National Convention 2010

 

September 6-10, 2010, the Council hosted its annual Convention at Bally=s Las Vegas, NV.  I want to thank all those that participated.  The following Locals were recognized by the Council of Prisons Executive Board:  MDC Guaynabo, FDC Miami, FCI Miami, FCC Coleman, FCI Edgefield, FCI Estill, FCI Bennettsville, FCI Williamsburg, FCI Jesup, FCI Atlanta, FCI Marianna, FPC Pensacola, FPC Montgomery, FCI Talladega and FCC  Yazoo, MS all received 70% or better organizational awards for maintaining and/or increasing their union membership.  More important, each individual representative below were recognized by their peers in the Council of Prisons for their dedication and commitment to this organization:

 

Allen Rowe, President L-2585 received the Distinguish Leadership Award

Jose Rojas, President L-506 received the Most Improved Local Award

Clellan Tyson, Chief Steward L-2585 received the Council=s Bob Brantley Award

Paul Chikalla, Secretary-Treasurer L-501 received the Council=s Secretary/Treasurers= Award

Ben Jetter, President L-1145 received the Most Organized Locals= Award

 

Training

 

The Joint Mid-Atlantic and Southeast Regional Caucus has been set. It is currently scheduled the week of June 27 - July 1, 2011 in St. Petersburg, FL. Host location is Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront Hotel located at 333 First Street, Saint Petersburg, FL 33701-4342. (727) 894-5000 or (800) 944-5500 or (800) 445-8667. When you make your reservations state the Group: Council of Prison Locals 33 Regional Caucus. Thank you for your patience. This year at our Caucus, we plan to bring in an Arbitrator to do arbitration=s training.  This will be held in conjunction with the Basic and Advanced Stewards= Training.  I strongly recommend you send folks to the Caucus this year who would like to improve on their advocacy skills.

 

In conclusion, I am presently working with the Regional Director to set up additional LMR training for all leaders in the region.  This training will be for the Local Vice Presidents and Agency LMR Spokespersons.   If resources are available, we also plan to have training in the area of Partnership.  So, continue to check back on the status of these plans.  

 

Policy Negotiations and Policy Writing Committees

 

The following individuals assisted the Council negotiating national policy:  Jodi Thomason, President from FCI Jesup - Employee Health Program Statement in September 2010.  Irene Compton, VP from FCI Tallahassee - DNA Policy Statement in October 2010.  And, Jeff Godwin, VP Marianna - Furlough and Inmate Discipline Program Statements November 2010.  Jay Rivera, Southeast Regional Fair Practices Coordinator MDC Guaynabo, PR, continues on the Policy Writing Committee of the Human Resources Manual.  Robert Swanson, President Edgefield, SC continues on the Policy Writing Committee for Food Service.  And, Jasper Scott, President Estill, SC will start working on the Inmate Property Policy writing Committee. 

 

As I expressed at this last Convention, negotiations of policies and participating on these policy writing forums are a shared responsibility.  All Presidents, Leaders and Union Activists are encouraged to participate in this process.  Please ensure the Local is receiving all national Program Statements from the agency in "draft" format.  More important, ensure these policies are being forwarded to the Union via certified receipt as indicated in Article 3.   Your participation as a subject matter expert on negotiating policy is absolutely essential to the success of our Council.  So, I encourage everyone to partake in and contribute some time to this process.

 

 

National Grievances

 

1) Intruder Grievance - I settled this grievance nationally with Chris Wade back in March 2009.  "Existing procedures for monitoring inmate telephone calls may be reduced to writing, (in an Institutional Supplement).  This excludes MOUs previously negotiated by some Locals.  This was done, in essence, to preclude  managers arbitrarily changing the phone monitoring procedures.  Settlement says also:  When existing procedures for monitoring inmate telephone calls changed, such changes will be negotiated with the Union when required by law, rule, regulations, or the Master Agreement.

 

2) Home Duty and Weapon's Grievance - This national grievance started on November 4th. We have two objectives.  The first is to end "Home Duty" as we know it.  Our second objective is to obtain weapon storage lockers for our members B who are interested in commuting to and from work with their personal firearms.  BOP already permits staff in Guaynabo, PR the right to store their weapons on government property.  We just want the same fair and equitable treatment for all staff.

 

Other Cases (National)

 

1) Less Than Lethal Munitions, is currently under appeal before the FLRA.  Tim Debolt is handling this case out of Lompoc, CA.

2) The issuance of Sick Leave Abuse Letters, was settled by Mike Castelle, NFPC.  All the Sick Leave Abuse Letters from institutions specified in the Agreement should have all these letters extracted from staff files.  FCI Talladega and FDC Miami were listed in the Settlement Agreement.    

3) FLRA Case No. WA-CA-10-0527 involving the Downsizing/Reorganization/Closure and Reduction in Force of several UNICOR Factories throughout the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  Presently, the parties are in on going settlement talks with management.  The Council is requesting all Locals to send in the names of bargaining unit staff who have been negatively impacted to Mike Castelle, NFPC by December 6.  

4) The CPL won the negotiability appeal before the {A}uthority on the Vest storage and the issuance of the stab-resistance vests.  We will be working with the agency to complete these policy negotiations in the coming months.

Recent Arbitrations/ULPs

 

As many of you know, we continue our vigorous fight against untimely discipline in the Southeast Region.  I teach in training that we are not in the business of getting employees out of trouble.  However, we cannot ignore inherent violations of our parties= collective bargaining agreement B especially, when it comes to the timely disposition of investigations and discipline/adverse actions.  Discipline according to our CBA says is supposed to be corrective.  Case law says, AIt is not to be punitive.@  When several years elapses and there is no finality in an investigation or discipline/adverse action, it is our duty to respond promptly.  

