All Remote Hearing’s Language Removed from SB 241 and Now the Retaliation has Started

WE DID IT! Remote Language was removed from SB 241 but the fight doesn’t end there. 

The Assembly Appropriation Committee heard our concerns and removed ALL remote hearing’s language from SB 241. Thanks to you, any remote hearing discussion will be handled through the remote hearing joint working group. This would not have been possible without your quick action!

Please send a Thank You email to Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez for listening to our concerns and taking action, as well as send her well wishes and a speedy recovery. The Hon. Gonzalez has been recently diagnosed with a serious ailment and will be undergoing treatment. 

                        [email protected]

The Fight Continues

Together we have raised our voices in unity to deliver a strong message saying that “we will not go quietly into the night,” which in turn shifted the political dynamics when it comes to remote language access and other interpreter issues. Now we take our fight to Twitter!

Remote proceedings are no longer solely a labor issue. Remote proceedings, remote language access, and the lack of interest in making interpreting a viable career path has become a social justice issue. Over the years, the courts have systematically and strategically implemented maneuvers to reduce the employee pool with the intent of using “lack” of employees as an excuse to use VRI. Although remote language in SB 241 was removed, the Judicial Council is still trying to insert a free for all of unvetted remote hearing language to any bill or budget language that comes along. Additionally, and resoundingly more detrimental to interpreters, is that Judicial Council was and continues to be the driving force to get VRI language into our MOUs. 

We are not the only profession being attacked. Court reporters are also suffering assaults on their profession too. Court reporters have legitimate concerns about remote hearings and their concerns are being silenced for the sake of “savings” and “convenience.” After 31 years of stagnant transcript payment rates, they decided to request the legislature for an increase. All Senate and Assembly members have agreed to the rate increase; however, Judicial Council is holding the increase hostage and will agree to the increase ONLY if the court reporters and their representatives do not voice their concerns and opposition to these sorts of bills. 

Battle Plan

The Judicial Council is very active on Twitter.  Twitter is a microblogging system, which means that all posts on the twitter feed are visible to all. Many media outlets follow Judicial Council. We want all interpreters to join the movement and bring awareness to the harm remote hearings will cause to all court-users, and even more so to the LEP court-users to whom we provide services. 

Please create a Twitter account (if you don’t have one) and join us in posting social justice posters/pictures we are creating; include a short blurb of your experience with remote failures, and your perspective on the dangers and problems remote hearings bring to the fore. 

Here are the twitter addresses where we need to tag when we post:

@CalCourst

@TheCCAInc

@CaJudicial

This is be our first post. 

Post the following image and tag the above 3 entities. 

Write a blurb regarding remote failures you have experienced or observed.

I will be sending more  images in the near future and will be asking you to do the same.  

In Solidarity,

Janet Hudec, VP
CFI-Local. 39000
 

Executive Board Elections  

Call for Nominations for CFI Local 39000 Officers and Executive Committee Members

The term of office for the present CFI Local 39000 board members is due to expire at the end of December 2021. As such, nominations are now open for the following Titled Officer and Executive Committee positions:
 

Titled Officers:
President

Vice President

Secretary-Treasurer

Region Board Representatives:

Region 1

Region 2

Region 3

Region 4

Freelance (This is a non-voting position on the board; it is open to Freelance and IGA members in good standing)

• The term of office will begin upon certification of the election and completion of officer training within the first three months of office; the two-year term begins on January 1, 2022 and runs through December 31, 2023.
• Candidates for Titled Officers may be nominated by any bargaining unit CFI member in good standing. 
• Candidates for the regional seats may only be nominated by a bargaining unit CFI member from that corresponding region. 
• The Freelance position may only be nominated by any freelance member.
   

The nominations period opens on September 08, 2021; please send all nominations to  [email protected]. Be sure to clearly include the name of the candidate and office for which you wish to nominate him/her. Also include your full name and the California county in which you are employed by the court. Candidates must be members in good standing and agree to participate in new officers training to be scheduled by the CWA within 3 months of taking office.

The close of the nominations period is September 17, 2021, and all candidates must indicate accepting the nomination for office in writing no later than 5:00pm on September 22, 2021. 

