In regards to the call out issues on the table, I do have a few thoughts. Currently the company uses " discipline" as the tool to use to encourage employees to respond to calls. Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that with fewer employees (due to layoffs) the call out burden will be heavier on everyone. The expectation is for you to answer more calls or face discipline. The following is a list of some of those "wants" the Company has proposed this negotiations.
- No red time. The Company cited too much work for the supervisors as the reason to do away with it. I feel that this would negatively impact the company's ability to equally distribute overtime opportunities.
- Call outs only count from home. Pretty self explanatory. No hold over credit, no prearranged credit. Strictly those 2 am wake up calls.
- Bypassing employees who "may" get into red time. The company does not want to call the number one employee on the list if they may get into rest time. They want to be able to skip you if there is even a remote possibility of getting into rest time.
- Use someone who is already at work, forget the overtime list. This is what they have been trying to do for quite some time now. The issue here is the same as those previously mentioned, how do you equally distribute the overtime?
There are a lot of ways to service the customer but I feel this is not one of them. When the company was asked about compensating employees to be on call, we were told by management that being on call was already figured into your hourly rate. Well now, what was I thinking? That statement was burned into my memory bank and I brought it with me this weekend to a meeting with all of the utility locals in the state. After speaking with our Brothers and Sisters across the state, I have discovered that the statement made was not the facts for most other utilities. Most provide incentives to their employees to answer call outs. In fact, we have one of the least "worker friendly" policies among our peer utilities.
Proposals that concern DCC, Fleet, Meter Reading, Data Collectors and R&D were also opened up for discussion. I look forward to working on these issues as time progresses.
I want to give a big thank you to all of the membership for your work in Texas. I am proud of the work that our Union members did out there and I am sure that the people of Texas appreciate it too. Great job working safe!!
I will provide another update later this wee. I hope that all of you will make it to the meeting Monday, October 6th.
Fraternally,
David B Price
