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Local 21 EXPRESS
June 2016
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Contra Costa County Chapter Wins a 3 year Deal!
For the first time in chapter history, Contra Costa County members have secured a successor contract before the expiration of the current memorandum of understanding.
The Contra Costa Bargaining Team reached a Tentative Agreement for a successor contract with the County on Tuesday, June 7. Members voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying the agreement during the week of June 13, and the Board of Supervisors approved the agreement on Tuesday, June 21.
The Local 21 Bargaining Team met with the County’s Negotiator at least once a week every week since March. In the field, the campaign included dozens of worksite meetings across Contra Costa and a coordinated display of union solidarity through a member-led button campaign.
As a result of this hard work and solidarity, Contra Costa County chapter members have won a deal they can be proud of. Building on the progress of last year’s health care negotiations, the new Tentative Agreement will provide a 4% across the board wage increase effective July 1 of this year, followed by across the board wage increases of 3% each year through 2019.
This will be the longest term of any Local 21 contract in Contra Costa since the chapter was organized.
In addition to providing fair wage increases, the Agreement also resolves longstanding issues around internal salary compaction, implements State Disability Insurance for bargaining unit members, clarifies and improves rules around vacation and transfers, and improves the contract’s grievance procedure.
We thank Bargaining Team members Sue Guest, Scott Hutchison, Margie Valdez, Joe Doser, Dave Silva, Gabriel Lemus, Marc Miyashiro, George Carter, Adam Down, Ayore Riaunda, and John Steere for their service and leadership in securing a fair contract that provides much needed improvements and economic relief for Local 21 members and their families.
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Transportation Authority Engineers and Architects Reach a Tentative Agreement!
TAEA chapter members are voting on a Tentative Agreement for a new contract on June 29. The proposed three-year deal features 3.5%, 4%, 3% wage increases for the hardworking employees at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. Further Highlights of the Tentative Agreement include increases to vision care benefits and shoe allowance, improvements that will require the employer to send more Requests for Proposals to Local 21 before contracting out work, a requirement that the employer post job vacancies internally for 5 days before posting externally, and incorporation of the CalPers medical sideletter into the contract. The CalPers sideletter offers outstanding medical plans to TAEA chapter members, including the option of a zero cost family plan.
We want to recognize Bargaining Team members Manjit Khalsa, Raj Sehdev, and James Esoimeme for volunteering their time to fight for a great contract on behalf of their fellow members. Congratulations TAEA!
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Charter School Interests Seek to Ban Organized Labor from Participation in School Board Elections
An alarming situation is emerging in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. A draft resolution is being considered which disguises itself as a measure that would apply campaign reform rules to school board elections, but is actually a direct attack on the voice of the working people. The resolution would only allow campaign contributions from individuals and political parties while excluding Political Action Committees, thereby greatly favoring wealthy persons capable of cutting big checks. In contrast, the voices of working people who need to pool their resources to be heard would be shut out because the resolution would bar Organized Labor from providing financial support for candidates.
It is no coincidence that certain interests would like to keep Labor from having a say in determining who will make critical decisions about our children’s education. Labor has been the leading voice exposing the inequity of the Charter School movement in West Contra Costa County. Charter schools have fewer regulations and less transparency than public schools while still taking ADA money, and have been accused of contributing to increased racial segregation in schools. There are also concerns about the focus of these schools being on making money for stakeholders and not on accessible education for all.
Local 21 is not going to stand for an underhanded takeover of the West Contra Costa Unified School District by charter school interests. Members of IFPTE Local 21 have been heading the charge against this dangerous resolution. “The last thing these organizations want is organized opposition from the people who work every day to educate the children of West Contra Costa County,” says Local 21 Lead Representative Jonathan Wright. “By banning PAC contributions, they seek to silence our voice in the upcoming election to fill three seats on the board.” Wright has written a fiery letter of opposition to Trustees and determined through a legal review that elements of the proposed resolution are likely illegal.
Working people deserve to have a voice in their school districts, and Local 21 stands committed to protecting education as a public good and not as a profit making enterprise. If you want to get involved in the fight to protect working people’s voices in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, contact Jonathan Wright at jtwright@ifpte21.org!
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Do You Have What it Takes to be a Political Organizer? Get Ready for the November election!
The Alameda County Democratic Party is offering a 1-day organizer training for people who are ready to roll up their sleeves and win in November! You do not have to be an Alameda County resident to participate.
The training is scheduled for July 9 in San Leandro.
This will be an intensive full day training presented by Groundworks, the preeminent campaign field organization in California. The training will cover volunteer recruitment and management, voter registration, field canvassing, phone canvassing, and getting-out-the-vote.
If you would like to be nominated to attend, please email Rachel Richman, Political and Policy Director at rrichman@ifpte21.org by July 5 with your contact information and tell us a little about why you think you belong in the class. Only 30 slots are available.
Note: Local 21 is a non-partisan organization and provides information on opportunities for campaign training from partisan and non-partisan groups as a service.
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Local 21 Members Flexed Their Political Muscle and Claimed Victory in Several Races Across the Bay
Contra Costa
In Contra Costa County, Local 21 members turned out to move our endorsed candidates to November runoffs for the Board of Supervisors, volunteering more than 80 times. Our candidate, Martinez City Councilwoman Anamarie Avilla Farias, made a strong showing in a 5-way race to unseat 16 year incumbent Federal Glover, garnering 31% of the vote against Glover's 35%. In District 3, Local 21’s candidate Diane Burgis won 22% of the vote and will face off in November with Steve Barr who received 29% of the vote in a 6-way race. This election marked a new high for Contra Costa Chapter members who volunteered in the largest numbers ever, many for the first time.
