PROPOSALS STILL BEING ACCEPTED FOR

ASPLUNDH BARGAINING

LINE CLEARANCE TREE TRIMMER REPORT – SOUTHERN AREA

Asplundh Tree Expert: We are still taking proposals for our upcoming negotiations that begin Oct. 19. The company is still issuing work to Rolling Green Landscape & Mario’s Tree Service from Fresno.  These are non-union companies working on PG&E.  We are expecting to discuss this matter with Asplundh since Rolling Green crews are being allowed to perform work seven days a week. This is taking place in the Bay Area and in San Joaquin Division. Grievance activity is starting to pick up again.

Davey Tree Surgery: The company offer to extend the contract was ratified on Sept. 9.  The extension runs through Dec 31, 2012.  This is a 2% wage increase for all members at Davey Tree working on PG&E property system-wide. We had a fatality in Central Coast on Sept. 28. Due to this incident we have agreed to conduct Joint Safety Meetings throughout the territory with the company and PG&E. Safety is our #1 focus.  The work picture has picked up on PG&E system-wide with pockets of overtime.  We are planning on holding labor-management meetings for East Bay and North Bay in October. We will be holding separate labor-management meetings for Central Coast, Mission & Los Padres.

City of Santa Clara: We are planning to meet with the membership.

Trees Inc.:  We are still taking proposals for negotiations to be held Oct. 19. We have several held-over grievances to which the company needs to give us a response. The company also owes us a response on the open-vacation matters.  The company is also using non-union contract crews from Rolling Green and Mario’s Tree Service in San Joaquin and Fresno Divisions.  We plan on bringing this up in negotiations.

Utility Tree: We are still taking proposals for negotiations to be held Oct. 19.  We will be setting up the final GRC for the open grievances.  The company is also utilizing the services of non-union contractor Rolling Green to perform work on PG&E. The company has begun to allow our members to work overtime on Saturdays. Rolling Green crews are working seven days a week on PG&E. This will also be a topic of discussion in negotiations.

Wright Tree: We are still taking proposals for negotiations to be held Oct. 19. Grievance activity has picked up at an alarming rate on SMUD properties. The company has made a policy change that affects both employees on the crew. The union was not informed of any policy change, and disagrees with this type of “blanket” discipline.

Junior Ornelas, Business Representative