Wednesday, December 28th, 2011 December Update for Reg-2 and 3

2012 Officers

CFI and the Pacific Media Workers Guild have new delegates and officers. Gregoria Lara in Merced is now the Northern Professional Division Director, and Mirtha Sanchez in Alameda is the new Northern Vice President of the Joint Governing Board and the Secretary of the Interpreter Unit. Congratulations and thanks to these two for their willingness to volunteer. Also, we greatly appreciate the years of service and incalculable contributions of Curtis Draves of Alameda, who is stepping down as President of CFI to be replaced by Mike Ferreira of Region 1; as well as Alejandra Siroka of San Mateo, our highly successful Northern Professional Division Director.

MOU Extended for 1 Year

The Region 3 Bargaining Committee agreed to a 1-year extension of our current contract as we did in Region 2. We will begin selecting the next bargaining committees early next year. Although there will be no raises, we avoided any cuts and maintained the current terms of the MOU.

Steward Trainings

We had a great turnout for Steward training on December 10th. Fourteen interpreters from both Northern regions came to learn more about representing the union and enforcing the contract. Plans for the next training session will be sent out soon.

Furloughs

The Merced court, who hired several more interpreters this year, has furloughed interpreters when they closed some of the courts for the short holiday weeks. As per our contract, they were available to cross-assign to other courts. If your court is planning on furloughing you, please let the Union know so we can make sure the court follows the MOU.

Rocky Terrain in Sonoma

Sonoma has become the hot-spot for grievances over the past year, but some are beginning to be resolved. The court agreed to not use volunteer interpreters in mediation sessions and also increased a half-time employee to a near-full-time status to resolve her grievance over limiting her use of sick time. Other grievances, including the courts denying cross assignments beyond 75 miles, and a court mistake that caused the interpreters to lose portions of their CIMCE reimbursements are still pending. Our relationship with the court has been rocky, but we are seeing a desire on their part to address concerns before they become grievances, as is our preference. Credit goes to the interpreters for their commitment to support each other during difficult times.

Cross-Assignments

In both regions we are working on enforcing cross-assignment language of the MOU. Region 3 interpreters should contact your steward (or Brandon) to report any dates in the last half of 2011 when you were available but not hired by the courts.

Merced is Turnaround Court of the Year

Several courts, including Alameda, Madera and Merced, have been hiring more interpreter employees. Merced has gained the title of “Turnaround Court of the Year.” For the last several years Merced was dollar-for-dollar the largest user of non-certified interpreters in Region 3, and 4th largest in the state, behind only LA, Santa Clara, and San Diego — all courts at least 10 times larger. Now, after hiring four employees (bringing their total number of employees to five), Merced has almost eliminated the use of non-certified interpreters.

Did you know? …

2012 — just days away — will be a leap year. Why? Because, as we all know, the number 2,012 is divisible by 4. But … that’s not the whole rule. It goes on: Years that are also divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they’re also divisible by 400. Thus, 2100 will not be a leap year, but 2000 was and 2400 will be!

Have a safe, happy, and long New Year!

Brandon Scovill
Northern Field Rep

Filed under News: Bargaining, Region 2, Region 3