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Stop 2-Tier Pensions at PG&E

Pacific Gas &Electric Company is attempting to deny full pension benefits to employees who chose to join Engineers and Scientists of California, Local 20 IFPTE.  Instead of providing the full union pension to these employees, management has proposed to reduce their pensions to a lower amount.  This is not fair to the employees who organized and joined the union, and it's not fair to other employees who might want to transfer into those positions in the future.  When a 2-Tier system is implemented, it affects ALL employees.  A fair, quality pension plan is an integral part of attracting and retaining a highly qualified professional workforce.  Long-term employees have worked hard to earn their pension benefits.  They deserve to receive the amount that they were promised by management.

Please tell PG&E management that union members want the same treatment for ALL employees, no matter how much they make or when they joined the union.  Go to the link below to take action:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/pge_pensions/


162 Nuclear Engineers Vote For Union

San Luis Obispo, California — A strong majority of the 162 Nuclear Engineers at Pacific Gas and Electric's Diablo Canyon Power Plant voted on April 2 to join the Engineers and Scientists of California, Local 20 IFPTE.  With final votes tallied by the National Labor Relations Board, the result was 102-47 in favor of union representation.
click here for the enire PRESS RELEASE !







President Major Norton, Jr. swears in Heather Wilson the New VP of General Construction.

Welcome Heather! 


                                                                   What’s Cooking

April 2008

As part of a continuing commitment to member communications, the ESC Local 20 PG&E Unit Executive Board writes a bi-monthly “What's Cooking” article after the PG&E Unit Board meeting. In addition, many committees publish minutes and special reports are released. These reports, minutes, and other communications are available at the ESC Local 20 PG&E Unit website.

General Negotiations:

In April a survey of the members will be conducted regarding proposals for General Contract Negotiations. General Contract Negotiations are scheduled to begin June 4^th. The current contract was ratified in 2003 and extended twice through December 31^st, 2008.

The Joint Benefits Education Committee, in anticipation of General Negotiations, had it’s 8th and final meeting. During the meetings PG&E management had it’s benefits and compensationconsultant Tower’s Perrin prepare and present a massive amount of information comparing benefits of ESC and IBEW members to other Companies. To summarize the presentations by Towers Perrin: according to Towers most companies:

·         Are moving from defined benefit pensions (like what PG&E employees currently have) to enhanced 401K plans and using 401K plans as the primary retirement benefit instead of a guaranteed pension.

·         Are moving from no or low co-pays to medical plans with higher deductibles and “behavior incentives” (people with risk factors would pay more).

·         Are moving from company paid retiree medical to no retiree medical or employee funded retiree medical savings accounts.

·         Are moving from traditional vacation and sick leave to combined paid time off accounts coupled with short term disability and long-term disability benefits. 

ESC Local 20 members of the Committee where alarmed and discouraged by the presentation and questioned the findings of PG&E’s consultant, in particular regarding the value of defined benefit pensions as a tool to recruit and retain. Also the Unions stressed the need to address retiree medical and pension values. ESC Local 20 does not agree with the presentation by PG&E’s consultant, and does not feel that such changes are acceptable.. ESC Local 20 Members interests will be surveyed in the General Negotiations survey.

Organizing/Bargaining

ESC Local 20 and professional engineers at Diablo Canyon win organizing victory! Also 92 Hydro Engineers and professionals organize into ESC Local 20 as the result of a neutrality agreement card check. As the result of a NLRB secret ballot election 162 engineers organized into ESC Local 20 by an overwhelming majority. That brings to 640 members organized into EC Local 20 under the Neutrality Agreement. The Staff and Officers of ESC urge all members to extend a warm welcome to our new brothers and sisters at Diablo Canyon Power Plant and in Power Generation.

Power Generation group negotiation committee has been formulated and has held the first bargaining prep meeting to formulate ESC Local 20’s bargaining proposals. Bargaining dates will be set soon.

Life Cycle Bargaining is headed to mediation over the issues of pay, and retro pay.  ESC Local 20 is disappointed that every final agreement so far has required mediation.

Electric Standards group bargaining is being scheduled. Project Management bargaining continues. Pay rates, classifications, and advancement continue to be main issue of bargaining.

As a result ESC Local 20’s Arbitration victory management has agreed to a LOA on the treatment and status of new members before a final agreement. The Neutrality Agreement Arbitration resulted in complete victory for ESC Local 20. ESC Local 20 argued that with the exception of the 10 items to be negotiated by the terms of the Neutrality Agreement that the Contract applies to newly organized groups upon card check recognition. The Arbitrator ruled completely with ESC Local 20’s position, noting that the Company’s actions could be viewed as Union Busting.

