PERB charge against LASC

People will remember that at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 there was a lot of chaos and fear; the Union’s primary concern was for the health and safety of our members, and their ability to continue to make a living/income. In that vain, and under the coercion of LASC administration, your union representatives signed a side letter unilaterally presented by LASC to extend the contract for one year. We were told at the time that if we did not go along with what the other LASC unions had agreed to, our people would be required to report on site, and would not be paid the premium like other units on site. Of course, we signed … but knowing that a contract cannot be extended without the agreement of ALL SIGNATORIES to the document. Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo courts were not in on the agreement, and did not sign on to the one year extension of the contract.

We filed a ULP when they denied us the right to return to the table last August … and PERB just know has entered charges against LASC, meaning that there is merit to our complaint against them. We will keep you informed as to our progress in the ULP process.

When we prevail, we are asking that anything negotiated, particularly with regard to salaries, be retroactive to last August, when the court should have begun negotiating a new contract.

In unity,

Mike Ferreira
President

PERB Charge against LASC

Dear Members,

If you wish to observe the vote count but are unable to do so in person you have the opportunity to join via Zoom on December 22nd.  You can do this by sending an email to [email protected] to obtain a link.  Please note that in order for you to participate the camera function on your device has to be on at all times so that your face can be clearly seen. 

Requests made to [email protected] will also receive the link.

Regards,

Election Committee

Last Executive Board Meeting 2021

CFI Local 39000 TNG-CWA last executive board meeting will take place on December 27th.

San Diego Global Settlement 2021

On December 8, 2021, I signed a settlement agreement with the San Diego Superior Court which resolved three matters pending against them:

• To settle this ULP, LA-CE-39-1, the court agreed to remove a letter of warning issued to our steward from the personnel file, as stewards are protected when participating in concerted activities (union work).

2. An Arbitration alleging that the court failed to pay interpreters the 25% premium for performing Video Remote Interpreting (VRI).

• The court will pay $15,000 to settle CFIR4SD2002, a grievance in which the Union asserted that assignments performed remotely on Microsoft Teams beginning in the spring of 2020 constituted VRI assignments and therefore, were entitled to the 25% stipend that was practically forced on Region 4 during the last round of negotiations. All unit members who reported assignments to the local steward team before the deadline indicated in the agreement (December 7^th) will soon receive compensation for all assignments performed as VRI. 

3. A Grievance filed for implementation of a new policy – how overtime is handled going into the noon hour at Central court – without first advising the Union of the change and giving an opportunity to meet and confer on the impacts.

• The Court will not implement the new policy until the parties have finished the meet and confer in good faith, to be scheduled no later than January 28, 2022.

Since this executive board and I came into office, we made it a priority to dedicate special focus on courts that had been consistently breaking the MOU and been abusive to our union members in the past – San Diego, Fresno, Orange, among others. A commitment was made by this board and San Diego’s stewards to change the dynamic, uphold the MOU, and grow union activism.  The result is that much progress has been made in communicating with management on an equal footing, with mutual respect, to resolve issues before rising to the level of formal grievances. When a court knows that we are willing to grieve their MOU transgressions, we are then in a better position to negotiate new MOU proposals in the next round. It shows our commitment to oblige the court’s compliance with our agreements. 

The San Diego steward team led by Silvia San Martín, with Gemma Yosick and more recently Vanessa Bonilla, has filed a total of nine grievances since 2019. I have made it my personal endeavor to support this team, and others, by giving my mentorship and the expertise of our union’s legal team. Working together as a team, all of these have been either resolved through a settlement agreement or withdrawn because the court rectified the issue during the process, thereby successfully resolving all pending complaints against San Diego Superior Court without conceding the union’s interpretation of any terms found in the MOU.

In conclusion, what we can learn from this experience and the example of our stewards in San Diego, and elsewhere, when we work together as a team, we can accomplish our goals and protect our labor interests, taking agency over our shared interpreter profession. Each court group of members is a vital component not only in their regional MOU bargaining unit, but throughout the state; union members can effectively achieve beneficial results in their own court, but throughout the state. We are interconnected such that the victories in one place supports similar achievements elsewhere in California. Our San Diego steward team, as well as stewards throughout our state, can take pride in being strong and holding the line during this pandemic. Well done, all of you!

In unity,