LTC 063-2008 Response to E-mail from Richard McKinnonm MIAMIBEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # 063-2008
2008 FEB 20 P~ 1 ~ 19
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LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor Matti Bower and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manage
SATE: February 19, 2008 ~ ~,
SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO E-MAIL FROM HARD MCKINNON
This LTC is in response to the e-mail you received from Richard McKinnon, President of the
Communications Workers of America (CWA) on January 31, 2008 regarding the scheduling
of overtime for Parking Enforcement Officers.
Mr. McKinnon's letter did not provide you with the complete information regarding this issue.
The Administration has addressed this issue with the CWA on several occasions and the
City has fully complied with all terms and conditions of the CWA collective bargaining
agreement.
As way of background, you are fully aware of the issues that arise during major event
periods on Miami Beach. As part of our planning efforts, the Major Events Plan (MEP) is put
in place and resources and staff from many different areas of the City are allocated in order
to ensure the safety and general welfare of our residents, businesses and visitors.
The implementation of the MEP during these events has, now and on many occasions in the
past, called for a temporary schedule change for certain employees creating an "Alpha-
Bravo" (12 hours on - 12 hours off) shift. The implementation of this temporary schedule
change is within the City's management rights, does not violate any of the collective
bargaining agreements, and is certainly justified and reasonable in light of the City's
responsibility to provide services during these crucial and demanding event periods.
The CWA Agreement clearly indicates that it is within the prerogative of the Administration to
require employees to work more than forty (40) hours per week and to work more than ten
(10) hours per workday due to special circumstances that may arise and that the City may
require employees to work overtime. In fact, the only limitation that exists is to make sure
that proper notice of the temporary schedule change is given with at least ten (10) workdays
notice, or such other notice as is practicable based upon the reason for the temporary
schedule change. The Administration has always provided notice in compliance with this
provision whenever a temporary schedule change is implemented.
The CWA also asserts that the City can only be relieved of the eight (8) to ten (10) hour
normal workday in the event of emergency. This simply is not the case pursuant to the CWA
Agreement. The City has never attempted to classify a major event as an emergency, even
though the City Commission each year passes a resolution declaring a parking "emergency"
during certain major event periods in the City. The Administration's position is that we simply
have the ability pursuant to the CWA Agreement to make temporary schedule changes.
Again, the only limitation is that the City must provide adequate notice.
The City Administration has made every attempt to work with the CWA to resolve concerns
that they may have over the use of Alpha-Bravo shifts. Instead of assigning employees to
mandatory Alpha-Bravo shifts, the CWA suggested having employees voluntarily sign up for
these shifts. The Administration allowed this only to be faced with numerous employees
calling out sick, which placed the Parking Department in a severe staffing shortage during
major events. These absences resulted in some disciplinary actions being issued to these
employees and the CWA filing grievances as a result. The Administration tried to resolve
the disciplinary actions with the CWA, only to have the Union reject our attempts. The City
has continued to encourage the CWA to explore alternatives with the Parking
Administration, but the CWA has failed to do so when requested. Most recently, the Parking
Director contacted the CWA on December 26, 2007 to schedule a meeting to discuss the
issue and after several attempts on the part of the Administration, the meeting was finally
scheduled for February 5, 2008. At this meeting, the following actions were agreed to:
Alpha/Bravo Shifts shall be effective from Friday, February 15 through Sunday,
February 17. This is scaled back from the original plan of Thursday, February 14
through Monday, February 18 (CWA conceded that Friday, February 15 through
Sunday, February 17 were absolute critical days/times);
An Overtime list shall be established for Thursday, February 14 and Monday,
February 18 in order to, once again, provide an opportunity for the parking
enforcement staff to enlist for overtime; honor their commitment, and not call in sick.
This is yet another opportunity that the Parking Department has agreed to provide in
order attempt the "overtime enlistment" process and also maintain sufficient
coverage for its absolute most critical days/times;
CWA committed to contacting their membership in the Parking Enforcement Unit to
emphasize the importance of honoring their commitment should they enlist
themselves on the overtime list for the days outlined above.
The Parking Department and CWA are proceeding in good faith in order to resolve this
issue. At this point, it is up to the employees of the Parking Enforcement Unit to honor their
commitment should they enlist on the aforementioned and future overtime lists, particularly
during major events.
Again, the City has acted in compliance with all the collective bargaining agreements and will
continue to do so in order to ensure the City is able to operate and function in order to
deliver excellent services to our residents, businesses and visitors.
I encourage you to encourage all unions to settle any issues or disagreements they may
have directly with the Administration as all union contracts call for. If an issue can not be
resolved, then the union has the right to file a grievance or go to arbitration. The unions
should not be reaching out to the City Commission in an attempt to resolve contractual
issues, especially if they have not tried to resolve with the Administration first. With this
particular issue that Mr. McKinnon e-mailed you about, we had been trying to set up a
meeting with the CWA since December 26, 2007 until they finally agreed on February 1,
2008 to meet with us on February 5, 2008. There was no reason for Mr. McKinnon to reach
out to you at all, least of which without giving us an opportunity to meet with them first.
Please feel free to contact me should you need any additional information or have any
questions.
JMG/RCM/ri
F:\cmgr\$ALL\LTC-08\CWA Parking Response.DOC
C: Richard McKinnon, President, CWA