Will you be "impacted" or "realigned"?

International senior managers (directors, assistant directors and deputy directors) had a conference call as noted yesterday morning, but did not get the full details on the "layoffs". Instead, Perez hears, there were plenty of platitudes and much overuse of the word “Impact”. Chief of Staff JJ Johnston led the call, and was responsible for much of the management-speak.

Here’s who’s out according to the call:
More than 70 positions in UUR are to be eliminated. All Organizer 1’s are laid off.
19 positions within OPEIU Local 2 are to be eliminated.
38 manager positions are eliminated.

JJ emphasized how important it was to say that management have also been “Impacted” by the restructuring, as their annual pay increase has been delayed until June, when it will be decided whether it is retroactive, goes into effect, or is canceled for 2009. Perez notes that of course by that time, all the laid-off bargaining unit staff will be gone.

Most managers who are losing their jobs were notified last Friday (some still do not know), and have until March 31 to leave. Management were meeting with UUR representatives to notify them about bargaining unit layoffs on Monday afternoon, and the timing of layoffs will be connected (perhaps inversely?) to the importance of the project staff are working on. However, it was unclear exactly how affected staff would find out, despite questions from several managers on the call.

Perez hears that at this point the discussion got a little weird, and really nosedived into full-on cliché babble, with more than one person uncomfortable with the vagueness around how staff would learn they didn’t have jobs any more, and who they were going to learn it from, and Lori talking about the need to make individual plans for each laid-off person, getting a letter together and planning for “who will be in the room”. So apparently, if you’re cut, you could hear it from anybody at any time!

Also under brief and vague discussion, the new round of contract bargaining SEIU will hold with UUR, whose contact expires at the end of March. The first bargaining session will be held today, and SEIU management’s team will be:

Judith McCullough - Operations Manager (“leading our efforts at the table there”)
Michelle Healy – Organizing Staff Director
Lori Wood – Human Resources
Laphonza Butler – Deputy Director of Property Services
Charlotte Nelson Francis – Campaign Field Coordinator
John Ronches – Trustee of Local 6434

Judith will be sending managers an update or holding a call after each bargaining session, and suggested cryptically that if anyone had suggestions or had “problems in the past” that they contact her.

The call closed with JJ’s reassurance that “realigning” the union was obviously the right thing to do.

Oh, and Perez hears that Mary Grillo gave him a little shout-out, and would like to apologize to her for being late.