First TEA Times of 2009

The first mailing of the TEA Times, dated January 8, 2009, has gone out to Transit and Wastewater members.  If you missed it, you can find the mailing archived here.

Calendar events can now be found on the TEA Calendar page.

Special Statement for TEA Members in Wastewater

Dear TEA Members,

Many of you are receiving pledge cards to consider joining 117.  Now is a critical time, because of the furlough.  If enough of you sign cards, The Teamsters will file a petition to represent TEA members in Wastewater and ALL bargaining will cease.  This means for certain, any chance of settling the furlough effects will be delayed for several months.

The King County Council has given HR another week to see who they can sign on to the TA and it’s in our contract offer.  However, once you sign cards, the bargaining process cannot continue and the representation process must go through to a vote even if you just want to test the water, so to speak.

There is a lot to consider, not the least of which is our dues will increase $700 per year for the average member, nearly $1000 a year for those of you at the top.  If the economy really is crashing, is now the time to spend more on dues just to switch unions?

Thanks for listening. - R. Browne

Site Down

Just as I’m attempting to post the new Council Reps page, the teaseattle.org provider has fallen into a coma.  The site seems to be … gone!  I’ve been using them for my own site for the past six or so years, with nary a glitch.

Update: Up and running again, some time after 7pm Pacific time.

Just another day in the Northwest, I suppose.

Meeting Cancellations

December’s a busy month. So much so that the regular monthly meeting and the grievance committee meeting have been cancelled.

The Calendar

I’ve added a link to a test-only, not-yet-official TEA event calendar to the TEA home page. The link is on the left side of the page, under the home page posting date, along with all the other links, as well as here in this posting.  It’s intended to be helpful, but if I find that nobody cares, I will probably take it down.

If you happen upon it, send comments via the comment section of this blog, or with one of the Board members.