OFS Bargaining Report #21

OFS Bargaining Report – Day 19

~ Bargaining Report for Local 3263 & Local 1365 ~

Bargaining Report for Friday, June 2, 2006:  After two 20-plus-hour negotiating sessions, we are able to sit down and write a report on the progress to date.

We are still making progress on several proposals and articles in the contract, but the cost increase for retiree and active employee health care is still bogging negotiations down.

Bargaining for Thursday, June 1, 2006 opened with the Company passing their counter to the wage proposal.  Their latest counter was significantly better than their first counter and offers the Union something to work with.

Bill Bates advised the Company that the Union appreciated the Company's efforts to correct their serious mistakes in their wage counter from a few hours ago, just prior to contract expiration, and stated that the Union would take their counter under advisement.

The Company passed their counter to Article 12 – Vacations and rejected the Union's proposal to change the qualification for 4 weeks vacation from 15 years service to 12 years service.  The Union advised the Company they would take the Company's counter under advisement.

The Company passed their counter to Article 17 – Termination Allowance.  The Company rejected the Union's proposal to allow Alliance-funded retraining for members who are laid off.  They also denied the Union's proposal to give members the option to take their Termination Allowance as a lump sum.

The Company passed their counter to Retiree Health Care.  Though the counter is moving in the right direction and now includes dental coverage, the dental coverage offered is much less than current coverage, and the health care proposal is still extraordinarily expensive for monthly premiums, co-pays and deductibles.  Retirees would still be expected to pay the majority of their monthly income toward medical premiums, and if they ever went for a doctor's visit or, God forbid, a hospital stay, they would certainly become homeless.

The Company's proposal would also automatically remove Retirees over 65 years old from any type of Company-sponsored health care and stop all Medicare B reimbursements after three years.

Bill Bates advised the Company that the Union would take the Company's latest counter under advisement and would certainly respond.

The Union passed their counter to Article 7 – Arbitration.  As it stands with the Union's last counter, the Arbitration Article is 95% acceptable; the Union needs one small addition to the Article regarding payment awards in order to TA it.

Clem Johnson advised the Union that the Company would take the Union's counter under advisement.

The Union passed a counter to the Company's National Grievance Step Table language that is attached to Article 6 – Grievance Procedure.  The National Step language would allow the Local Union to present their grievances to a National Step Table for resolve, prior to a grievance being appealed to arbitration.  The National Step Table would include representatives from the National Union and representatives from OFS Corporate.

The Company advised the Union that they would take the Union's counter under advisement.

The Union passed their counter to the Pension Plan, primarily seeking increases in pension bands, where there has not been an increase in several years.

The Union passed their counter to Retiree Health Care, again proposing to significantly reduce the premium rates and co-pay and deductibles.

Clem advised the Union that the Company would take the Union's counters under advisement and respond.

Clem advised Bill that the Company is working on the Union's data requests and should be able to deliver a significant portion of them by Monday.

The Union was advised that the wife of one of the Company's bargaining team members was rushed to the hospital and he would have to fly home to be with her.  Bill wants everyone to understand that the Union hopes that her condition is not serious and that she makes a full and speedy recovery.

After two tenacious back-to-back, 20-plus-hour bargaining sessions, the Union and Company will be taking a "cooling off" period through the weekend, allowing both sides to catch up on their proposals and counters for presentation and passing.

This morning the Union bargaining team met with CWA President Larry Cohen to update him on the status of negotiations and membership mobilization.  We continued to explore strategies that will force OFS to deliver a fair and equitable contract.

We thank everyone for their calmness and patience through this very stressful process, and we assure every one of our Members that we will not stop fighting for a reasonable and fair proposal that the Membership can vote on.