Union Dues Authorization Cards – Term and Condition of Employment

March 19, 2021

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Last Tuesday, March 16th, the locals Secretary/Treasurer again mailed Union Dues Authorization Cards to the last known home address to those members that have not returned them.  This mailing included a letter informing the member that they needed to complete and return their Union Dues Authorization Cards, and it included a pdf copy of the authorization card as well.  The locals Secretary/Treasurer also sent these members a company email as well.

To date the local has notified the members that they need to complete and return a total of eight times to include this news article and three previous articles, three mailings to the last known home address of each member that needed to complete and return them and one company email.  The first mailing was done on January 20th, 2021 and the first news article was posted on the same day.  This was two months ago.  I cannot express how important it is to complete and return your Union Dues Authorization Card.  This is a “Term and Condition” of your employment with Goodman Communication Services.  Each day that goes by for each member that has not returned their card to Michelle Ramirez, our locals Secretary/Treasurer, they are putting themselves at risk of being terminated by the company!

To the members that have returned their Union Dues Authorization Cards you have already satisfied the Term and Condition of Employment with Goodman Communication Services.  You also have already satisfied CWA Local 7590’s By-Laws under Article 5 – Membership – Section 4 – Duties of the Members – Paragraph R - Keep their dues current and are a member in “Good Standing” per Article 5 Section 5 and Article 8 Section 1.

To the members that have not yet returned their Union Dues Authorization Cards, you have not satisfied the Term and Condition of Employment.  You may ask “Where does it say it’s a condition of employment?” And you can find the answer in our new contract with Goodman Communication Services Article 3 – Agency Shop (page 10).  Our new contract with Goodman Communication Services Article 4 – Deduction of Union Dues (pages 11 – 13) also specifically states in detail of how our dues will be deducted from our paychecks by the company at the expense of the company.  CWA Local 7590 has provided each member a hard copy of the new contract with Goodman Communication Services to their last known home address.  CWA Local 7590 has also posted an electronic copy of this new contract on this website as well and an electronic copy of the locals By-Laws.

To the members that have not yet returned their Union Dues Authorization Cards there have been issues, questions, and concerns about completing and returning their card.  Please allow me the opportunity to address some of those now.

1)      Can I pay my dues directly to the local?  The answer is NO, please see contract article 4.  If the local had the responsibility of collecting your dues it would also be at the expense of the local.  Also, the only way the local will have the responsibility of collecting your dues would be working on an expired contract and the company decided not to honor contract article 4.  The only exception for this is for a retiree that wants to remain an “active dues paying member” per the locals By-Laws

2)      Are my dues prorated for hours not worked?  The answer is NO, please see contract article 4.  Your dues will only be deducted if there is enough pay available to cover the amount authorized by you to be deducted from your paycheck with the Union Dues Authorization Cards that the local has provided to you.

3)      What is the amount I must pay in monthly dues?  The answer can be found in the Union Operating Procedures Manual (UOPM) Part IX – Membership Dues.  Here is the link https://cwa-union.org/uopm.  In this manual you will find that it is 2.25 hours of your hourly wage per month.  This is the amount you are authorizing by completing and returning your Union Dues Authorization Card.

4)      What does contract article 3 mean by agency shop?  More information on this can be found in the Union Operating Procedures Manual (UOPM), here is the link https://cwa-union.org/uopm.

5)      Contract Article 5 states that has a new hire I get 30 minutes with a union rep to give me an orientation to the “Union”, where is my 30 minutes?  Simply put you do not get these 30 minutes.  It is the intent of this article that designated union representatives will get paid to give this orientation as well as the new hire.  It is also the intent of this article that the designated union representative provides the new hire or transferred employee a copy of the contract, a copy of the local’s by-laws and to have them complete their Union Dues Authorization Card.  A new hire would be some that is brand new to both the company and union.  A transferred employee would be someone that is already an employee of the company but has transferred into the bargaining unit.  Last time I checked the local’s seniority report every member that is on there has been a Union Member for a long time and there is not anybody new on it.  All of us are existing members already we are not new to the “Union” or this bargaining unit.  Yes, we are new with Goodman, but we are not new to the union.  The local would be hard pressed getting the company to pay us (both the designated union representative and union member) to have this 30-minute orientation and have it on company time.

6)      The “Union Forced Me” to take this job!  This is absolutely a false statement.  Of the 201 of us eligible to take the job offer with Goodman Communication Services, only about 179 members took the job offer.  Since then there has been members that have left Goodman.  I know of two for sure within our local.  No one forced you to take the Goodman job offer and no one is forcing you to stay with Goodman Communication Services.  If anyone forced anything on you it was Nokia, they forced us all out the door.  For 2 ½ years Nokia told us all over and over, again and again, they did not want us (both the bargaining unit and every member in the bargaining unit).

Again, I say to the members that have not yet returned their Union Dues Authorization Cards, you have not satisfied the Term and Condition of Employment.   Every day you do not do complete and return you are putting yourself at risk of being terminated by the company! 

I strongly encourage all our members that have not completed and returned their Union Dues Authorization Card to do so right away!

In Unity,

R.K. Ferdinandsen

President

CWA Local 7590