The Locals First Grievance With Our New Collective Bargaining Agreement

April 26, 2022

On July 16th 2021 I filed a grievance on Holiday Pay on behalf of the membership.  The company notified us that we woud not be paid for any holiday if we did not work a scheduled shift the day before and the day after any holiday, or charge PTO for the day before  and the day after if we were not scheduled to work to get paid for the holiday.  My interpretation of our Collective Bargaining agreement is that we have no control over sheduling work for ourselves and if we did not work the day before and the day after, therefore if we are not scheduled to work the day before and the day after a holiday it should be considered an excused work day.  I also thought the only reason we should not be paid for the holiday is if we were to call in sick the day before and the day after the holiday.  My interpretation is that calling in sick is an unexcused work day.  With this in mind I initiated this grievance at the first step of the grievance procedure.  I included two holidays that the company did not pay union members because they were not scheduled to work the day before and the day after these two holidays, nor did theyuse PTO the day before and the day after the holiday.  This grievance was denied by management at both the first and second step of the grievance procedure so I referred it to the National CWA T&T Office.  While this grievance was at the Local level the demand for settlement was for Local 7590 members affected by this, but becuas it was referred to the National the demand for settlement was change to include every union member across the Nation.

At this time I am pleased to announce that the CWA National (The CWA T&T Office) was able to settle this grievance in our favor.  It is my understanding that every member across the nation, except for two, that were not scheduled to work or used PTO the day before and the day after these two holidays (Memeorial Day and Independence Day of 2021) were paid for them on last Friday's (4/22/2022) paycheck.  The two union members that will not receive this holiday pay were on leave status with the company on these two holidays.

I have attached a copy of the grievance and the settlement statement from the CWA T&T Office.  This settlement for this grievance did not set any precedent. And it is my understanding that the companies position that we must be scheduled to work or use PTO the day before and the day after any holiday to get paid for the holiday.

In Unity,

R.K. Ferdinandsen

President

CWA Local 7590