SEIU Local 2000

home | on the job | public | state

Probation & Parole

Probation & Parole Officers

Greivance Form | Become a member!

Here's a new post for September 22.

Ted Kayser has been appointed as director of the Public Sector.

Profile:
Ted was a 20 + year member of the United Auto Workers. Although Ted worked full time he managed to graduate with honors from Washington University St. Louis MO.

Ted is ubiquitous in the labor movement and a fierce fighter for working families.
His long labor resume includes: Currently on the Executive Board of the North County Labor Club. Former Vice President of UAW Local 2250. Ted is extremely intelligent and always knows which way the wind is blowing.

(314) 533-3633 ext 13 - St. Louis Office

Currently, there are contract ratification elections being held across the state.

Click here for 2005 tentative contract.

Click here for our 2003 contract.

Posted July 25, 2005

Dear state employee stewards and members:

Hello to everyone from Megan Peterson, your union representative! I know it has been about a month since we last sent out a written update, although a newsletter has come out since then, so I thought I would give you a comprehensive update on what has been going on. There has been a lot going on, so I am going to break this down for you in a series of categories:

Negotiations
In regards to contract negotiations, the new agreement is almost finished. Thanks to the hard work of Karen Ferguson, Abby McAdams, and Phoebe Ottomeyer, we have negotiated an agreement that is very similar to the one we had originally, with relatively little loss of rights. We are finished with every article of the agreement except for discipline and discharge, health and safety, and grievance procedure. Our next negotiating session is Thursday, August 4.

While the discipline and discharge article is very similar to what was in the original agreement, the health and safety article is not. Essentially, the counter proposal we received had just about everything in the article removed, including the firearms training that we won back through the grievance process last year. We will be presenting them a counter proposal on health and safety that would restore and improve upon the rights that were guaranteed in the former agreement. The state has continued to stall on giving us a counter proposal on the grievance process.

We know at this point that they will not agree to third party binding arbitration being restored to the agreement. However, considering that all of our grievances but one has been resolved without the need for arbitration, our primary concern is preserving the other steps in the grievance process. Until the state is prepared to offer us a counter offer on this issue, we will not be able to make further progress.

Lawsuits
On the lawsuit front, we had a hearing on June 15 regarding the lawsuit on probation and parole pay. After a lengthy (as they always are) discovery phase, we were all excited about this hearing. The purpose of the hearing was to consider two motions-a motion by the state to dismiss our lawsuit prior to going to trial, and a motion by the union for a ruling in our favor before going to trial. These types of motions are typically filed after the discovery phase in a lawsuit. We did have members present, so here is a blow by blow account of what took place in the hearing:

The judge asked both attorneys (Greg Campbell, representing us, and the Attorney General's office, representing the state) about a pay raise that was given to the Highway Patrol this year (remember the $3000 they got?) and if the Highway Patrol had also received the $1200 cost of living raise that everyone else got last year (remember, the state is trying to argue that you all did not deserve the raise because we had negotiated you a previous raise). The Attorney General's office SAID THEY DID NOT KNOW. When our attorney was asked the same question, he stated that they did indeed receive both an increase in pay as well as the $1200 cost of living adjustment in question.

The Attorney General's office then indicated that there was not enough money to fund a cost of living adjustment for the probation officers last year. The judge asked the AG the amount of money that would have been needed to give the COLA to the PO's and the AG's office stated that THERE WAS NOT AN EXACT FIGURE THAT THEY COULD GIVE THE JUDGE AS NO CALCULATIONS HAD BEEN PERFORMED.

There was testimony offered by our side that indicated that eight other classes of employees had been repositioned prior to the COLA being voted in that had not been denied the COLA like the PO's were. Mr. Campbell pointed out that an Office of Administration employee testified in a deposition that there were 52 pages of employees that had received some type of repositioning pay that had not been denied the COLA. Mr. Campbell indicated that the evidence shows employees are given the COLA regardless of the pay increases they had received over the previous year and stated that it is our belief that the PO's were denied the COLA because of their union affiliation.

The same Office of Administration employee gave a deposition regarding testimony that he had to give before a legislative committee regarding the repositioning of PO's. Mr. Campbell stated that the employee testified he had never been questioned in this manner in the past regarding a raise and that it was highly unusual. The employee was asked by the committee if DOC had the authorization to give the PO's a raise and if they had the proper authority to do so. The employee stated that they did have the authority to do so.

There was additional evidence presented regarding letters sent back and forth on the issue by various state representatives. The judge complimented Mr. Campbell at least once in the hearing. We are now waiting on a ruling on the two motions before the judge.

In regards to the declaratory judgment action we had intended to file regarding collective bargaining, we are holding that option in abeyance right now. There is a similar case that is before the Missouri Supreme Court right now that was filed by the National Education Association that, if won, could result in state employees having the right to collective bargaining restored to them. We are currently waiting to see if the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case. If they do not, we may file a lawsuit on the same issues and see what we can get done with it.

Staffing
A lot of changes have been going on with our staffing at Local 2000 that I need to make you aware of. As many of you undoubtedly have read in our newsletter, Grant has decided to take a permanent position with SEIU International working in London, England, although he plans to return in 2008 to work on the gubernatorial and presidential elections. As a result, Barbara Black, our vice president, has stepped into the role of acting president in Grant's absence. We will be having an election in November for all of our officer positions (President, two Vice Presidents, and Secretary/Treasurer). You should be receiving an announcement about that election sometime soon.

It is also my unfortunate duty to notify you that Mike Dalton has resigned as Director of the Public Sector for SEIU Local 2000. Mike has been a warrior for the state employees in the years that he helped to build this movement, and we are all going to miss his leadership and vision. Currently, I am acting as the Director of the Public Sector. Also, Laura Egerdal has left us as well to return to college to finish her degree. She is very sorry to have to leave at this time, but she took a leave of absence from college to work with us, and if she does not go back by the end of the summer, she will lose all of her scholarship money. We certainly don't want THAT to happen!! I wish both of them all of the best in their future plans.

We have hired two new union representatives who started employment with us last week. Our new hire in St. Louis is Kerry Chaplin. Kerry has worked with the local before through the ACT program, and we are happy to have her on board. She can be reached at the St. Louis office at (314) 533-3633. Our other new employee based in Kansas City is Sterling Brown. Sterling has worked with us before as a Hero during the 2004 elections and has agreed to work for us on a permanent basis. He can be reached at the Kansas City office at (866) 859-0007.

In the meantime, should you need an update, or if you are having a problem you need help with, please call me at my toll-free number at (866) 859-0007, or email me at mupeterson@hotmail.com.

For those of you in the Kansas City area, we have a great opportunity for you. We are having a cook out for all of our members on Saturday, July 30 from 10AM-5PM. There will be music, games, a moonwalk for the kids (the adult kids, too!) and lots of good food. We hope you will be able to attend.

Hang in there, guys. It's an incredibly bumpy road, and likely to get far worse before it gets better. Regardless of the circumstances, we remain committed to helping state employees protect the rights they already possess, and finding ways to see to the continuing needs of the members of our bargaining units. If you have any questions, please call.

Sincerely,
Megan Peterson

Worksites

Central Region
Eastern Region
Southeast Region
Northwest Region
Western Region
Southwest Region