CWA - ADT Tentative Agreement Summary

By Jesse Selin, ADT Tech Engineer and CWA 7250 Bargaining Committee Co-Chair

Original intent of unionizing.
When this began in late 2023 the discussion was largely about how to retain our coworkers. How to end excessive and random overtime. How do we return our workplace to a place where the techs are respected as human beings and not as production numbers. After much deliberation and counseling on the difficulties of getting a contract with ADT we followed good advice from our CWA representatives and proposed we mirror a contract that is already being honored by ADT. That contract as many of you now know was the 38-year-old Salt Lake contract with ADT. Obviously, there were market differences between these two places and ADT agreed that we could adopt this contract with a few alterations for Minnesota law and negotiate the wages article. This put us far ahead in the bargaining process, as this could have gone on for years having to start bargaining from scratch.


During the bargaining process many observers from other unionized units with ADT were surprised at ADTs willingness to bargain with our unit. This was due to our overwhelming majority during our initial vote. The other unique attribute that contributed to our success is that the union was spearheaded by the Tech Engineers. Many other units who unionized had a harder time getting ADT to take them seriously. Because of the unity of TEs here in Shoreview we had ADT's attention, and we were able to bargain our first tentative agreement in less than a year. I bring this up because this was done in the beginning to help our brothers on Install and Service. Tech Engineers had the most to lose should bargaining go awry or if ADT had caught wind of us organizing before we officially voted to unionize. This act of selflessness gave our unit power at the bargaining table.


The following is a summation of what is in the contract:
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Contract Duration:
Effective Date: Tentatively January 31st, 2025
Expiration Date: Tentatively February 1st, 2027
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Wages & Pay Increases:
Year 1 (April 1st 2025): 3% wage increase for all members. Tech Engineers are excluded from this.
Year 2 (April 1st 2026): 2.5% wage increase for all members. Tech Engineers are excluded.


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Health & Welfare:
Premiums: Union members’ health insurance premiums will remain the same coverage as provided by ADT


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Work Hours & Overtime:
Overtime Caps: Mandatory overtime is capped at no more than three 6-day weeks per month unless agreed upon by the employee.
Workweek: Standard work week remains 40 hours, with overtime pay at 1.5x for hours worked beyond 8 hours in a day as well as all hours after 40.
The TE average for OT applies after 40 hours as their pay compensation plan lays out.
As this means they can assign 6-day work weeks 3 times a month it is going to discourage them from doing so as the OT metric is going to go up substantially. This should dissuade management from superfluous and random mandatory OT.


Holidays:
All holidays are paid for 8 hours straight. Or if the holidays lands on the weekend an employee can take a paid day off of their choosing.
If the employee works the holiday He will be paid at 2.5 times his regular hourly rate.
Also, we gain a few holidays. With this contract we will have 9. All holidays not fixed by the company can be utilized as a floating holiday.


Vacation and Sick days:
Here we have few changes. We have been accustomed to a single PTO bucket that somehow accounts sick days and attendance points.
Because we are a union ADT will delineate these on your paystubs. And in order to be in compliance with Minnesota Sick and Safe law your sick days will be listed. Attendance points can only accrue after sick days are used up.
Remember that sick days can be used at any time. And you will have 6 days to use per year with no consequence to your standing with the company.

Vacation amount is given by the following table:
Less than 6 months: None
6 months but less than 1 year: 1 week
1 year but less than 5 years: 2 weeks
5 years but less than 15 years: 3 weeks
15 years or more: 4 weeks
If an employee takes his/her vacation during a period which includes a listed legal holiday, the employee shall receive an extra day of vacation or an extra day of pay.


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Job Security & Layoffs:
Seniority Rights: In case of layoffs, seniority will be the deciding factor, with the least senior members being laid off first.
Temp workers can be hired but not at the cost of an employee with more than 3 years with the company.


