the Contract Negotiation Process...

Currently, FFPIR has two charges filed against them with the NLRB by Teamsters’ Local 848: one for Tipton’s unilateral change in office policy, made without first bargaining with the union, and a second charge for failure to bargain a contract in good faith (as in waiting for five months after the vote to begin negotiating). This charge was made several days after what was to have been the first contract negotiation meeting on September 30. FFPIR’s representative at the meeting, Doug Casler, refused to commit to even a single future negotiation date. The meeting concluded with the promise that Casler would call the Teamsters’ Joint Council 42 President, Jim Santangelo, the following Monday with a negotiation date sometime within the next two weeks. Casler called Santangelo Monday October 3, and said that they could meet for four hours on October 29. Santangelo filed charges the following day. The October 29 date later had to be moved to November 8, because the Library where FFPIR insisted on meeting was not available that day.

The November 8th meeting was a thinly veiled attempt by FFPIR at what the NLRB refers to as "surface bargaining." FFPIR has been going through the barest essential motions towards negotiating a contract, without actually producing anything. Casler this time spent the first ninety minutes of a two hour meeting nitpicking literally every word of every sentence of the first page of the first fourteen pages of the contract- two paragraphs, all the way down to the use of the Teamsters' use of the word "company" instead of "organization" ("employer" was eventually agreed upon). Casler then spent the last half hour of the meeting trying to negotiate demands that were entirely beyond reason, such as asking the Teamsters to indemnify FFPIR against any new employees who sue FFPIR for sharing their information with the Teamsters (as required by law), and demanding that the Teamsters reimburse FFPIR for the labor expense of compiling a list of new employees every two weeks- particularly outrageous considering the ten-minute job will be done by a salaried director, already making less than minimum wage. In other words, FFPIR wanted the Teamsters to reimburse them for a job FFPIR would not be paying directors any extra money for in the first place.

At this rate, we can expect a contract sometime around Fall of 2009. Options other than waiting around for FFPIR to comply are currently being explored. Visit our updates page to read the latest develpments.