Ballots will be sent to arrive by surface mail to members on or about the date of December 1, 2021. It is very important to update the local with any change in physical mailing address before the Thanksgiving holiday. The deadline by which ballots are to arrive back for counting will be 5:00pm, December 22, 2021. 

Please visit our website or contact the local if you need more information.

A Message from Frank Arce, President of District 9

California Recall Election, Gavin Newsom 

Hello fellow members …

Usually, the local does not send out any sort of requests for supporting candidates in the state or federal elections; for people who wish to participate in the political activity of the union, CWA has a fundraising arm, separate and apart from the dues that are collected. None of your dues is used to make donations to political candidate campaigns. However, our District 9 office has asked us to share the following with all members in all locals. I pass it on for your consideration…

There is a Threat: Well-heeled millionaires who want to roll back worker protections in California are funneling big money into a campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. Let’s be clear: If they are successful, unions will lose many of the hard-fought gains made on higher wages, pensions, funding for public education and other services, laws against discrimination and more. 

To protect union contracts and the ability to provide the services our community needs, the District 9 Headquarters is asking union members to join together in voting NO on the Recall!

Who is behind this Recall?  It is a national network of very rich anti-union funders who are taking aim at union pensions, wages, health care and voting rights. They have spent millions to put this Recall special election on the ballot. Funders like real estate developers, corporate CEOs and anti-union politicians.  

Why? Because they couldn’t win with a union-busting candidate in the last election. They want to control California by pulling a fast one on California’s working folks by trying to steal the governor’s office in a low-turnout special election. [1]

How does the special election Recall work? There are two questions on the Recall ballot. 

First: Should Governor Newsom be recalled?  We urge every union member to select “NO!” 

Second: Who do you vote for to replace Governor Newsom? NONE of them! All the candidates trying to replace the Governor have one thing in common: A long history of attacking unions. Moreover, the candidate with the most votes wins, even if it’s only 10% of votes cast! One of the leading replacement candidates, radio talk show host Larry Elder, even said it’s a “big myth that unions help workers” and said there should be NO minimum wage! 

California’s laws to protect workers are the strongest in the nation. Under our state’s present leadership, coalitions of unions have secured major gains for our members and all workers. But this Recall isn’t really about Gavin Newsom or any one individual. It’s about millionaire funders trying to strip away union wins on wages, health care and pensions just to make themselves even richer. 

We can’t afford to allow wealthy anti-union special interests to seize control of California. The Recall risks undermining the values we share as Californians. Join the union effort in saying NO to the anti-worker Recall! Learn more at NoAntiWorkerRecall.com.

We can stop the power grab. Ballots will be mailed out around August 16. Watch your mailbox for your ballot and join other union members by returning your ballot right away (no postage necessary) to vote NO on the Recall! To do otherwise is to condemn union collective bargaining rights and right to representation at the workplace to the dustbin of history. It eliminates the safeguards between you and your public employer … your voice and vote on matters in the workplace will be no more, should Gavin Newsome be recalled.

That said, there is an organizing group within CWA’s District 9 who are sending out a clarion call for members to help turn back this recall, and thereby turn back the subsequent anti-union legislation and state level policies that remove union representation in the public sector in California. Please get in touch with one of the three regional coordinators to find out how you can be of service to yourself and others in this endeavor:

Southern California Regional Coordinator
Vanessa Meza
Local 9509 San Diego
619-370-3317
 [email protected]

Central Valley Regional Coordinator
Fidel Andrade 
Local 9333 Modesto 
209-761-2200
[email protected]

Northern California Regional Coordinator
Heladio Salvídar 
Local 9421 Sacramento
(916) 601-9525
[email protected]

The Regional Coordinators are urgently searching for volunteers in their areas who could help them recruit volunteers for phone banking and text banking CWA members on Mondays and Wednesdays, phone banking with the California Labor Fed on Tuesdays & Thursdays, and Literature dropping with CLC's on Saturdays.  Please return their calls as soon as possible if they leave you a message.  There is a very short window between now and Election Day to get this work done and it can't be done without the help of every union member in the state.  