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Grievance Procedure:
You can request union representation for all disciplinary actions. As we have seen multiple times in this last year there were many issues resolved by stewards being a part of these conversations that would have otherwise gone to verbal warnings, write ups and or termination. This is our way of holding management accountable to the contract and to their own policies. Without these key members ADT can continue to change job expectations at any time.
Step 1: Employees can file a grievance directly with their supervisor or union representative.
Step 2: If unresolved, the grievance will be reviewed by a neutral third-party mediator.
Step 3: Arbitration will be the final step if the issue cannot be resolved at previous steps.
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Other Key Provisions:
Union Rights: The union will continue to have access to employees during non-working hours to communicate about union matters.
Non-Discrimination: Employer agrees to maintain a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
Union dues are calculated at base pay. Which is hourly rate for 40 hours per week at 1.3%.
Voting Method: via email.
Important: Please read the full contract before voting. Members have the right to ask questions at the meeting on Sunday, January 5th, 2025
For Questions or More Information, Please Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Vote to approve or reject this agreement! Your voice matters!

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Rove Pest Control Bargaining Report #39

November 7th 2024

 

In a monumental moment: the company TA’d an amended Union proposal without additional changes.

Whether rearranging words or changing punctuation, this week was the first time since opening bargaining day eleven months ago that the Company accepted a proposal (or amended proposal) from the Union. No matter how small, until today, a change always had to be made.

We remain hopeful we are rounding a corner on these negotiations and can reach agreement on the remaining proposals in the near future.

 

Respectfully Submitted,
CWA 7250 Bargaining team at Rove
Co-Chairs: Bruce Nielsen & Shari Wojtowicz
Members: Greg Bute, Hector Capote
Alternate: Zach Sager

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Rove Pest Control Bargaining Report #38

October 24th 2024

Company v. Union

Adequate implies meeting minimum standards, whereas accurate demands precision and exactness.

Which type of information would you expect to be provided?

Respectfully Submitted,
CWA 7250 Bargaining team at Rove
Co-Chairs: Bruce Nielsen & Shari Wojtowicz
Members: Greg Bute, Hector Capote
Alternate: Zach Sager

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Project 2025 vs the Working Class

Project 2025 is a right-wing blueprint to use the Federal government to attack the rights of unions, women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. This guest post comes from a presentation done for CWA Local 7470 in Lincoln Nebraska on what Project 2025 would mean for Unions and Union members. These attacks would mean even more obstacles to organizing, ending OT pay, and gutting health and safety regulations.  It's important to know our enemies and what they are planning for us and our families. Please keep these facts in mind when making political decisions. - Kieran F. Knutson, CWA Local 7250.

 

Project_2025.jpg VS  d1_news_oct_2023_-_bgny_at_uaw_picket_2.png.webp

Guest Post by Shane Hatch,

Windstream Technician

Secretary/Treasurer CWA Local 7470

Lincoln Nebraska

 

What Would Project 2025 Do?

Project 2025 vs Labor and Unions

"The Ability to Organize:
It would reverse the “Persuader Rule” which states that all corporations must disclose when they hire union busting consultants.
It would remove card check neutrality and make it illegal for companies to accept it. Meaning that if fifty percent plus one sign union cards the company cannot voluntarily recognize the union and will still require a secret ballot election. Thus, giving the company more time to bust the union.

Allow companies to bust unions mid contract. When a new contract is ratified, the company is not allowed to have a decertify vote for the length of the contract, except for certain windows of time. This would allow companies to hold the vote whenever they please.

Remove “protected concerted activities” meaning that companies will be able to retaliate against union organizers without penalty.

It would reintroduce and try to pass the Teamwork for Employees and Managers (TEAM) act. This is an employee council to work with management hand and hand outside of the organized union. This will severely weaken any unions and bargained for contracts

Government Workers:
It will ask Congress to make all public unions illegal. 2025 states that union representation of government workers is “incompatible with democracy”.

As stated in the opening paragraph, it would reclassify tens of thousands of civil workers to Schedule F category, thus exempting them from being protected by civil service rules. Giving the President the power to fire all of them and replace them with loyalists.

