As a reminder...

 SEIU, has been sending out letters demanding that employees once again start paying dues.  We feel that this is an attempt to persuade and intimidate the workforce into paying dues that are not required.

Has anyone seen a signed copy of the contract?

Has anyone seen a printed CBA handbook?

Information has been passed along to us regarding the status of the motion to disallow the results of the recent de-authorization vote. We have been informed that the National Labor Relations Board will be making a determination some time in October.

In the meantime, don't be intimidated into paying dues that are not legally required!

SEIU, produce a signed copy of the contract and a printed CBA handbook!

A pass along message!

If you received a second letter from SEIU,  use this form letter that was written by a attorney, and send back to the Union and send a copy to Covenant Payroll.


Sept. __, 2013



Secretary-Treasurer

United Service Workers West-SEIU

Northern California HQ

3411 East 12th St., Suite 200

Oakland, CA 94601



Dear Sir:



I am employed by Covenant Aviation Security at SFO, and I am in receipt of your “second notice” dated _______________, 2013. Your notice demands that I sign union membership and dues deduction authorization cards, and pay full membership dues to the union. However, your records should indicate that I am not a member of the union, and that I am already on record as being a Beck objector. If your records do not indicate this, then I will reiterate the following: I have no wish to be a member of the union, and I object to supporting any of the union’s political and nonrepresentational activities, as is my right under the National Labor Relations Act and CWA v. Beck. This objection is permanent and continuing in nature.

I request that you provide me with my procedural rights, including: reduction of my fees to an amount that includes only lawfully chargeable costs; notice of the calculation of that amount, verified by an independent certified public accountant; and notice of the procedure that you have adopted to hold my fees in an interest-bearing escrow account and give me an opportunity to challenge your calculation and have it reviewed by an impartial decision maker. Once you provide me with the appropriate reduced fee amount I will meet all lawful financial core requirements.



Sincerely,



______________________

Signature



_____________________

Name



_____________________

Address



Cc: Covenant Aviation Security HR/Payroll

We have been asked to post this bit of information

To all who received a letter from SEIU demanding that you start paying dues.

 Mr. Stephen Burke has filed a charge against the Union regarding a withholding of dues due to a lack of a contract. A "Hiatus" period was in effect since the beginning of 2012 which resulted in the temporary removal of our requirement to pay dues. A letter requesting  that the payroll department not take any dues from our paychecks was submitted. This letter also stated that if and when a new contract became effective that we would only resume our membership at a reduced payment rate according to the 'Beck" clause. That "Beck" membership rate would be at a reduced rate of  (1.8% ) not the full amount of 2.3%.

Do not send back the two cards to the Union. The National Labor Relations Board is now conducting an investigation and we feel very confident that the previous ballot results will be tossed out. We are requesting that a new vote take place on-site, not as a mail in ballot.

We will pass along any information as it becomes available to us.

Once again, has anyone seen a signed copy of the new contract?

What do we have?

The TSA has something called, "Workforce Engagement." Its stated purpose is to, "ensure that all employees at all levels are informed, inspired and supported so they can effectively contribute their expertise and enthusiasm to the success and performance of the TSA."  Do we have anything like that at Covenant?  Absolutely not!

What we do have is a management team that does everything it can to keep us uninformed. What we do have is a management team that does nothing to keep us inspired and motivated. This management team has shown its utter contempt for the workforce by sticking it to us as often, and as hard, as they can. 

We have all had a recent sampling of the value that Covenant places on the contributions of the workforce. We have just received a quarterly bonus of 100 dollars which, after taxes, nets out somewhere around 60 dollars.  Or, as we like to look at it, less than a net total of a dollar a day.

This profit-before-product company takes away several thousand of dollars in givebacks and take-away and in return they proudly announce this embarrassing quarterly bonus!  Does any employee not see how little they think of us?

Once again, we are stating, for the record, that there is absolutely and undeniably no cost advantage between a for profit-at-any-cost_private contractor and the TSA.  The budget would be the same, the only difference is that a for profit company, such as Covenant Aviation, is purely motivated by greed versus the TSA which is totally focused on providing the highest level of security possible.

We hope that Covenant is seen for what they are and that their days at SFO will soon come to an end.

SEIU is at it once again!

In their haste to re-establish their undeserved flow of cash in the form of dues, SEIU conveniently overlooked that they are suppose to inform the workforce that we do, in fact, have an option.

SEIU wants to collect dues at a full membership rate, when the employees have the option of paying an agency-only reduced rate. Gee, we wonder how they could have overlooked making that information available?  Go figure! Has anyone actually seen the new collective bargaining agreement?

BTW....a motion has been filed to have the recent vote-by-mail ballots tossed out.  A workforce this size should have had a walk-in ballot.  You will be made aware of any news concerning this issue as it becomes available to us.