|
Public Employee Press
Workers
persistence wins grievance at Elmhurst Settlement
with HHC produces awards of $7,500 each for three members of Local 420
Biomedical Technician and Local 420 member Amilcar Allende doesnt give
up very easily. He didnt back down after management at Elmhurst
Hospital told him not to waste his time filing a grievance because he could never
win. Not even after they threatened to write him up along with two of his co-workers.
Management told me the union wouldnt do anything for us,
said the Local 420 member. But I trust the union. As Biomedical
Technicians, Allende, Horace Villavicencio and Kelvin Endeavour were required
to carry their pagers with them when they were not working. They were told they
had to respond within an hour if the hospital called. The union said this
was equivalent to being on standby and that the members were entitled to overtime
pay as stipulated in Article IV, Section 11.b of the citywide contract.
Local 420 shop stewards and DC 37 staff pursued the grievance all the way to Step
III, lost at every step, but never gave up. Finally on June 13, when it looked
like the impartial Office of Collective Bargaining could rule in favor of the
three union members, the Health and Hospitals Corp. agreed to a negotiated settlement
with the union. The agreement provided for retroactive pay back to 1998. They
each received $7,500. We went this far, said Allende after
hearing the good news, because we had a great team fighting for us. The
unions Legal Dept., shop stewards Aristedes Guzman and Pamela Harding and
Council Rep Marva Lewis Bradford they all deserve a lot of credit.
| |