(Available again next year… June 2012…. See you then!)

Submitting this 2011 NGO form will:

1 – Cancel your SEIU Membership
2 – Instruct SEIU to reduce your Fair Share Fees by that portion of their activities that are Non-Germane to Bargaining
3 – Specify to SEIU that your are filing for Non-Germane Objector status
4 – State that you are Challenging SEIU’s calculations of the Non-Germane portion of your Union Dues
5 – Document that you are Appointing CPPEA’s Ken Hamidi as your representative for all legal matters pertaining to the NGO

Whether you are a member or not this form will cover you and will qualify you for Non-Germane Objector status, meaning you won’t have to pay that portion of Union Dues that is not explicitly used for Germane Union Bargaining of our contracts, and/or Representation by SEIU.

Estimates of the Non-Germane portion of our Union Dues have ranged from 75% to 95% of union dues.  That means you could get a 75% to 95% “discount” on your Union Dues and SEIU must still represent you, just as though you were a full dues-paying member. See the Pay Stub below!

The issue is: Who gets to tell you how much of your dues are being spent on non-germane activities?  The answer is: SEIU, the Union spending your money!  Sounds a lot like “putting the Fox in charge of the Hen House”, doesn’t it?  So the law gave us the ability to Challenge SEIU’s calculations of the Non-Germane portion of our Dues in an Arbitration Hearing.

This form automatically makes all of us  challengers which will allow us to force SEIU to reveal what they are actually doing with our $63 million of Union Dues paid to them annually.

In last year’s Arbitration, SEIU and the Arbitrator wouldn’t allow CPPEA’s Ken Hamidi to speak on our behalf, because he didn’t have signed permission from all challengers.  This year’s Form will give Ken that documented permission to ask SEIU hard questions on our behalf, and to force greater transparency, and adherence to established law and guidelines, from SEIU.

Here are just a few of the established guidelines ignored by SEIU last year, that CPPEA’s Ken Hamidi will try to force SEIU to follow this year:

a. Force SEIU to permit member input on who is assigned the role of the Arbitrator.

b. Force SEIU to agree to multiple locations for the arbitration this year, preferably in Sacramento, Bay Area, Fresno, LA, and San Diego.

c. Force SEIU to agree on an Arbitration date, day (preferably a Saturday) and time, that is more convenient for members to attend and participate.

d. File a subpoena to require SEIU to reveal the details of the SEIU expenditures being spent in preparation for the NGO Arbitration, and if like last year, SEIU doesn’t provide the required information, Ken Hamidi will file for an injunction with PERB until they provide the information.

Below is the verbatim language of the law/government code pertaining to the Dills Act:

3515.8. Return of part of fair share fee:
Any state employee who pays a fair share fee shall have the right to demand and receive from the recognized employee organization, under procedures established by the recognized employee organization, a return of any part of that fee paid by him or her which represents the employee’s additional pro rata share of expenditures by the recognized employee organization that is either in aid of activities or causes of a partisan political or ideological nature only incidentally related to the terms and conditions of employment, or applied towards the cost of any other benefits available only to members of the recognized employee organization. The pro rata share subject to refund shall not reflect, however, the costs of support of lobbying activities designed to foster policy goals and collective negotiations and contract administration, or to secure for the employees represented advantages in wages, hours, and other conditions of employment in addition to those secured through meeting and conferring with the state employer. The board may compel the recognized employee organization to return that portion of a fair share fee which the board may determine to be subject to refund under the provisions of this section.

3515.7. (g) Maintenance of membership or fair share fee deduction:
(g) An employee who pays a fair share fee shall be entitled to fair and impartial representation by the recognized employee organization. A breach of this duty shall be deemed to have occurred if the employee organization’s conduct in representation is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.

Here is the link for both of the above statutes:  http://www.perb.ca.gov/laws/statutes.asp#ST3515_7

This link is for a Downloadable Flyer version of one of last year’s Non-Germane Objector’s pay stub

Follow the link above to a Pay Stub from one of last year’s Non-Germane Objectors.  Total SEIU Union Dues paid out monthly:  $3.25 !

What this means is, because non-members get to enjoy the exact same benefits as paying members, SEIU was allowed to charge Fair Share Fees to non-members, yet we have heard of instances where SEIU will come to your office and tell you that you will have different representation than paying members if you quit the union or stop paying Fair Share fees.  This is a totally false, and if you hear an SEIU representative tell you this please get their name and note the time and date, and document the gist of the conversation, then contact CPPEA so that we can voice our concerns about this in the court system.

