Contract "LANGUAGE" ??

[Hyper63]

I am a PSO Lineman. Like Linhnd13, I was curious about all the locals affected by system council U9 and their current situation. They are daily picking away from the outer edges of the contract. At least here they are. I ask powerlineman.com to add this topic. Thanks Byron. I wanted it to be open to everyone, not just AEP. But I really hope that the lineman out east find it too and get involved. Contract language, rules, policies. Knowledge is power...or so they say.

[topgroove]

could you explain for us what system council U9 is... I know it was formed to help with the AEP negotiations but I don't know much about it. Do they have free reign to open all of FE's union contracts and make changes effecting the union members in 9 states?

[Hyper63]

I'm not sure how much the council can do, We will be finding out more about how it works next week when our new BA meets with them. There are some things we didn't understand (the members). It is a good idea. One Master Agreement. It could be good for all.

[Hyper63]

I started contracting in 1986 nonunion. never knew much about the union, good or bad. tramped around for several years went to work for a REA in Alabama in 1992. in 97 I found this web site. I began getting involved on topics like this. the main one of interest to me at the time was (union vs nonunion). on Frday night there was a chatroom. I went on there some too. This site was a benefit to me. The next job I took was IBEW 111 (se colorado). I hadn't been in the union till then. They welcomed me in. In 99 I came to work at PSO now AEP. Been here ever since.

[Lnhnd13]

It's my understanding that U-9 was estabished as a way to negotiate w/ AEP as one voice between them and the IBEW. They wanted it to save money on negotiations and we wanted it believing we would have more power as a unified body. Could you imagine union hands all over AEP walking at the same time? Well, they can imagine it. Under this Master Argeement our dates are all stagard so that would be very difficult to do. And guess who's is the first to expire. PSO, one of the companies bigger headaches. We would have to work a full year without a contract until all other locals' contracts expired.

[Oklineman]

As lnhnd13 has stated we are staggard in 3 month incroments. I beleave that there is a solution to that with our system council by-laws. Im planning a serious of prorosals to change them to give us a power as a whole. first thing is to get a vote language to allow the locals to vote on proposed contracts. The next will be to allow any due paying member to beable to propose and vote on a change in the U-9 by-laws. once that happens i will try to add language in the u-9 by-laws to add a time restraint of 3 months in the event of a no vote on a master contract.

immagon this. we get a crappy last and final, we vote no! the company due to the U-9 by-laws is forced to allow us to work 3 months with one quarter of its employees with out contract before they can start negotiations again. If the last beast and final is voted down again, another 3 monts will be forced to be waited again. allowing for another quarter to be with out contract now we have 50% abale to strike, if no again 3 months and 75% and last no 100% capable of strike because we will all be working with out contract! each time we say no our leverage will grow and put the company in the sweat seat! AEP has a record of bulling with time restraints this will stop that! set me know what you think........

[Savage]

As lnhnd13 has stated we are staggard in 3 month incroments. I beleave that there is a solution to that with our system council by-laws. Im planning a serious of prorosals to change them to give us a power as a whole. first thing is to get a vote language to allow the locals to vote on proposed contracts. The next will be to allow any due paying member to beable to propose and vote on a change in the U-9 by-laws. once that happens i will try to add language in the u-9 by-laws to add a time restraint of 3 months in the event of a no vote on a master contract.

immagon this. we get a crappy last and final, we vote no! the company due to the U-9 by-laws is forced to allow us to work 3 months with one quarter of its employees with out contract before they can start negotiations again. If the last beast and final is voted down again, another 3 monts will be forced to be waited again. allowing for another quarter to be with out contract now we have 50% abale to strike, if no again 3 months and 75% and last no 100% capable of strike because we will all be working with out contract! each time we say no our leverage will grow and put the company in the sweat seat! AEP has a record of bulling with time restraints this will stop that! set me know what you think........

AEP has done this since the begining. We had a paper in our archives that went back to 1942 with just that wording to keep all units from striking at once. There was a thing similar to this u-9 25 to 30 yrs ago it was called system 9 i think. It disbanded from lack of effort or intrest but what we have now is farther along than we have been at anytime at AEP yes some things need to be changed I just hope we can keep it from being a East vs West standoff. We just have to stand together!

[Hyper63]

I agree. The problem is. I don't know anyone from aep. On the job I can tell what kind of hand someone is, the same as you can. Company wide it's hard to know. But like the military, they come from all walks of life. Race, Religion, Sex, etc, doesn't matter. You mess with one marine you may have all of them on you without even asking if the marine started it or not. In contracting it can be like that. They are all strangers to one another. but they stick together. It can work I believe U9 is a great tool. We need to learn how to use it, It is easy to believe that pso 1002 are just a bunch of unhappy hands trying to make trouble. we are not. we just want to do our jobs and go home. The same as everyone else.
Divide and Conquer thats how you win. We can't do that. The management meet all the time meeting, phone conference, etc, etc. We don't and if I let them or anyone else tell me how you want it back east or how Tulsa wants it, they win. We only Have our BA's talking for us. That is why as RPM said yesterday on this site. This can be our tool. Knowledge is power and people with knowledge and a common cause can be very powerful.

[Savage]

I agree with you. I'm a stewared for 876. Our BA said on the pay raise that the Texas hands did not want it said it was too small. We are one of the smallest or are the smallest unions units in AEP. Like you I want us to be one voice I've been here 22yrs and have not seen one fair negotiations held. As they say times are a changin!

[Hyper63]

I've been at pso since 1999 lu1002, at a rea in colorado with lu111 2 yrs before that. Our local was against a one time "bonus" . We didn't know there was a wage offer made. It seems to me that pso/aep is a hard bargaining company. I understand that. As a union member i will support the u9's voice. I just feel we sell ourselves short. Did aep east send any hands to western oklahoma? just wandering.