Fellow members,

As many of you are now aware it turns out that our premiums will be increased by 7%. There will not be an increase in deductibles or our co-insurance. When the Mayor made his proposal of the budget we were all under the impression that none of our health insurance rates would be increased. It has now come to our attention that his proposal only included the deductibles and co-insurance. This is still an improvement of the manager’s proposed budget but a serious concern for how it was presented at the city council budget meeting. Unfortunately we have few options at this point due to the fact the budget has been voted on and approved.

Rick Armstrong

Fellow members,

The budget was passed by city council last night by a vote of 7-1. Over the past few days we have been discussing with council members a compromise for the range adjustment not being in the budget. We came to a conclusion that what would be best for our members but also that the city could afford would be not to raise our health insurance costs. The budget that the city manager proposed included an increase in our health insurance premiums by 7%, our deductibles by 60%, and our co-insurance 50%. Under the approved budget our health insurance costs will not be raised. This is another victory for our union. Many of our members will save $250-$1,000 a year depending on your health insurance plan. We would have preferred a range adjustment increase but due to the number of city employees this cost would have been too high. Many council members were reluctant to dip further into the reserves. Also, the savings on our health benefits are not taxed so what we save we keep and don’t lose any of it to taxes.

I want to thank every member who attended the council meeting on June 2. Your presence made the difference and we should all be proud of what we can accomplish when we all stand together. I always like to show the benefits of being a member of our union. Including the educational incentive we will receive this year and the savings on our health insurance benefits most of our members will receive between $1000 and $2500 additional this year for an investment of $240 in union dues. I don’t know of any better investment of your money.

Thanks for all your support,

Rick Armstrong

Fellow members,

I want to thank all of our members who attended the city council meeting last night. We had an excellent turnout. I would say there were over 200 cops present. I know the turnout certainly got the attention of the city council. Eric, Keith, and I will continue to meet with council members and attend the budget hearings. Every Monday at 4:00 there will be a budget meeting for the month of June. The budget must be passed by June 30. I can’t say for sure if we will get our range adjustment but I know if we didn’t have the turnout we did last night there is no way we would get the raise.

Thanks again for all your support.

Rick Armstrong

Fellow members,

I just left the meeting for the city manager’s proposed budget. It is worse than I predicted. We are losing more than are range adjustment of 1.5%. The following is an overview of the reduction of our pay and benefits:

Elimination of our 1.5% range adjustment

A reduction of 1% in our merit pay

An increase of 7% of our heath insurance premiums

An increase of $150 of our health insurance deductibles

An increase of $500 of co-insurance maximums

With these figures most of us will see a pay check with less money next year while the city manager will see an increase of 5% in his salary or an additional $10,000. I am truly outraged that while the backbone of our city, the employees will see a reduction in pay next year our city manager is receiving a substantial raise. We must show city council that one man does not make this city great it is the police officers, the firefighters, and all city employees who work hard everyday in providing exceptional services to the citizens. Our vice president, Eric DeSimone, the president of the Firefighters union, Keith Wilder and I plan to meet with the mayor and every city council member in the coming weeks to voice our opposition to the loss of our range adjustment. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT ON JUNE 2, 1900 hrs at CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS.

Thank you,

Rick Armstrong

Fellow members,

First, I want to thank Lisa Mendez and Brent Snowden for attending the union meeting on Saturday. These are two members that truly recognize the importance of action, not just talk. It is unfortunate that as the city manager receives a 5% pay raise and we face the possibility of no range adjustment that we lack the support from the rest of our membership. I am a little disappointed at the low turnout for this meeting. It is extremely important that we prepare for this battle. The budget will be released tomorrow and the public budget hearing is Tuesday June 2 and we need support from our members.

There are council members quoting that they want Mr. Allen’s salary comparable to other city managers in cities our size. When are we going to receive a salary comparable to cities our size? We should all be outraged that while Mr. Allen has saved the city millions of dollars by restructuring our pay scale (we receive much smaller raises) he reaps the benefits in raises that total 57% in the past 8 years.

If our yearly range adjustment is not in the proposed budget I plan to speak along with the president of the Firefighters union, Keith Wilder to support our range adjustment for all city employees. The meeting is at 7 p.m. on June 2. Please email me and let me know if you can make this meeting. Our solidarity is our power and without your support I can assure you we will not receive our raise this year. That equals on average about $700 per officer per year for the rest of your career. This equates to about two hours of your time for $700. Please reply as soon as possible. We need to determine how many bodies we can get in council chambers. There is no doubt in my mind that if we can get 500 cops and firefights into council chambers we will not only get our raise we will get the respect we deserve from city council.

