324 with a 12” by-pass tied to supply had to dig 45’ to find support and was not successful.  A supervisor injured his calf while coming out of a confined space.  Heavy rainfalls created mud slides which made roads inaccessible.  There is a Newhall producer site where roads are in danger of being completely wiped out.

 

5.      Pipeline Safety Report-Roy Bozarth: Nothing to report.

 

6.      Old Business:  Grievance headed for arbitration, August 19th with Douglas Collins.  The Goleta pipeline crew was waiting to perform work on Wells Site.  The work was contracted out after it had been scheduled for three weeks.

 

Old Business:  Union merger talks:  Dennis made it clear that he is not interested in future talks regarding the merger because the National and local 132 have considered insisted on including local 246.  Sam Weinstein from the National offered to create another full time position in the “merged” union and suggested Local 483 would get Dennis one of the top three positions if he Dennis remains on board with the idea.  Nevertheless, the talks will proceed without local 483 and local 522.  The memorandum of understanding from previous talks has been ignored completely.  Dennis is requesting that the   The executive board revoked his ability to further discuss merger talks, without first receiving the e-boards approval.   Motion made to accept Dennis’ request made by Mike-1/Dave-2.

The Executive Board approved a motion made by Mike and seconded by Dave to require Dennis to receive Executive Board approval to engage in any further merger talks.

Old Business:  Olympic Base update:  The Olympic base operations have been relocated to Pico Rivera.  There is nothing further to report.

 

7.      New Business:  T-shirts and caps for members?  Dennis wants to look into ordering t-shirts and caps for members.  There were some suggestions on colors, designs and styles.  Art Thomas said he would get some names of other vendors.  King Louie has been used in the past.  We will continue to look into this.  Motion made by Art-1/Billy-2.

 

 

New Business:  Region Conference:  The 5th Regional Conference is coming up in May.  Trustees and Secretary-Treasurer will attend the first day for the financial training that will be provided.  Lisa, Mike and Brian will attend.  Lisa will handle making hotel reservations and clearances.  Motion to send the above mentioned individuals to the conference was made by Billy-1/Erhard-2.

 

New Business:  Organizing Training:  Utility Workers Union is conducting training for “Organizing”.  The National, the Local and the Employee are responsible for 1/3 each of employee’s salary.  Roy was interested in going and is willing to utilize his own vacation time.  Motion made by Dave to have union cover any outside expenses incurred on the trip for each volunteer.  Second by Billy.  Motion made to send Roy and for the union to pay the employees portion of salary, Robin-1/Gary-2. 

 

New Business:  Inter Union Gas Workers Conference:  No Interest.

 

 

8.      Open Topics:  Dennis passed out a list of contractors that are op-qualed and a list of covered tasks which requires that someone be op-qualed to perform the job.

 

There are 25 backlogged grievances & arbitrations.  Roy and Dennis met with Labor Relations; some were too old to re-call any specifics so they were dismissed. We will try to mediate the ones that are for discipline and the ones for contracting out work will remain on the path to arbitration.

 

Robin does not feel comfortable being the area officer for Honor Rancho because he feels there has been a wall built between Transmission and Storage.  He said there were no volunteers for area officer; however, Carol Cipolla said she would perform the job of area officer if no one else takes it.  Dennis said we would hold an election to get someone from Honor Rancho to become area officer.  This facility is very important and it would benefit us greatly to have an officer present at the location.  Roy said he would assume all responsibilities at Honor Rancho.  Motion to relieve Robin of area officer duties at Honor Rancho made by Lisa-1/Billy-2.

 

Dennis will be on vacation May 6th through 17th.

 

There has been no further movement on Jim McCluskeys grievance.  Contractors performing CP work.

 

Pipeline Technicians are attending training for Cathodic Protection; we want to know how they are being selected.  Dennis submitted an information request, no response yet. 

 

Fresh air training questionnaires, Dave Brown suggest mailing the questionnaires with return envelopes instead of having them fax it in which is the current method of response.  The union did not agree to handle the questionnaires via fax.  We can’t be sure who is receiving the information once the fax is sent in.  Are they being placed in the right persons hands.  Dennis will check with the Work Care group on handling the process differently. 

 

GC Training for Senior Instrument Specialists and Instrument Specialists, however the seniors do not have to perform the routine work.  SCADA training is currently done at Gas Control; they are no longer going to the bases.

 

Crane certifications:  Management will no longer ask people for their test results.

 

9.      Area Officer Reports:  Aliso Canyon:  has a project for flushing out and demolishing to be done by the work group and not contracted out.  No one is interested in being a shop steward at Aliso.

 

10.  Area Officer Reports: Newberry Springs:  Shop committees have been started        again.  They’ve been able to run one contractor off the property.

 

11.  Next meeting time and place: July 30th here at the same place and time. Motion to have the meeting here again made by Roy-1/Billy-2.

 

12.   Adjourn: Motion to Adjourn at 2:24pm made by Erhard-1/Billy-2.