Mar 7, 2016 | Departments |
FMLA is a federal law sponsored by labor Unions. It protects certain workers from discipline when using time away from work to care for their own serious medical condition, or that of an immediate family member. FMLA is associated with EAP, the difference being that FMLA is a law protecting Members and EAP is a program for assisting Members who are experiencing difficult times. An EAP coordinator can assist you with applying for FMLA.
Here’s the most important thing to know about FMLA.
If you have a dependability problem which is legitimately caused by your own serious medical condition (or a family member), then request FMLA.
It really comes down to just that.
Please do not make the mistake of unnecessarily subjecting yourself to company discipline for dependability. FMLA requires specific things. For example, a worker must have worked 1250 or more hours in the preceding twelve month period. FMLA also has some loopholes, which United Airlines attempts to abuse. For example, your doctor must insert language into your paper work protecting your regular days off from counting towards FMLA.
Sound complicated?
It can be. A qualified EAP will assist you with understanding FMLA, and will even coordinate with your health care provider. Don’t allow United Airlines, or US Airways, or any company to abuse you. Instead, call the EAP Main Number for information and help.
(650) 876-3625 Main Office
Bryan Hutchinson, District 141 Director of EAP
bryanrhutch@aol.com
(303) 348-4080
Basic facts about the Family Medical Leave Act
THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT (FMLA) STATES THAT IF YOU:
- Have worked for the same company for at least 12 months (does not need to be consecutive), and you
- Have worked at least 1,250 hours in the past year, and you
- Work for a company with at least 50 employees who work within 75 miles of your work site.
THEN YOU ARE ENTITLED TO:
- Take a total of 12 weeks off work without pay.
- Keep any health insurance coverage you had during the time you are off.
- Get your old job back, or an equivalent position with equal pay, benefits and other terms and conditions of employment following FMLA leave.
EMPLOYEE RESPONSIBILITIES UNDER THE FMLA
You must give notice of the need for leave from your job:
- Employees do not have to specifically request “FMLA Leave” or even mention FMLA. Employees must simply give enough information or put the employer on notice that the reason the employee is requesting leave may be FMLA qualifying.
- Employers can ask employees to provide “written notice” of need for leave, but employers cannot deny FMLA leave if the employee fails to comply with a written request requirement as long as the employee has given timely verbal or other notice.
- When the need for leave is foreseeable, employees must give 30 days notice. When the need for leave is not foreseeable, employees must give notice “as soon as practicable,” but usually within one or two days of the need for leave arising.
Provide Certification of the Medical Need for Leave
The FMLA allows employers to require employees to provide medical certification of the need for leave for the employee’s own serious health condition or for a family member’s serious health condition. Employers may not seek more information from the employee in the medical certification than what is allowed in the Department of Labor’s model form. Employers cannot require a diagnosis and should not require employees to sign an authorization allowing the release of all medical information to the employer. An employer’s doctor may contact an employee’s doctor only for the clarification of information.
Should an employer have questions regarding an employee’s medical certification, the employer may require the employee to receive a second and/or third medical opinion. An employer cannot require an employee who has provided a certification of a need for intermittent leave to provide a new certification each time the employee uses leave. An employer generally should not request recertification when an employee is using leave more often than every 30 days.
Comply with Fitness-for-Duty Certification Requirements
An employer may require employees scheduled to return from FMLA leave to certify that they are medically fit for duty. A fitness-for-duty examination or certification must be job-related and consistent with business necessity.
Source: A Reference Guide To the Family and Medical Leave Act, IAM Women’s Department.
Mar 3, 2016 | Departments, Home, Organizing |
Wage earner rights are human rights. The problem is protecting them. Knowing your rights and belonging to a union helps.
Mar 3, 2016 | Departments, Home, Organizing |
The size of District 141 membership nearly doubled in 2011–2012. That’s strength in numbers.
Our success arises from District 141 members themselves, thousands of whom relentlessly volunteer time and talent, and vote.
Leadership at District 141 Communications comes from a background in running political campaigns.
