Submitted on Sat, 04/01/2006 - 9:38pm
The State of Utah is going fully corporate under a new law (HB109) that creates a new Department of Technology Services (DTS) and changes the status of all new hires to exempt or non-merit so called schedule AT employees. "AT" or "exempt" employees are different than the current "schedule B" or "career service employees" such as myself in the rights they have to their jobs and in hiring and firing decisions. The "exempt" employee status means that, "
works at the will and pleasure of the employing agency and can be released from their appointment at any time without explaination or just cause." Fellow worker Raphael C and many thousands of her co-workers coming under the employment rules and change in structure to DTS received a threatening memo from management dated April 3, 2006. In effect this memo attempts to extort existing Information Technology Services employees to voluntarily give up their schedule B, career service employee status, moving to AT or "exempt" employment status in exchange for a 3 step pay increase. The memo in effect threatens existing career service employees when it states that, "There are two ways that this conversion will take place.
Submitted on Sat, 04/01/2006 - 8:31pm
The State of Utah is going fully corporate under a new law (HB109) that creates a new Department of Technology Services (DTS) and changes the status of all new hires to exempt or non-merit so called schedule AT employees. "AT" or "exempt" employees are different than the current "schedule B" or "career service employees" such as myself in the rights they have to their jobs and in hiring and firing decisions. The "exempt" employee status means that, "works at the will and pleasure of the employing agency and can be released from their appointment at any time without explaination or just cause."
Fellow worker Raphael C and many thousands of her co-workers coming under the rules and management of the new DTS received a threatening memo from management dated April 3, 2006. In effect this memo attempts to extort existing Utah State Information Technology Services employees to voluntarily give up their schedule B, career service employee status, moving to AT or exempt employment status in exchange for a 3 step hourly pay increase. The memo reprinted below in effect threatens existing career service employees when it states that, "There are two ways that this conversion will take place.
Submitted on Thu, 03/23/2006 - 12:43pm
Reposted from Laborstart.Org - Not officially endorsed by the IWW; posted in solidarity.
We can only do these campaigns if we can send out emails for free. If we need to pay for each email we send out, we won't be able to match the amount of money corporations can spend.
Right now, America Online (AOL) and other internet service providers are considering imposing charges on email sent to their subscribers. This is no problem for Wal-Mart and McDonalds -- but it is a problem for those of us fighting against Wal-Mart and McDonalds. We must bring pressure to bear to compell AOL and others to change their minds, and to keep email free.
This is why LabourStart was proud to join the AFL-CIO, the Communication Workers of America, the United Farm Workers, Working America, and American Rights at Work as one of the 50 original sponsoring organizations backing this call:
http://www.dearaol.com/
There are now over 500 groups will have endorsed this campaign -- is your union among them?
Submitted on Wed, 03/22/2006 - 8:23pm
The latest news from communitcateordie.com
Welcome to everyone who has registered with the CoD for the past few months. If you haven't been to the site recently, here's some recent must-read blog posts:
Opening Labor's Minds to Internet Communication by Wayne Langley http://www.communicateordie.com/node/257
Cleveland AFL-CIO President's Blog Provides Stage for Union Bashing by Steve Dondley http://www.communicateordie.com/node/253
New Web Site Brought to You by Union Busters, Inc. by Steve Dondley http://www.communicateordie.com/node/243
Using internet-driven tech for more than just publishing/publicity? by Franciso Cendejas http://www.communicateordie.com/node/213
Submitted on Sun, 01/15/2006 - 5:41pm
Well the results are in. Although disappointing that the IWW didn't win the competition for its centenary year, it is notable that the IWW beat all AFL-CIO union sites hands down.
In this year's competition, 6,848 votes were cast for hundreds of trade union websites around the world. 5,578 (81%) of these confirmed their choice by email and only those votes are counted in this year's competition -- the first time we have ever undertaken this precaution.
This year, among the top 10 websites we have four from Canada, two from the USA, and one each from South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. These ten websites come from unions representing a total of nearly 3,000,000 workers. The winning site this year received more votes than any other site ever received in one of our annual competitions.