CAT Tracks for June 3, 2002 "INCOMPETENT"...SO YOU SAY

WE SAY..."ABUSIVE"

Follow-up to the paycheck errors...

A couple of bargaining unit members went to the central office on Friday to officially report the errors on their paychecks...mostly excess federal taxes and dock days. They met with Superintendent Isom at 8:45 a.m. and were given some assurance that the matter would be looked at...but that the person they needed to see was not there. They were told that she would meet with them if they came back at 1 p.m.

At 1 p.m., they returned, along with five other employees who had questions about their paychecks. They had to wait for about 20 minutes before the Director of Finance and Payroll arrived. When she arrived, she went to her office without speaking to the CATs and closed the door.

After about 15 minutes of waiting, one curious CAT ventured to knock on the door. The Director of Finance and Payroll...can I just call her DFP from now on...the DFP came to the door and in a very loud and nasty tone told our curious CAT that she was "not going to face this crowd by myself". When the union representative that was standing by, admonished the DFP...saying that she had no need to be ugly...the DFP responded with "You haven't seen ugly yet!" The DFP then yelled at the curious CAT some more and slammed her door.

After another passage of time, the persistent CATs knocked on the door again...saying that they had talked to the CAT president the day before...that extra taxes were NOT supposed to be held out. The DFP was not impressed...yelled some more...and tears even flowed. She repeated that she was not going to do anything about the checks...that she was already being attacked in the CAT Tracks as "not competent". (I really don't remember this...I'll have to go back and do some reading. I do know that we have presented a VERY accurate report of things that have transpired over the past few months, and one can draw conclusions...)

During the aforementioned exchange, the union representative wandered into the DFP's line of sight, whereupon she announced that "This conversation is over!" Hmmm...something to hide?

The President of the Board of Education finally appeared...and entered the discussion...telling those assembled that they had to submit their complaint in writing. The agrieved CATs informed him that they had done that during the morning. The President listened, but kept repeating that "We're not saying that a mistake was made" and that the administration had 24 hours from when THEY decided that it was an error to fix it. So...stay tuned! Why is nothing ever easy in CSD #1?

GRIEVANCE(S) TO BE HEARD

As mentioned previously, a grievance was filed over the "docking" of a sick day from each bargaining unit member as punishment for the 17-day strike. Several bargaining unit members felt the immediate impact of this action...being docked a day's pay since they had already exhausted their sick leave. (At least two of these CATs still had a personal day and should not have been docked, but in the "rush to punish"...)

That grievance will be heard at 9 a.m. on Monday morning, June 3rd. We will keep you informed on the progress of this grievance.