Please click on this link https://actionnetwork.org/forms/stop-the-recall-phonebanks to volunteer to phone bank our CWA members on Mondays and Wednesday.

Click here  https://calaborfed.org/2020-clc-election-phonebank-and-gotv/  to volunteer for Saturday Lit Drops at a CLC near you.  

Not Going Quietly

Although this may be mostly for our members in the Los Angeles area, and even though this is a bit last minute, we wanted to share that one of our CWA member-organizers is the subject of a documentary that speaks to social justice issues … one of the three points of our CWA union triangle. We invite you to click on the links and attend the film’s opening, if you are confident to go out at this time. If you are unable to get to a showing of the film, like many other documentaries and entertainment films, it may soon be on streaming services and other outlets. We encourage everyone to watch and be inspired by our brother, Ady Barken.
 
In unity, 
 
Michael Ferreira
President

======================================================================================================= 

Mandatory Vaccination Proof for Continued Employment – It Was Bound to Happen 

Many courts around California have sent out notices that for continued employment one will have to show proof of vaccination. The local has been inundated with contacts asking what the union is going to do about this. This communication is our attempt to make things as clear as possible for the membership concerning what the union can and cannot do in this instance. 

Our legal team has counseled us that the courts are able to do this, and as essential workers who deal with the public, we can be compelled to present vaccination proof for COVID-19 for continued employment. Although the union is not in the position to tell people what personal decisions they must make concerning healthcare choices, we are not encouraging our members avoid getting vaccinated. We are encouraging our members to follow public health guidelines as to the best preventative measures against infection, one of which is becoming vaccinated. Still, the choice is yours. 

The union can only explain what the consequences of those choices will be. According to the communications that we have received so far (most notably from Los Angeles and Sacramento courts), the outcome for not proving vaccination for COVID-19 would subject an employee to dismissal. It should be noted that the starting date for having to prove vaccination seems to be upon FDA full formal approval of one of the vaccines presently in use, or within a finite period counted from the date of full approval. (For LA court, 45 days counting from full FDA approval is the deadline) The FDA has still not given formal approval for any of the present vaccines in use. No court has indicated that anyone must provide proof right now. However, if your court is requiring proof right now, not waiting for full FDA approval of a vaccine, please contact the local immediately. We presently have meet and confers scheduled with Los Angeles (Aug. 12) and Sacramento (Aug. 18) courts over the issue. This is a change in policy and no court may proceed until the union has had full opportunity to treat the issue in a meet and confer.

In the communications received so far, there are specified what would be exemptions:

• A “sincere religious belief” that precludes them from receiving the vaccination. Presently, no court has told us what the criteria would be for determining if the “sincere religious belief” precludes vaccinations, nor to which department one addresses the issue. It is unclear as to whether there would need to be documentation or some other affidavits.

• A medical condition that impedes receiving the vaccines presently available. It seems that to receive this exemption one would have to solicit accommodations through Human Resources (for Los Angeles, the Disability and Leave Management department – Eric Penner), just as one would do in requesting accommodations for any other medical disability or impairment. To date it is not clear what would be needed in the physician’s note and what other documents may be needed to support one’s claim. 

We will update the membership regarding these exemptions as more information concerning the process becomes known. It will most likely be similar throughout the different courts.

What is the union’s position on this policy?

No one loses employment based on vaccination status. There are alternatives already being employed by governmental and public agencies throughout the state to allow for unvaccinated to be in the workforce.

In both the state employee directives, as well as for Los Angeles County and City, there is a set of protocols for non-vaccinated employees requiring that they be tested once a week, and that they continue to practice social distancing, masking regulations, and other safety measures within the workplace. This seems to be a reasonable solution for our workforce as well; there is no defensible argument to fire an employee for non-vaccination if other governmental and state agencies are allowing their workers to re-enter the workplace under stricter requirements, to include weekly testing. The union will be presenting alternatives to losing employment, including this one already being practiced around the state. We do this because we represent everyone in our local … without reservation.

In the end, with the constantly changing nature of this pandemic, the appearance of riskier more virulent strains, such as the Delta and Lambda variants, these policies may change or become more stringent. 

As we become aware of developments, we will endeavor to keep our members informed.

Stay well; stay safe.

In unity,