Rick Armstrong

Fellow Members,

I want to thank all those who attended the meeting last Saturday. It is very important that we voice our concerns to our Teamster representatives and to our fellow Teamster members. As we discussed in the meeting on Saturday our main concern with the new off-duty policy is the insurance requirements. I know there is a great deal of confusion with what these requirements will entail so let me first explain the specifics. The liability insurance is simply a $1,000,000.00 policy per incident, $2,000,000.00 aggregate. This is a common policy that most if not all businesses should have. In addition to this policy there is also the $500,000.00 workers comp coverage. Now this is not for police officers but simply a workers comp policy that all employers with 2 or 3 employees should have as mandated by the state. Again, both of these policies should be very basic and common with all off-duty employers. These requirements are nothing new it is that the city just wants proof from the off-duty employer that they have this coverage. What will be required for the off-duty form is a one page certificate of insurance that states the coverage, similar to the statement you receive from your car insurance. If for some reason the business where you work off duty does not have both of these policies please give me the name of the business and the owner and we can have this addressed immediately. If there happens to be a large amount of off-duty employers that do not have this coverage I am confident that as a union we will have some influence over this policy. Please contact me ASAP if you’re off duty employer does not have this coverage.

I also want everyone to know that you are permitted to renew your contract before May 9, regardless of when it expires. If anyone has a problem with renewing the contract let me know.

Finally, if we see any attempt by the city to take over our off duty or if we begin to lose off-duty employers because of additional restrictions I know I can count on all our members to support the steps we will take to resolve this problem. I will keep you all informed of this action.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, May 6, 1900 hrs at the Teamster Union Hall on Angus Dr

Thanks for your support.

Rick Armstrong

Fellow members,

Yesterday I spoke at the state legislature building along side fellow union public sector employees, state senators, and house representatives to promote HB 750, the bill that will repeal the ban on collective bargaining. This bill gains strength each year. Last year we had 6 co-sponsors for the bill, this year we have 17 co-sponsors. The bill would lift the 50 year ban on collective bargaining for public sector employees in North Carolina. While this legislation is important there is also another bill that appears to be in a more likely position to pass this year. This federal bill will grant all police officers and first responders the right to collective bargaining and the president has vowed to sign it when it comes across his desk.

Due to the low turnout at our last meeting and no major issues on the horizon I have canceled our April meeting. Our local 391 is having a rededication to the union hall in Greensboro on April 18. I will be attending this meeting. This should be a very large meeting and if anyone is interested in seeing our Greensboro office I encourage you to attend. Our Governor, Beverly Perdue and our International Union President, Jimmy Hoffa, will also be in attendance.

Rick Armstrong

Fellow members,

As many of you know Eric, Derek, and I met with the Chief yesterday in regards to the new off-duty policy. Our main concern was the elimination of our 10-99 jobs. The policy refers to a general statute that restricts police officers from working as independent contractors. This is true and we cannot work as an independent contractor as a police officer. The point we argued is that being paid under 10-99 status does not make you an independent contractor. After seeking the advice from numerous tax attorneys and city attorneys it is clear that there are about 35-40 different criteria to determine if you are an employee of the business or if you are an independent contractor. If you are paid 10-99 that is only one indicator that you may be working as an independent contractor but there are many others that clearly show we are employees of the off-duty employer. I believe, as do many of the attorneys we sought counsel from, that the most important and obvious way to determine the answer is to refer to the contract we have with the off-duty employer. In our contract it clearly defines our role as an employee of the off-duty employer. We made these and numerous other points to Chief Dolan. He stated that he will permit officers to work 10-99 jobs when he gets this clarified with the city attorney. I am confident that we should get a final answer within the week and that the response will be in our favor.

Our next issue was the restriction of working off-duty six hours prior to working our scheduled shift. We offered a recommendation of having six consecutive hours off during any given work day beginning at midnight and ending at midnight. Chief Sholar did make a good point that an officer could potentially work 36 hours straight with that policy in place. While the vast majority of officers would not work that many hours straight there are probably a few that would. I do not believe the Chief will heed our recommendation.

Our next meeting is Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 7:00 p.m. at the Teamster Union Hall.

Thanks for your support.

Rick Armstrong

Our next meeting is Wednesday, Feb 4th at 1900 hrs at the Teamster Union Hall. Please make every effort to attend. We will be continuing to discuss the proposed off-duty policy.

Our next membership meeting will be Wednesday  Dec. 3, 1900 hrs. at the Teamster Union Hall. We plan to invite city council members to attend the meeting.
The next Teamster Local 391 meeting will be Saturday Nov. 15 at 10:00 a.m. at the Teamster Union Hall.
Both meetings are very important. If we want to obtain our goals it is imperative that we participate in meetings and gain support from fellow members. We have had very good turnouts at our last meetings and we have created committees to help gain support from the public. The committee members will be working on strategies over the next few months to prepare for next years budget. Many of us who attended our last meeting know we have support from one city council member, Rodger Koopman but now we need to get that same support from four other council members. This will not be easy but I have confidence in our dedicated members who are willing to help promote our cause and move forward toward building a strong union.
Thank you.

Rick Armstrong