Alameda County
Hayward was the last city in Alameda County to cling to the tradition of holding elections for City Council in June, a month with low voter turnout. Local 21 sponsored Measure C to move the local elections to November, saving the City money and  dramatically increasing voter turnout. It passed with 61% of the vote, thanks in part to Local 21 members who volunteered 57 times, made nearly 2,500 calls, and walked two dozen precincts. Oakland members also pitched in, stepping up to fill 3 phone banks in solidarity with Hayward. Additionally, Measure D to extend the utility tax passed with more than 70% of the vote. In the City Council race, former Local 21 member Elisa Marquez handily won reelection, and former Local 21 member Sharon Ball won reelection to the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee.
San Jose
San Jose members volunteered more than 80 times and two of our endorsed candidates made it into the runoff, Sergio Jimenez in District 2 and Helen Chapman in District 6. Measure B, a small increase in the sales tax to raise revenue for San Jose, won with 62% of the vote. In the race for State Assembly, our longtime ally City Councilman Ash Kalra made the runoff in a very close race against former Councilmember Madison Nguyen.
San Francisco
In San Francisco, Local 21 members volunteered 96 times, helping to identify 14,000 supporters and walk 100 precincts targeting tenants and progressive homeowners. It paid off with several endorsed candidates elected to the Democratic Central Committee, including Local 21 member Rafael Mandelman! Local 21-supported Jane Kim is slightly ahead in the race for CA State Senate with Scott Wiener, and the two will face off in November for a runoff election. All four Local 21-backed ballot measures also passed, including a bond measure for city infrastructure that will provide jobs for our members, and Proposition C which requires that 25% of new housing be affordable to moderate and middle income residents. Regional Measure AA to restore San Francisco Bay also won.
Our kudos go out to all the volunteers who took to the phones and the streets to get out the vote for issues and candidates who will make positive change in our communities!
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Local 21 Members At Work!
IT Members Work Around the Clock to Open the New Acute Trauma Center at ZSFG
The new Acute Trauma Center at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital opened on May 21, the culmination of years of planning and work. Local 21 IT Chapter members are one group of Local 21 members who contributed to the project, and have been an integral part of designing the new hospital in an era where medical services are increasingly dependent on technology.
“IT was there when the architects drew the first plan,” says 
Jan Allison, a 24 year veteran of the hospital. Allison began her time at the hospital as a nurse, moving over to IT 16 years ago. Her combination of clinical and technical expertise made her a natural fit to be a Project Manager for the rebuild. The goal for IT, she says, was to put in place IT systems that would not only create a new space capable of supporting cutting edge technologies, but to lay the infrastructure for adoption of evolving technologies in the future.
Victor Rosero, a ZSFG Network Operations Supervisor who has been with the Department of Public Health for 21 years, says that all hands were on deck for opening weekend, during which time IT had a command center on the top floor of the building to coordinate rapid responses to any technical problems that arose. Both he and Jan are understandably proud of the role Local 21 IT members are playing in the new hospital.
Jan and Victor emphasize that IT Engineers working in this environment have tremendous responsibility because lives depend on their systems and equipment. To that end, IT has implemented many new technologies that improve patient care and safety.
For instance, IT has built in failsafe measures to protect patients in the event of system glitches or failures. Victor explains that the new hospital now has both redundancy and diversity in its IT structure, meaning that equipment in all rooms of the new hospital will continue running even if there are problems  because they can now automatically switch over to multiple other connections that will prevent interruptions to patient care.
There is now also almost complete wireless coverage in the hospital, which allows for a number of great improvements to patients’ welfare and security. For example, a patient with a telemetry monitor who used to be confined to a bed can get up and walk to a visiting area to be with family because her equipment is now portable and capable of transmitting monitoring information wirelessly. And because information is now going directly from devices to electronic records, clinical staff has the ability to employ predictive analysis programs, where algorithms are used to analyze data in order to predict medical issues before they become critical. “It’s like having a guardian at your bedside” says Victor.
The wireless system also supports a Real Time Location Services system, so that the hospital can prevent a patient with compromised consciousness from wandering out of the hospital, or a newborn baby from being taken out of the nursery. “We have taken and adapted new tech to solve real world problems, like baby napping,” says Jan.
While we were having this conversation in the lobby, a patient who was recently out of surgery interrupted to tell us that her surgery was handled so smoothly and professionally that is was by far her best experience in a hospital to date. She was absolutely impressed with the caliber of the new facility, and how it translates to quality patient care. We couldn’t agree more! Local 21 salutes our IT Chapter members for their hard work on this project.
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Local 21 Member Needs Assistance After Tragedy
Ikue Suto-McNiff, who works at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), lost her husband, Duncan, on June 14 th. Duncan suffered a massive and fatal heart attack suddenly at their home in Benicia, California. This much loved husband and father leaves behind Ikue, his wife and the love of his life, and their three amazing children, Kana (9), Lachlan (7) and Hugo (5).
If you would like to make a donation to the family to help out during this difficult time, you may send cash or write a check made payable to Ikue Suto-McNiff, and mail either USPS or interoffice mail to:
Pamela Jang
SFMTA
One So. Van Ness Ave., 6 th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-701-4443
Given the age of the children, a GoFundMe account has also been set up. Please visit the following link if you would like to make a financial contribution to the Duncan McNiff family fund: https://www.gofundme.com/DuncanMcNiffFamily
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