In fact, according to several different laws, any Union that charges Fair Share Fees MUST represent non-members “… with the same vigor as full dues paying members of the Union… ” or the Union will lose the right to collect Fair Share Fees from all non-members in that organization. So you could think of this actually giving non-members more of an advantage in SEIU representation, because non-member representation is under greater scrutiny.

In the meantime consider this: SEIU is unresponsive to the majority of requests for representation from employees, and clearly most representation by SEIU is mediocre at best, and undermines the employee’s position in a grievance against the state, at worst.

So why would you want to pay SEIU for representation?
The answer most employees will give you is that: “mediocre representation is better than none at all”, showing that they are unaware of our ability to have anyone represent us against the State (i.e., your co-workers, a friend, or your own attorney, anyone at all).

You could even sign up for Group Legal services and pay $16/month for free legal, and have unbiased, dedicated representation, without any hidden agendas or any agendas at all, other than to represent you against the state.  And you can use the same Group Legal services for other non-union legal issues as well.
That’s one option.  There are others, which we will discuss at a later date.  For now consider the following:

Per Government Code 3515.7 (d) also known as the Ralph C. Dills act:

d) “A Fair Share Fee provision in a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU, i.e., “Contract) that is in effect may be rescinded by a majority vote  by all the employees in the (Bargaining) Unit (BU) covered by the memorandum of understanding, provided that:
(1) a request for the vote is supported by a petition containing the signatures of at least 30% of the employees in the unit;
(2) the vote is by a secret ballot; (3) the vote may be taken at any time during the memorandum of understanding. “

This ability to petition PERB for a vote to eliminate Fair Share Fees will ensure we have the funds to pay for our own representation or at least get SEIU’s attention and force them to understand that we pay them and that if we quit the Union they can’t still tap our paychecks for 98% of the same amount as full Union Dues.

Hmmm…. Zero representation = Zero Dues;  Represent me successfully, and I continue to pay.  So that in a “worst-case” scenario, if we are stuck with SEIU for another 3 years, we take back control whether we pay them or not depending upon SEIU performance.  Sounds good to me, what about you?

According to the Audit summary (pg 18), up to 74.69% of Monthly dues was spent on Non-Chargeable (Non-Germane) expenses by SEIU.

You can read the report in it’s entirety online at:  SEIU CTW Audit Results

Audit Results for SEIU expenses

Although the data shown is specific to the SEIU CTW Union, and the audit date Dec. 2008, it still demonstrates that there is a wide margin of Non-Germane expenses that can be incurred by SEIU for non-Union business. Numbers specific to SEIU Local 1000 are most likely different.

The New June 2011, All-in-One Non-Germane Form is Available NOW!

Congratulations to everyone who submitted last years Non-Germane Objector Form by June 30, 2010 !

In June 2010, California State Employees concerned about their futire sent SEIU a message.

If you filed a Non-Germane Objector Form, last year, remember…

• The Non-Germane Objector Form must be submitted every year, so if you filed it in June 2010, you must file it again in June 2011, June 2012, etc.,..
• This form can only be filed by “Fair-Share” fee payers (who have canceled their SEIU membership).

Whether or not you filed your Non-Germane Objector Form, you can help bring effective, responsive, California-based union representation to workers in Local 1000, currently under-served by SEIU.

For information on the upcoming process to “Fire SEIU” and choose a better union, visit: Why Decertify SEIU?

Documents are in Adobe Acrobat format.

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NOTE:
Petition should be Printed out, Signed and Mailed to CPPEA (address on form).

VERY IMPORTANT:
Be sure to SIGN and fill in this petition by hand, in ink (not by computer).

NOTE: Please don’t wait till the last minute to submit these petitions! Mail filled in petitions as soon as possible!

NOTE: This Petition can be signed by SEIU Members, and Non-Members (“Fair-Share” fee payers).

NOTE: The Information on these signed Petitions is CONFIDENTIAL!

• Access to the information on this form is protected by Federal & State laws.
• Information submitted on this form is considered Confidential.
• Do not leave this Petition unattended.
• This form should be printed out, filled in, signed and mailed, ASAP.

Be assured that:

• SEIU can not access the information on this Petition.
• SEIU will never see this Petition.
• PERB will count these signatures and advise all parties whether we have gathered enough signatures to vote on a new Union or not.

This Petition was Step #3 in taking back Control of your Future, by petitioning to replace SEIU and elect CPPEA as your member-led Union.  Steps #1, and #2, have been completed, so we are now focusing on the SEIU Decertification Petition (Step #3).

For info on the SEIU Decertification Petition (Step #3) to go to: Why Decertify SEIU?