Council of Prison Locals "33"

UPDATE OF COUNCIL ACTIVITIES

OCTOBER 15, 2001

It has been a little more than a month since the Council Convention.

Many issues were discussed and the new officers installed. I would first like to congratulate the new E-board members on their elections. I look forward to serving with you the next two years. I would also like to thank the officers leaving service to our union.

Your Elected Officers are:

Phil Glover, President, FCI Loretto

Sherry Everhart, Secretary/Treasurer, FCI Ashland

Dan Bethea, SERVP, FCC Coleman

Manny Borquez, WRVP, FCI Sheridan

Aubrey Francis, NCRVP, USP Marion

Bryan Lowry, SCRVP, FCI Forrest City

Ben Monagan, NERVP, FCI Danbury

Ron Rubottom, MARVP, FCI Morgantown

Thank you to the outgoing officers:

Dennis Biesik, NERVP

Allen Green, SERVP

Larry Raney, NCRVP

Jim Turner, Secretary/Treasurer

As we took office and worked on the changeover of officers the September 11^th tragedy hit us. It is obviously the most terrible event in this country’s long history.

The Council of Prison Locals salutes our members in MCC New York, who were three blocks from the disaster for standing their posts, operating their prisons in a professional manner under extreme pressure. We also must say that MDC Brooklyn members were also courageous in continuing to provide their community with a safe environment. Our members showed why professional, trained, Federal Law-Enforcement Employees should operate our nation’s prisons. We salute you all.

MASTER AGREEMENT

The Executive Board has agreed on the final ground rule proposal

that was holding up negotiation of the new Master Agreement. The new negotiations committee will be meeting at the end of November to put our proposals together.

VACATING OF POSTS

Our National Vacating of Posts grievance is moving forward. An

Arbitration panel has been requested from FMCS. The E-board decided to have Dan Bethea, SERVP and Bryan Lowry, SCRVP handle the case, as both of them prevailed at the local level on this issue.

HEALTHCARE INITIATIVE

The delegates at the convention raised the issue of healthcare costs. As a

result, the Council will be working on a post card campaign similar to the one we did against prison privatization. I have already started discussions with AFGE on it. They will help with layout, message and cost. Meetings are planned to put it all together and get it out to the field.

POLICY NEGOTIATIONS

We are working on some new ways to handle policy negotiations at the

National level. This will help the E-board when we focus on the Master Agreement. Our idea is to put teams together for different program areas, led by an E-board member or members as the chair. This will get more subject matter experts on the teams and hopefully will result in better working conditions for our members. Please get with your Local President and have him or her contact the Regional Vice President with your names.

LEGISLATIVE ISSUES

Federal Prison Industries is again under attack. This time, Senator Carl

Levin, (D-MI) has added an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill to eliminate mandatory source in D.O.D. contracting. There have been some modifications, however, it still impacts us. It also gives no new authority to find work for inmates, thus decreasing safety in our workplace. It is a shame that in five years of not being able to pass this type of legislation, the current tragedy is capitalized on to push it through the Senate. We ask you to contact members of the House of Representatives who are on the Armed Services Committee or Judiciary Committee and ask them to get this provision out of the final bill.

A Healthcare bill has been introduced, HR 1307, which if passed would pay 80 percent of health care costs for Federal Employees. This bill needs focused on because of OPM’s agreement with a 13.7 percent increase in our healthcare premiums this year. A 4.6 percent or less raise mean’s nothing when you can’t afford to pay for your healthcare or the plans we are paying for are changed to provide less benefits.

AFGE NATIONAL ELECTIONS

As many of you know last year’s election for the National Secretary/Treasurer position was challenged. Department of Labor called for new elections for that office. This was held on October 13, 2001. Candidates were Jim Davis, current Sec/Treas., Rita Mason, former Sec/Treas. and David Schlien, NVP, 14^th District. The first ballot placed Jim Davis and Rita Mason in a run off election, the second ballot was won by Jim Davis who again was elected as the National Secretary Treasurer. We look forward to working with Jim for the next two years of his term.

meeting local union e-boards, members and handling issues. I have asked that office holders who have been in place for more than a term scale back on their travel so our new officers can get to the locals in their regions. This will help keep our budget in line and serve our new officers and their regions. This does not mean all travel is stopped, only that we must be aware of costs to stay within the budget the delegates gave us.

In closing, I hope this gives you an idea of things the new E-board is focused on. We are working together to make sure the membership is represented in the best possible manner.