Final agreements have been agreed to and ratified by Project Engineering, SNBR/IPE’s, Protection Engineers, DCPP Maintenance Planners. The Board is thankful to all Members and Staff who contributed to successfully resolving theses difficult negotiations. 

Organizing continues in the DCPP adminstative professionals, Operation engineering, Environmental, and ISTS.

Committees:

The PG&E Unit Board met February 19^th and March 19th. The Unit Board received reports from Unit Board Officers and ESC Local 20 Staff. The Board reviews the Unit's business and sets direction. Board meeting minutes are available at the ESC Local 20 PG&E Unit after they are reviewed and approved. Action items included (just a few):

With many thank for his service the Board accepted the resignation of Bill Miller as Vice President of G.C. and appointed Heather Wilson to Vice President of G.C.

Approved Bargaining Committee recommendations.

Reviewed and approved table agreements.

Met with PG&E VP Geisha Williams.

The Engineering Labor Management Committee met March 19^th. Items discussed included the progress of the GC and DE subcommittees (below), a discussion of the interim work procedures to address the need for increased estimating throughput caused by transformation, a demonstration of the new application verification process that will get ADE’s back into the NB process. A discussion of mapping (below), an update on Land Job Owner roles (below).

Mapping –  Management has recently reduced the number of mapping supervisor, and the company is considering consolidating smaller mapping offices to match available supervisors.

The Union pointed out that due to the companies staffing policy in mapping that there is a growing backlog that could affect compliance work, safety, and revenue to the company (without mapping you can’t bill correctly). The leak survey work is going to create even more work, and that adding bodies will make an impact as it takes time and resources to train new mappers. With that in mind, consolidation at this point, without studying its impact is short sighted. In addition the mapping six sigma committee recommended that Mappers be headquartered with the records.

ESC also disagrees that mapping can be consolidated without adversely affecting operations. All departments need updated and reliable maps, and that is best done by local mappers. According to the company spokesperson 63 mapping positions have been “captured” since 2006 and not filled by management. In addition ESC is filing a Business Managers Grievance to force the company to justify its plan to consolidate Mapping.

Management has communicated it intentions of filling mapping vacancies but only those positions currently held by Hiring Hall. Previously management had made a decision to not fill mapping vacancies in anticipation of reductions due to the implementation of GIS. The company had decided to not move forward with GIS implementation at this time and is re-evaluating a move to GIS.

Design Drafter Labor Management Committee met. The main topic was the amount of work being outsourced and the need to increase headcount to recapture that work by our members. Of particular concern was the amount of contracting in DCPP as well as the high cost per hour in the Building and site group due to poor planning.

Land LM – The Company has agreed that Land Agents are job owners. Land Agents are responsible for relocation projects at the request of others (WRO). Transformation procedures did not account for Land Agents having this responsibility and therefore being the job owners. Management has agreed to change Transformation procedures to include Land Agents as job owners for WRO projects they are responsible for, including project initiation. Management is instituting an interim solution until Land Agents have proper job owner status in SAP, and recently sent ESC Local 20 a detailed study of the changes necessary to assign Land Agent Job Owner Status in SAP.

Distribution Engineer Ad-Hoc: The DE-Ad-hoc has concluded with agreements on DE pay, bidding, travel time and critical pay. The agreements on pay, travel and critical have been signed. Details are still being worked out in the bidding agreement, there is an agreement. Once the details are completed the agreements will be published.

The Board has received a final recommendation from the Rewards and Recommendation Committee. Management is trying to standardize reward and recognitions. Their recommendation includes group rewards and identification of employees that affect that reward. The Union believes that such identification would be a disincentive to reporting industrial accidents which could prevent members from receiving necessary benefits.

The Labor Communications committee is an ESC Local 20, IBEW 1245 and management committee that meets monthly to discuss the Transformation Initiative activities and Employee Engagement. Items discussed included the need to communicate transformation failures and the crisis facing PG&E as a result.

The Business Transformation Union Caucus meets weekly to coordinate and communicate Transformation Initiative activities efforts for ESC Local 20 and IBEW 1245 Transformation Engagement Employees. The Business Transformation Union Caucus is attended by Union Leadership and Employee Engagement team members.

Meetings/Transformation

As the result of ESC Local 20 and management working together to address transformation failures and the crisis caused by severe impact to estimating productivity due to those failures estimator production is up sharply. The Union continues to urge caution in the implementation of future “improvements” until those changes can be proven to work.