 

DOJ, Office of Inspector General (OIG) criticized BOP years ago, in their audit of the BOP discipline system.  Still, today, we are dealing with the same issues.  BOP continues to levy these untimely investigations and discipline against our members.  This has substantially decreased the moral in the Bureau.  Many staff have been denied promotions and other collateral opportunities B some even, denied transfers B because of it.  These untimely actions have lingered over our members= heads for months and years at a time.  As many of you know, I discussed this issue at length with all of you.  I would like the consensus in this region to remain the same B defend our members against all these untimely actions.  Moreover, there are good decisions on "Untimely Discipline" on our CPL website.  The Council has already won decisions at FCI Miami, FL and FCI Tallahassee on this very issue.  Kudos also goes out to FCI Bennettsville, FDC Miami, FCI Marianna, FCI Yazoo and FCC Coleman for having already tackled their untimely disciplines and pre-employment cases. 

 

This past year, I have gotten a total of five (5) employees returned to work in the Southeast Region without having to go to any hearings.  FCI Bennettsville, FCC Coleman, FCI Jesup and FCI Miami are recipients of this Favor.  I want to thank the Southeast Regional Director and Deputy Assistant Director for listening to all the issues in these cases and doing the right thing B bringing these employees back to work.   

 

Attorney Representation  

 

We have had tremendous success in the region adjudicating cases with Attorney Liza Mendoza.  With her help we won untimely discipline decisions in the region; settled a Portal to Portal at FDC Miami; and, at FCI Bennettsville, we got an adverse action overturned (15-days suspension) and collected more than 67K in attorney=s fees. In February, I was able to get AFGE Field Services Department to pick up several cases in the Southeast Region. These cases are at FCI Talladega, FCI Tallahassee, and FCI Miami.  Mark Roth, former GC and Joe Henderson, Asst. GC Field Services has worked with me to provide additional attorneys to us.  This includes people like Gony Freider, Evan Greenstein, Matt Milledge and Stuart Kirsch.  All have assisted me in the region before B and, assisted Locals in arbitrations in one way or another.  Maurice Britt, President at FCI Tallahassee is the most recent beneficiary of one of the attorneys.  He settled his untimely discipline case back in June.  It resulted in an employee being made whole for a disciplinary action and attorney=s fees awarded.  Stuart Kirsch assisted FDC Miami in successfully arbitrating an adverse action. The case involved a seventeen (17) year veteran who was removed for off-duty misconduct.  The adverse action was mitigated and the employee was made whole for lost wages/overtime.  All these cases and decisions are on the website for your review.  Click ACases@ link, then ASoutheast Region.@

 

Robert Swanson settled a couple cases at his Local.  One case, involved an inmate making  ANooses@ and leaving them in minority staff work areas and management doing nothing about it.  The other case involved management=s failure to fix  equipment in the Food Service Department B preventing staff from performing their duties B an Article 29, section e., violation.  More important, Presidents Robert Swanson and Jodi Thomason at FCI Jesup both settled their AClarification of Unit@ challenges pending before FLRA which resulted in all their SIS Technicians being included in the bargaining unit. Kudos goes out to President Dan Ditto on his recent arbitration victory in FCC Yazoo, MS. The arbitrator in his case overturned a disciplinary action because there was no progressive discipline rendered on the Grievant.  The arbitrator ordered the Grievant be made whole and case expunged from his records.   All Locals should review this case.  It is as an excellent example and reaffirms our progressive discipline language in our CBA.  Jay Rivera and I won a case in Guaynabo, PR that overturned a Warden=s decision to not hire additional staff to work in a housing unit B when the population exceeded a certain ratio of inmates.  All this was done to avoid paying overtime.  Although, the case came back in the Union=s favor, the arbitrator didn=t award back pay.  AFGE 5^th District=s Attorney Stuart Kirsch filed the appeal on our behalf at my request.  

 

As you can see, we have handed a lot of business in the SE region this past year.  I continue to get reports of unfair labor practices sustained against the agency locally B for either refusing to notify the Union prior to implementing, failing to negotiate in good faith and/or for denying official time.  FDC Miami settled two ULPs in one week this year on the same subjects, and another subsequently, thereafter that  resulted in lost overtime for repudiating an agreementB  5K.  FCC Coleman, FCI Miami and Bennettsville all have settled unfair labor practices.  A couple of Locals mentioned even settled ULPs on union animus behavior on the part of management officials.  Remember, a victory for one is a victory for all, so share your stories. 

 

Regional Vice President recent Travels

 

In any event, over the course of this past year, I have visited Guaynabo,  FCI Miami, FCI Marianna, FCI Bennettsville, FCC Yazoo, FCI Jesup, FCI Estill and FCI Williamsburg. I also took advantage and performed training at most in my visits. While at the Warden=s Training, I took the time to visit the Local representatives in Atlanta, GA.  I also visited Wendell Scott, President in Talladega.  In May, the Regional Director and I hosted a Joint Wardens and Presidents Training at FCC Coleman.  Subsequently, thereafter I scheduled National LMR there as well, to which Joe Rojas, President and Dan Bethea, Executive V.P. were both guests.  This December=s LMR quarterly will be hosted in Atlanta, GA. President Ben Jetter and/or designee is invited to be the guest.