Catboat#6

Dear Self:
 I am the secretary of the Union for the Guards at the Museum of Fine arts in Boston. We are currently in contract talks, to make a very long story way too short, despite a degree of collaboration of sorts between labor and management, I believe the Museum is thumbing its nose at a diverse veteran work force of guards. Many of us are Artists and  have families with young kids, and we are being asked to work schedules that we can't work because we can't get home late at night due to limitations of the MBTA, or we can't come in early because we have to put our kids on the school-bus.

There are other changes to our job description that management is imposing, using its contractual management rights, despite referring to the changes as only up-grades to the work-force. These changes are meeting fierce vocal resistance from a certain number of members, and grudging acceptance from the rest, but the main problem as I see it is the schedule changes that are being implemented. not that we like the other stuff much either.

Essentially we are having our lives get screwed up by Management and we get nothing in return, and then we get accused of not collaborating in the process, despite months of trying to do exactly that.

I have been in many meetings with Management in which we were told about what the future would bring, that there would be much more of a department wide team spirit, a sense of ownership in our jobs. Nobody disagrees with the need for that, but There has been very little direct communication between Management and the work force apart from a few quick meetings called "Forums" I mean communication specifically about the departmental changes. These forums have only taken place this week after months of rumors and speculation and miss understanding about weather the Union Leadership or Management is supposed to communicate directly with the work force. This atmosphere has created a degree of angst among the membership of the union toward the whole process.

The upshot is that the only way we can come to an agreement and get a contract ratified is through compromise. Management can utilize its contractual "Management rights" but does that mean only certain terms and conditions of employment are negotiable, and others are not negotiable? Lemme ask our Lawer about that..

when we went to those first meetings in which the "New security model" was first described months ago, we were not collaborating, we were merely being informed, and we were un-wittingly taking on part of the role of management. Labor unions are for advocating for fair terms and conditions of employment, nothing more. Management should do ALL the managing which means communicating.

I wish it could have been otherwise, I need to go to sleep now,
thanks for reading
Me