Nobody in the labor movement expected District 141 to defeat our rival Teamster union, an organizing powerhouse. When United Airlines brought in management’s hand-picked union-busting law firm, O’Melveny & Myer, and led the assault on PCE (Public Contact Employees), United Airlines had every right to expect to District 141. The same law firm decimated the contract and rights of workers at Northwest/Delta Airlines, and it had never lost a union-busting drive. Until now. District 141 crushed them. But in the end, it’s not about sending a few lawyers packing.
District 141’s record of success laid the groundwork for successful contract negotiations at United Airlines. In turn, that means a better life for you and your loved ones.
More broadly, our success leads to your success. Earn more, live better.
Mar 3, 2016 | Organizing |
Union organizers help people who work secure union representation at their worksite. A union organizer informs people (mostly nonunion workers) about their rights, identifies and develops leadership skills among workers, explains the union organizing process and helps the workers campaign for union recognition. The organizer builds relationships based on what those workers do on their jobs, the problems they face at work and challenges and inspires them to get involved with their co-workers to have a say on the job by organizing a union.
The ultimate goal is for workers to build power in their workplaces by winning a binding agreement with their employer that makes real improvements in their living and working conditions.
You have certain rights designed to protect you as an organizer. For example, the right to
- Join a union, and to ask others to join an airline union
- Attend union meetings, and to ask others to attend
- Wear a union pin on the job, so long as it does not carry a controversial slogan, or violate company policy or uniform requirements
- Hand out union leaflets on your own time
- Aassist in, and encourage others to support, a union, so long as your efforts don‘t interfere with your work or violate posted company policy
Certain restrictions placed on your employer . For example, management cannot within the law
- Fire, lay off, or punish employees for engaging in a union activity
- Bar a union representatives from soliciting cards or membership during non-work time, in non-work areas
- Ask about confidential union matters, for example, “Have you signed a union card?”
- Ask whether you support the union or a union representation election
- Ask employees how they intend to vote in a representation vote
- Threaten, coerce, or attempt to influence, or prevent employees from voting
- Tell employees that existing benefits will be discontinued if you vote
- Promise or give employees promotions, raises or other benefits if they vote against a union
Mar 2, 2016 | Departments, Home, Organizing |
Unions are about a simple proposition: By joining together, working women and men gain strength in numbers so they can have a voice at work in what they care about. They negotiate a contract with their employer for things like a fair and safe workplace, better wages, a secure retirement and family-friendly policies such as paid sick leave and scheduling hours. They have a voice in how their jobs get done, creating a more stable, productive workforce that provides better services and products.
Earn More, Live Better
Union members earn better wages and benefits than workers who aren’t union members. On average, union workers’ wages are 28 percent higher than their nonunion counterparts.
While only 19 percent of nonunion workers have guaranteed pensions, fully 78 percent of union workers do.
More than 84 percent of union workers have jobs that provide health insurance benefits, but only 64 percent of nonunion workers do. Unions help employers create a more stable, productive workforce—where workers have a say in improving their jobs.
Unions help bring workers out of poverty and into the middle class. In fact, in states where workers don’t have union rights, workers’ incomes are lower.
Mar 2, 2016 | Departments, Home, Organizing |
DL141 Update: April 29, 2016
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today announced it petitioned the National Mediation Board (NMB), the federal agency that oversees union elections in the airline and railroad industries, to conduct a representation election for approximately 300 cargo workers employed by SM Cargo in Houston, TX.
“We want to form a union so we will have the protections of a union contract and no longer be ‘at will’ employees and be fired at any time for any reason,” said Cargo Agent Doug Moore. “With an IAM contract we will be able to finally have the decent wages and benefits that we can live on.”
“I want these brave workers to know that the IAM is 100 percent behind them in their effort to form a union and achieve the justice on the job they deserve,” said General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “The IAM will do all in its power to bring these sisters and brothers into the Machinists family.”
IAM representatives delivered the election authorization cards (a-cards) and petition to the NMB this morning. The federal agency will now determine if at least 50 percent of the work group submitted a-cards. If so, the NMB will schedule the election.
It is important to emphasize that is against federal law for SM Cargo management to know who did or did not sign an a-card. It is also important to note that SM Cargo management is prohibited by federal law from knowing how a worker casts his or her vote in a union representation election.
