General Membership Meeting Minutes

Roll call of Officers:
Present:
Ray Novakoski, President
James Sweeney, Recording Secretary
Richard Page, Executive Vice President
Sandy Henkel, Treasurer
Bill Scutt, Clerk Craft Director
Linda Norman, AO Director
Jim Myszka, Maintenance Craft Director
Mike Long, Sergeant at Arms
Absent:
Scott Larabel, MVS Craft Director (excused)

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM at 918 Benjamin NE, Grand Rapids; Meeting was opened with US Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation.

September General Membership Meeting minutes accepted as typed and posted with one correction: under Maintenance Craft Director's report, should have been recorded as 916 rather than September 16.

New Members:
Susan J Griffin, Clerk, Grand Rapids.

Bills: none.

Officers Reports:
Treasurer's Report: The computer at the union hall crashed therefor Treasurer could only present a minimal report. 104 members and 88 non-members checks were not claimed. Per previous General Membership meeting motion, monies not claimed will be deposited into the General Fund.

Motion by Austin, Henkel to delay this month's Treasurer's report until next month due to the computer crashing. Discussion. Carried.

Executive Vice President's Report: PO is targeting specific stewards. Ray and Dick fighting this through the Labor Board and Article 17. Through these efforts, PO will probably back off. Wanting to attend the upcoming President's Conference and will have stewards training after the conference if passed in the upcoming motion.

Maintenance Craft Director's Report: Have been granted permission to fill custodial openings through intra installation transfers due to withholding. P1 annex reposting level 9 and level 7 jobs due to 20 hour plan. Keep your PAR up to date.

Clerk Craft Director's Report: Recently at Labor Board filing on behalf of info requests. Management has been backing off on some of the changes. 237 grievances filed for principal work location and 237 grievances filed on other duties as assigned, roughly 700 grievances filed in all. Two groups of grievances will be consolidated soon. Discussions taking place on expanding the P1 union office. Thank you to Catherine Beemblossom and stewards at MPO. Keep union informed of OT being used.

Associate Office Director's Report: Met with Gil Brown for 8 step 2's. Sent all eight denied grievances to step 3. Met in Comstock Park and Spring Lake concerning employee complaints. Thank you Jennifer Amos for all her help at the Caledonia PO. Have been informing members how and when to get in contact with her.

President's Report: Thank you for sending Bill and Ray to Advanced Arbitration class. Very informative and both did very well. Have had discussions with management concerning stewards time problems and management has backed down on this and some other items of concern. Appreciate stewards on tour 1 for work on multi grievances. Big Check distribution has ended with a total of five dates of distribution. Fred Quillin is still convinced his system is working, however there is still delayed mail and we need to continue documenting when these delays happen. Kim Peters said the PAR system is not coming to GR right away but will be coming. Kim said the 10/4 workweek is again in place at the NW station and is interested in possibly using it at other stations. Discussing Mystery Shopper program with Kim. Manual job on days coming up. There will be some changes in managers and supervisors coming soon. New CONTRACTS are available now. The October 07 Governors debate party being held at the Radisson on Anne Street NW which will be viewed starting at 7:00 PM on WOOD TV. Please vote November 05. It is illegal to picket a private home; Public Law 425.7 prohibits it.

Committee Reports:
COPA: $55.40 collected from P1 pop cans turned in by Bill Scutt.

Correspondence: Thank you card for Rozeanne Tofel.

Unfinished Business: None.

New Business:
Motion to reimburse Ray $40.00 for purchase of 2002 National Convention panoramic picture. Discussion. Carried.

Motion to purchase two shredders with a total cost of $200.00. Discussion. Carried.

Motion to purchase a printer for P1, AMF and the Associate Office Director at a cost of up to $100.00 each. Discussion. Carried.

Motion to authorize up to 16 hours of LWOP for the Executive Vice President and all the Craft Directors to work at the union hall, filing. Discussion. Carried.

Motion for Page to attend the President's Conference in Seattle, WA from October 25-29, 2002 to include registration, loss time, perdiem, hotel, airfare and applicable taxes. Discussion. Carried.

Motion to donate $250.00 to the Kathy Page Memorial Fund. Discussion. Carried.

Motion by Norman, Beemblossom to pay Jennifer Amos loss time and mileage to Lowell for Caledonia's step 2 grievance. Discussion. Carried.

Motion by Austin, Sweeney for WMAL to endorse Jennifer Granholm for MI Governor, Gary Peters for Attorney General and Bob Shrauger. Discussion. Carried.

Motion by Austin, Beemblossom for President or for President to appoint someone to organize a picket at the GR PO for reasons of save on service, stamp increase, mailers discounts and elimination of day jobs. Discussion. Amended to take to the Presidents Conference to get National to participate in a national picket. Amendment seconded and defeated. Main motion carried.

Motion by Austin, Beemblossom to issue checks to members and retirees who didn't receive their check. President ruled this out of order.

Motion by Austin, Beemblossom for Treasurer to identify at the General Membership Meeting, members who have dropped out of the union with the reason for dropping for purposes of retirement, transfers out of building or out of the craft since the last report. Discussion. Question called for by Long, Sweeney; carried. Main motion: Division: 8 for, 11 against. Defeated.

Motion by Hendricks, Austin for WMAL to endorse Mike Sak for 76th district and Peter VanderMuelen for 75th district. Discussion. Carried.

Retiree Representative Report: George Hendricks updated membership on 2002 National Convention Retirees Division and the struggles that went on.

Labor Management: bring your issues to the E-board.

Drawings: COPA: $30.50 to Mike Long; $30.50 to COPA $10.00: S Bergers, R Novakoski, D Quillin, M Long, D Bourassa, S Henkel, B Davis.

Meeting adjourned at 8:52 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,

James Sweeney
Recording Secretary

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