Your IBU Negotiating Committee is committed to crafting a tentative agreement that will be acceptable to our members.  The act of preparing for the worst and working toward the best is simply being responsible and proactive.  In order to legally go on strike, there are several steps we must take.  Both parties must declare "impasse".  Impasse means, regardless of the efforts from both sides, the parties are not able to come to an agreement.  The final step is mediation. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service is an independent agency of the Federal Department of Labor that offers mediation and arbitration services. Once the parties reach impasse a mediator will work toward moving the parties to an agreement. If the mediator is not successful, the employer can implement their last offer and the IBU membership can request a strike sanction from the IBU National President, Alan Cote. 

A successful strike can not be organized in a couple of days, therefore the Union is preparing in advance in the event that negotiations completely fail. One of the steps is to determine who will volunteer as picket captains and a request for volunteers is simply considering all options before us. By preparing for a possible strike does not necessarily mean we will end up on strike.  We want it known to all that the IBU is using the tools that we have available to arrive at a tentative agreement that is acceptable to our brothers and sisters in the AMHS Bargaining Unit of the IBU.

 

Volunteers Needed for Strike Lines

 ATTENTION:

All IBU/AMHS Employees

*** We also need members to feed, transport, and house folks who will be on picket lines, etc.*** 

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We have met with the State yesterday and today, July 14 and 15, 2008 and we have submitted our comprehensive proposal. The State then canceled today’s meeting. The State’s Chief spokesperson stated they would have a response for us at our next session on July 24 and 25, 2008, we have contacted our National Office and our National President will be coming to Juneau for our next meetings.

AMHS BU

Here are the results of our voting the AMHS TA

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AMHS BU

 

I'm asking everyone to pass this on to friends, and to Post it in the workplace.  Thanks!  leif

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

    The most disappointing thing in my 25+ years with AMHS has been the membership's deceasing participation.  The most heartening thing has been the way the membership has always responded to votes for TA's and Strike Ballots.  We have the most Democratic Union - and it will continue to be so as long as (and only as long as) we participate.

    It isn't much fun, usually.  Participating, I mean.  It can be work, and we all have other things to do, sometimes extremely important things.

    So we have a tendency to look for the Silver Bullet. 

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AMHS BU