Cut retirement benefits for all Federal civil workers. They believe that civil workers make too much and receive too many benefits even before retirement.

Worker’s Rights:

It would allow employers to stop paying OT. It instead would give employees time off instead of OT. Trump has said he will no longer tax OT. Well, if you are getting paid time off in place of OT there is no OT to tax. To ensure this happens, where OT is still calculated, OT will be calculated on 2 week or even 4-week time periods, giving employers the ability to change schedules to avoid any OT being calculated.

It will repeal the Davis-Bacon act, which requires construction companies to pay wages and laborers and mechanics on federally funded projects the same as similar projects in the area. It also will encourage the federal government from using PLA’s (project labor agreements). These set the terms and conditions of employment with labor organizations. This will lower wages and weaken safety precautions at work sites.

It will restrict unemployment insurance. It will make it extremely difficult for anyone to get unemployment insurance by implementing strict regulations. While this will help with fraud, it will harm more people than reduce fraud.

It will cut assistance to workers whose jobs have been sent overseas. 2025 states “that workers who have had their jobs sent overseas should receive no special treatment.” Right now, the federal government has programs for these employees to get training and placement at new jobs.

Health and Safety:
It will exempt small businesses and for the first time, non-willful violators from fines issued by OSHA, even potentially in egregious cases of employer malpractice.

It will change the DOL’s hazard -order regulations to permit teenage workers access to work in dangerous occupations, like mines and meat packing plants. They believe this will solve the labor shortage problem. Adults already have plenty of safety issues in these jobs, why would we subject teenagers to this?

It wants to remove the government’s ability to negotiate with Medicare Part D prescription drug prices. This is the provision in the Inflation Reduction Act bill that caps insulin at $35 a month.

It wants to slash funding for Medicaid. It will require states to have much tougher regulations to become eligible for Medicaid. It also would apply lifetime caps or time limits on receiving Medicaid.

It will require a complete overhaul of the department of Health and Human Services. With the main point of removing the ACA, (affordable care act, Obamacare). This would take millions of Americans insurance away from them, with no plan to replace it.

It will tax worker benefits. There would be a cap on the tax deductions that employers can claim for benefits they offer workers. Anything over $12,000 per employee will now be subject to tax. It also removes the tax break for health insurance used to cover children over the age of 23.

Transportation:
It calls for the end of Capitol Investment Grants, (CIG). This program provides funding to state and local governments for new and expanded rapid rail, commuter rail, light rail, streetcars, bus rapid transit and ferries. It recognizes this program has a lot of favor in congressso it will “settle on” grants to maintain the current systems but not expanding them. It will then recommend slashing the “exorbitant wages” of all transit workers.

Summary:
They want to remove 50,000 to 100,000 career officials, to start with, they promise there will be more. They believe that there is a Dark State working against them, at all levels of the Government. They want to remove these officials for no other reason other than that person may have written a check to a Democratic candidate at some time. Whether these officials are Republican or Democrat it doesn’t matter, if they don’t have 100% loyalty, they want them gone. This is planned for Day 1.

When you visit the official page for Project 2025, there is a link to apply for all these openings that will be available immediately. After you apply, they will vet you and if you get through the vetting, you will be sent to an official site where they will train you for the position you want, so will be prepared to start on day 1. After the vetting it will obviously cost you money to participate any further.

This is a blatant attempt to weaken unions and weaken labor safety standards. This will take us back decades if not a century. This is just a review of how it affects labor. This project 2025 is a blueprint of how they plan on removing multiple agencies all together and rebuilding them with loyalist.

Except for the last paragraph this entire write up is their words, their plan, not my summary or twisting of their words. This was taken directly from Project 2025. Remember, everything fought for at the bargaining table, whether it took years to get, or the first time asking, can all be removed by the stroke of a pen. This is why labor is involved in politics."

 

 

 

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