A new law has been signed by Governor Deval Patrick that affects the Employers rights regarding an Employee's "personnel records." (Chapter 240, Acts of 2010, section 148).

*Employers must notify Employees within 10 days of any new material being placed in their file.

*Employees are limited to reviewing their records to twice in one year, but the Employer must provide the records within five business days of a written request.

* A "personnel record" is defined as including any documents that are or may be used to affect an Employee's employment, promotion, transfer, compensation, or disciplinary action.

* An Employer may be fined $500 - $2500 for violating this law. 

* The law is retroactive to August 1, 2010. 

If you do go to the Personnel Department and ask to see your "file", make sure that you ask for any and all materials that exist within the company. Your managers, or supervisors may be keeping their own files on individuals and you have every right to see them as well as what is in your "official" file.  It is still unclear, but it appears that anything that is not provided for review would be not accepted as valid in a disciplinary hearing.

This past week we had two days of negotiations with WBZ.  We spent all of the first day crafting a new package proposal that we felt addressed all of the company issues.  This proposal was rejected. You can see both the company's and the unions proposals in the Bargaining Updates portion of the Member Resource section.  The notes in red on the Company's proposal were written  to help explain what they refer to.  A shop meeting was held on Saturday, August 28th.  We had a marvelous turnout and the solidarity was very evident.  An Action Committee has been formed and we will keep you informed as to what our next steps will be.   

At our last Local meeting there was some discussion on how we can attract more members to attend these meetings.  Several ideas were put forward and it was decided that for the next one or two meetings we will hold a raffle for some sort of prize to be determined.  It might be a gas card, or a supermarket card, or perhaps we will raffle off an IBEW logo jacket or watch.  Our next meeting is set for September 7, and our hope is to get you to come to the meeting.  If you are working or unable for other reasons to attend, please let us know when you could attend and we may reschedule meetings for the future to make it easier for more people to attend.   thanks..  

At the recent IBEW Broadcasting Conference, all IBEW locals were asked to submit a list of all injuries and illnesses that have occurred at the worksite for the past year.  I've asked all the General Managers of all our contracted stations to send that information along to our Local.  Many have done so, but what might be helpful is a personal account from those who have been injured.  If you are one of those unfortunate to have suffered a work related injury, please send me a short description of how it happened and what might have prevented it.  I believe that such information might be useful for future reference.  The IBEW is also currently involved in getting data on the affects of radio frequency (RF) transmissions on individuals.  We are not aware when we are getting bombarded by RF signals and how this may affect any of us in the long run.  If you have any pertinent information on this please send it along.  

We recently received an interesting brochure that lists websites for union made clothing - in the USA and in Canada. In this day it's almost impossible to shop for clothes and find things that are not made in third world countries. I thought I'd share this brochure with you in case you feel as I do that it is important to keep union members employed.  I cannot vouch for these websites, but it may be a start for some of us to do our shopping on line and put a small dent into the Walmarts of this world.