Though management has committed to engaging ESC Local 20 in dealing with all issues (tools, procedures, contractual violations) while working to develop short and long term fixes for transformation implementation problems the Union is concerned that changes seem to be being developed without the time to review and agree on what the best tools are.

At a recent meeting with Bill Arndt and Marie Jordan, in Redding, many questions were asked by the estimators.  Both Bill and Marie were very candid in explaining that transformation moved too quickly and mistakes were made. The comment was made that "We have to put the human factor in the decision making", and “ the local offices play a huge role in satisfying our customers”.

Mr. Arndt indicated that the company has no intentions in closing the RMCs.  The company and Union will continue to look at what is the right work to be done at the RMCs. ESC Local 20 has without question, done it’s part assisting the Company in fixing transformation failures.  The Board is committed to the membership whether they are in the local office or the RMCs. 

ESC Local 20 met with PG&E legislative and governmental affairs regarding the Unions and PG&E legislative agenda. Areas of potential common interest and disagreements where discussed. Items discussed included community aggregation, AB 32, and possible pending missed meal legislation.

Local 20 Activities:

The ESC Local 20 annual meeting was held April 5^th in San Jose. Guest Speakers included: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Executive Officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss. Among the honorees were Shaishav Vahia, Cupertino Distribution Engineer and Shop Steward.                        

The IPE/SNBR - DE Overtime Lawsuit continues. Mediation is scheduled for April 12^th.  ESC Local 20 will be present to represent member’s contractual interests.  The Lawsuit is independent of ESC Local 20, however ESC Local 20 will seek a settlement that protects members compensation and working conditions.

ESC Local 20 participated in an IFPTE sponsored protest of John McCain in San Francisco. IFPTE strongly protested the Senator’s interference to help a foreign contractor win a contract to supply military refueling aircraft.

Hot Issues Update:

1. Pensions Band dispute. The Company is not paying the negotiated pension formula for members whose salaries are above the established pension bands, in violation of the agreement. Management’s offer to settle this matter is to use January 1 salary to calculate pension rather than top of rate for those above the pension bands. This would result in a two tier pension structure and is not acceptable.
2. The Company clarified its stance on members speaking to the Press. The Company’s policy is that employees are not to speak to the press on Company time or represent themselves as PG&E spokespeople. When speaking to the press on their own time, employees are told identify themselves as individuals or representing the Union.
3. Reminder: New SAP LOA restores option to receive in-lieu of pay rather than an in-lieu of vacation day!
4. Mapping offices consolidation (see above)
5. Reminder: Service Desk grievance settlement violations. Reports are coming that the Service Desk is dispatching work (i.e. temp power, flop lots) without estimating. All instances should be reported to your Union Representative.
6. FET/SFET/FE: Talks continue in the newly re-formed GC labor management sub-committee about the wage inequity for these CG Classifications. ESC Local 20 has requested an upgrade for FET/SFET's working on jobs that touch Primary and above.
7. Talks about the management classification Asset Strategist continues. There are jurisdiction problems with mapping (gas leak maintenance), estimating (corrective work bundling) and distribution engineers (line equipment maintenance and gas compliance work). A meeting is scheduled. ESC is filing a Business Managers Grievance to prevent ESC BU work moving to the Asset Strategist position. Stay tuned for updates.
8. General Negotiations are scheduled for July 4th.
9. The Company has begun to require criminal back ground check for employees that have un-escorted access to substations, citing FERC regulations. The Union has already objected and secured the removal of hold harmless clauses for the background check contractor and PG&E. ESC Local 20 is reviewing the NERC regulation in question as well.

PREVIOUS WHATS COOKING CLICK HERE

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NUCLEAR MAINTENANCE PLANNERS RATIFY AGREEMENT



NUCLEAR MAINTENANCE PLANNERS WIN AGREEMENT!

Jan 8, 2008: After a long struggle, Maintenance Planners at Diablo Canyon Power Plant ratified a major agreement securing wage increases and dramatic changes in the way they are treated. The planners are now the first major group to change from salaried to hourly status, making them eligible for much greater overtime payments than before and also vastly improving their rights in the areas of scheduling, and callout.

