Health & Safety Negotiations Update

Now that the contract is settled and ratified, I wanted to let members know what we were able to
accomplish at the bargaining table to further our members' rights to a safe and healthy workplace.

A Union Committee comprised of Judy Hoover, Lou Soto, Rhonda Sadler and Dave Mora from
Local 2187; Rita Urwitz and Joe Perry from Local 2186; Linda Martin (from Willig, Williams &
Davidson) and Kathy Black, DC 47 Health and Safety Director, met several times throughout the
Spring and formulated six strong contract proposals dealing with Health and Safety issues.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the Union Health and Safety Committee members for
their excellent, hard work. We spent a lot of time and effort formulating these proposals and
preparing our arguments for their adoption. Everyone pitched in with a great deal of passion and
dedication and I know we made an impression on management. It has been a pleasure working
with them, and they have accumulated a great deal of health and safety expertise which you all
should take advantage of!

Some of the highlights of these proposals were:

- increase the compensation level for employees receiving IOD benefits.
- allow employees to switch to their own doctors after 90 days of IOD treatment with City doctors,
    as allowed for under the state Workers' Comp system
- union veto power over unsatisfactory doctors in the City's IOD system
- quarterly notice to the Union's Health & Welfare Fund of all workers injured
- various improvements in Family & Medical Leave benefits
- incentives and protections for employees who participate in Baseline Medical Monitoring Programs
- employees' right to union representation regarding work assignment, hours, etc., when returning
to work under light duty restrictions from an IOD absence.

Early in negotiations, a Health and Safety subcommittee was established to discuss these issues in
detail. On the City side were Barry Scott, Health & Safety Director at Risk Management; Jane
Lewis, the IOD Program Director at Risk Management; Renee Vargas from Labor Relations and
Denise Smyler, a contracted attorney.

The Committee met several times. The rationale for each of our proposals was explained in detail,
with many examples given from my IOD caseload and experiences with workplace health and
safety issues over the past three and a half years. While management seemed to understand our
concerns and even responded as if they were reasonable and, in some cases, warranted, in the end
we did not make a lot of headway. It was clear that the management Committee had no authority
to agree to anything that could be construed as an economic issue. And even for the proposals that
would cost them nothing but would give our members some peace of mind they could not sign off
without agreement of the City's chief negotiators.

Only two agreements were reached and only one of those made it into the contract. There is now a
contract provision which requires Risk Management representatives to meet with us quarterly
regarding health and safety matters and the IOD program. As a practical matter, I already meet
with Barry Scott and his team much more often than quarterly. However, getting information and
cooperation from Jane Lewis regarding IOD cases and procedures has never been easy. While this
committee meeting does not obligate Risk Management to do anything but talk to us, it will give
us an opportunity to raise concerns as they come up. It will also give us access to her boss who
reportedly will be taking a new interest in these issues. We intend to use these meetings to
reinforce the need for solutions to the problems we raised in negotiations. It remains to be seen
whether we will actually get anything new implemented. At the least, however, we will have a
new forum to discuss these issues and we will establish a record over the next four years of which
problems continue to be intractable and what new issues arise which need attention. This will give
us documented evidence to use during our next contract negotiations to push for additional
contract language.

The other issue which got attention is the reporting to the Union's Health and Welfare Fund of
employees who are injured on the job. Currently we have contract language which states that
copies of injury forms will be forwarded to the Union if an injured employee signs a waiver giving

their permission. The Catch 22 has been that the City never informs employees they have this right
and they do not provide a copy of the waiver form to injured workers. The Union has never
received a copy of a single injury report as a result of this language.

During our meetings, Barry Scott informed us that he is in the process of revising the accident and
injury report form so that it can be used to collect data for his office to determine where health and
safety hazards exist. He and Jane Lewis offered to revise the form further so that the waiver
language mentioned above would be incorporated into the form itself. They anticipate that it will
be at the bottom of the form, clearly marked.

I do not know when the new form will be available, and the City was unwilling to incorporate into
the contract the change this represents. However, we do view this change as a very positive and
helpful thing. Timely notice to my office of employees who are injured will allow me to be of
much more assistance to these workers. The critical time to get proper diagnosis and treatment is
at the onset of an injury. The longer it takes for me to hear about problems workers are having
with the IOD providers or process, the harder it sometimes is to get solutions implemented.

When the new form comes out, employees and supervisors are supposed to receive training in its
use. I will also generate something to encourage employees to sign the waiver language at that
time. Something will be posted on the web when the new form is available.

Also, Judy Hoover has renewed a longstanding grievance against the City for their failure to
provide the Union with completed injury reports. She has given the City a deadline of November
10 to complete and implement the new form. If it is not in operation by then, the grievance will be
pushed to arbitration.

Thanks again to the health and safety activists who worked on our Committee. If anyone has
questions about any of these issues or the negotiations proceedings, please contact me at
215-893-3770 or by e-mail at kblack@dc47.org.

In Solidarity,

Kathy Black, Health & Safety Director