General Membership Meeting Minutes

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM at 918 Benjamin NE; meeting was opened with US Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation.

Roll Call of Officers:
Present:
Ray Novakoski, President
Jennifer Amos, Executive Vice President
Barbara Tubbs, Recording Secretary
Sandy Henkel, Treasurer
Bill Scutt, Clerk Craft Director
Jim Myszka, Maintenance Craft Director
Larry Niece, Mail Handler Craft Director
Mark Juczynski, MVS Director
Mike Long, Sergeant at Arms
Orv Glombowski, AO Director

The minutes from the January General Membership Meeting were accepted with the following additions and corrections: Aurelio and Emery were misspelled; Board recommendation to send Ray and Sandy to Secretary-Treasurer training should say Feb 7-11; following motion was omitted: Motion by Jim Stoddard, Steve Karbutowski to have the Local buy maintenance members shirts from the Maintenance craft conference. Amended by Scutt, Shari Sahara to have the Local buy shirts for all the clerk members from the Clerk craft conference. Amendment defeated. Main motion defeated.

Motion by Steve Austin, Myszka to authorize up to an additional $50.00 for tonight's refreshments. Carried.

Applications for Membership:

Misty L. Wenger and Rachel R. Wright, Clerks, Grand Rapids; Leroy A. Carlson, Maintenance, Grand Rapids; Margaret A. Huismann and Rosemary K. Jordan, Clerks, Newaygo; Patrick Curley, Clerk, Grand Rapids

Officer's Reports:

Treasurer's Report: Henkel - Report accepted as written.

AO Report: Glombowski - POS system problems, includes not allowing employees to call the Help line themselves; supervisors doing clerk work in AOs. Discipline and letters of demand are up.

Maintenance Report: Myszka - Thanked maintenance members for attending. Mulder is back to work and harassing employees. Grievance has been filed about non-maintenance employees installing computers. Custodial positions will be open soon. Problem with new hires being slotted into jobs without the jobs being posted.

Clerk Craft Report: Scutt - Thanked clerk members for attending. Was successful in arbitration case on a removal. A pre-arb settlement was reached returning a PTF who had been fired to work with @ $27,000.00 in back pay. Stewards training will be held on February 27th. There have been many violations on privacy issues and FMLA. Four conversions to regular have been agreed to, and there is a grievance for five more. Let stewards know if you have choice vacation selection problems. Level 5 SPBS clerk from Lansing is looking for a mutual trade.

MVS Report: Juczynski - Thanked MVS member for attending.

President's Report: Novakoski - Working on level 4 to 5 issue. Parking situation in basement is better. Eastbrook station is closed temporarily, and its box section has been moved to Patterson. Audit committee will be Dick Page - Chair, Jerry Price, Jim Hansma, and Cheryl Gregory. Meeting is scheduled with Michelle Hawley to go over the accumulated FMLA and privacy issues problems to assess case. Arbitration process on contract is moving forward. Time frame is being worked on. New OSHA ergonomics standards may be in jeopardy. Contact your legislative representatives and tell them you don't want this new law overturned. Retirement contributions will be slightly reduced. Thrift savings contribution caps will be increased by 1%.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Cans for COPA: $20.00 was received.

Correspondence: None

New Business:
Board Recommendations:

Motion to send all officers and stewards who wish to attend to the State Educational conference in Midland in April to include lost time, hotel, per diem, registration, mileage, and applicable taxes. Discussion. Carried.

Motion to send Amos to the Presidents' conference in Tucson in March to include lost time, hotel, per diem, registration, travel, and taxes. Discussion. Carried.

Motion to purchase 150 "Fed Up" tee shirts at a cost of an average of $10.00 each to be sold to the membership for $5.00 each. Discussion. Call for question by Steve Austin, Scutt. Carried. Main motion carried.

Motion to authorize up to 16 hours LWOP for Scutt and any other craft director that wishes to assist the President in catch up filing in the Local's office. Discussion. Carried.

Motion to pay $80 per year for the domain name wmal.org for the website. Discussion. Carried.

Two Constitutional changes were submitted: Addition to Article 9 and Change and addition to Article 22. Proposed changes will be posted and voted on at March meeting.

Motion by Austin, Karbutowski to reinstate the policy of purchasing jackets for the new members. Discussion. Yes --18. No - 12. Carried.

Motion by Austin, Orv to allow candidates in upcoming local elections to submit and have published in the Local's newspaper, prior to the election, an article of up to 300 words, as determined by the election committee. Discussion. Carried.

Labor Management:
Meeting scheduled for 2/21. Why are there so many handicapped stickers issued?

Drawings:
COPA $33.00, $33.00 to

$10.00 Door Prizes: Steve Austin, AL Matkovich, Barb Wilson, Jim Myszka, Phil Maddox. Page 3, February General Membership Meeting Minutes - February 3, 2001

McDonalds Gift certificates: Jim Hansma, Don Kramer, Mike Long, Linda Yarnott.

Meeting adjourned at 8:24 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Barbara Tubbs
Recording Secretary

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