PG&E and IBEW Local 1245 have had ongoing discussions on the complexity and time it takes to fill positions using the current Job Bidding process. With PG&E’s aggressive staffing plans (e.g. Gas Operations plans to fill 400 new bargaining unit positions each year for the next 3 years), it is time to dive into the overall process and explore ways to make it more efficient in what it is designed for, namely to make it easier for IBEW Local 1245 members to bid on, and have positions filled, faster.
A team consisting of IBEW staff and rank and file members and PG&E management has been formed as “The Job Bidding Process Review Team”. The team is charged with identifying how PG&E might improve the job bidding process in order to create a seniority-based process that supports the shared labor-management objectives of:
- Transparent, simple and easily understandable for managers and employees at all levels of the organization
- Putting qualified employees in the right jobs at the right time
- Filling jobs faster than today
The team will use a collaborative and transparent work process, and will incorporate the principles of interest-based problem solving to resolve differences in reaching agreement. In addition to work done at team meetings, there will be a significant amount of intersession work. Nothing will go forward as a recommendation from the team unless there is consensus between management and union co-chairs and team members.
IBEW committee members are Assistant Business Managers Bob Dean and Joe Osterlund, Berta Aceves, Casey Barker, Anthony Brown and Cory Armstrong.