Says planner Jim Perry, “I felt it was the right thing to do given the current environment at DCPP with the unfair distribution of performance incentives, the sometimes unfair performance reviews and with the constant threat of work force reductions. I felt that being represented would lend to some security in a very volatile environment.” Adds Dan Nolan, “We just wanted fair compensation, of pay and benefits, that we deserve for the service we provide for PG&E.” Garth Morrison, a 31-year PG&E veteran, say his motivation was simple: “quit the management ‘wage game.’ ”

To see a summary of the agreement, CLICK HERE. To see the full text of the agreement, CLICK HERE. Congratulations to the maintenance planners for their perseverance and on holding out for fair treatment!


ESC Local 20 Members at PG&E,

This message is intended to communicate to our members the current crisis at PG&E, your Union Leaderships' actions and discussions with PG&E management and steps that need to be taken in order to mitigate the crisis.

What is happening now: 

We are all acutely aware of the Business Transformation initiatives that have been rolled out system-wide. We are also acutely aware of how those initiatives have negatively impacted our ability to do our. The impact of these initiatives has been devastating to the production of work and has led to an environment of confusion, frustration and helplessness for most ESC Local 20 members.

ESC Local 20 has had many discussions with Management regarding the direction of Business Transformation. ESC Local 20 raised concerns time and time again about tools and processes and felt we were ignored. Some of the issues we are facing today were clearly identified by our Union as potential problems prior to release of the Business Transformation Initiatives. Business Transformation was rolled out on the predetermined timeline and the consequences are being realized by not only our members but the thousands of employees of PG&E and it's customers.

Work is not flowing to those construction crews across PG&E’s service territory. Estimating groups in the RMCs are not seeing the work necessary to populate their schedules. Job owners all over the system are not able push work to the right work groups for a variety of reasons. Estimators and other job owners in local headquarters are facing unbearable stress in their inability to estimate and produce work while their customers are getting more and more desperate. Customer complaints are at an all time high. There are issues regarding the visibility (or lack thereof) of work within the Work and Resource organization. These are just some of the issues facing us right now. The bottom line is that construction crews seem to be running out of work.

To quote Bill Marrow’s recent operational update to PG&E employees:

“We underestimated many complications with BT-Foundational Release and, as a result, we not only lost the advances made, but fell behind where we started”

This is not sustainable and things have got to change for the better. That change needs to happen right now. ESC Local 20 cannot stress enough; this is a very serious situation.

What we are going to do about it: 

Recently the company approached ESC Local 20 to discuss how Management and the Union could collaboratively address the issues at hand. We insisted on and secured Estimating/ADE representation from all seven RMCs and several local headquarters. Members travelled from all over the state, at very short notice, to meet in Concord to discuss how to get the work flowing again. A team of your peers very quickly came up with 13 items that were presented to management to be implemented immediately in order to get work flowing.

Without going into all of the very specific details, those recommendations amounted to: Give Estimating it’s old estimating tools back to both gas and electric immediately, suspend the usage of LD-Pro until it is proven to work correctly, disable "show stopping" dependencies, create commodity-specific "old type" orders, allow RMC ADEs to bundle up work in a more efficient manner and schedule/distribute to their workgroups, find existing work that has already been estimated and has not been scheduled for construction, and help job owners "push" the work through. The committee feels very confident that these steps will start moving production in the correct direction.

The company agreed that the 13 items were all "doable" and is working to implement them as soon as possible. Your Union will continue to urge that this happen quickly. There will be several communications over the next few days, starting with a PG&E conference call on Tuesday, detailing the crisis and what steps are being taken and how they will specifically apply to each work group.

What ESC Local 20 members can do: 

Many of the issues discussed above pertain specifically to estimating. ESC Local 20 represents a diverse group of classification - but the focus from the company's point of view seems to be on construction hours. To address the situation we are collectively in, all Members will have to pull together to help solve this. Whether you are a Senior New Business Rep, IPE, Land Agent, Field Engineer, Scheduler, Distribution Engineer, Design Engineer, Project Manager, Hydrographer - you name it, we have to work together.

To quote a member from Santa Rosa, "The ball is now in our court" - This is the time ESC Local 20 members can demonstrate to PG&E management how important our work is, how professional and capable we are, and that we as a union pull in one direction. PG&E Senior Management owes it to us to allow us to do our jobs and get the work done. With General Negotiations coming up this year, this is our opportunity to show them how we should be treated; like the proud union professionals we are.

We are and will continue to be; "Proud Union Professionals"

Your PG&E Unit Board;

Major Norton Jr. - Tim Brock - John Mader - Glen Westersund - Joel Foster - Bill Miller - Irving Joe

Mark Mitchell, ESC Local 20 Business Manager

Peggy Turner, ESC Local 20 Sr. Business Representative