To start, support staff have received laptops and a duty schedule that should take effect tomorrow. So they will not all be in the office. We advocated for them, and will continue to do so as we go forward and we relayed that to them. They all send their thanks to every member of this local for your support.
We are on day 2 of a 30 day shut down, that could very well get longer and more restrictive. Oak Park just announced a shelter in place order and I am sure that other municipalities will soon follow. People’s normal methods of socializing have been turned completely upside down.
People walking around my neighborhood, when we meet up on the sidewalk, would chat for a couple of minutes before going our separate ways. If you saw your neighbor on their porch we would go up and chat for a minute. Happens in everyone’s neighborhood everywhere. Now we are shouting our conversation across the street, we are staying on our own porches and shouting down the block. Same goes for our members. Those conversations we normally have in the corner of the hallway when we meet, or when we stop by a friend’s office or when we go out for lunch. We are now having these conversations through social media.
This connection is important especially right now during this crisis, but we need to have some control. There are going to be issues that come up from this shutdown. The Union is in constant communication with management and we are working through those issues. I spoke with Amy, Lester and Parle today about issues in the branch courts that a member brought to my attention. We made a plan to deal with it and will put it in place for tomorrow. If it doesn’t work, we will talk again and try something else. Josh addressed an issue in Rolling Meadows and Maywood yesterday that a member brought to his attention. He made some phone calls, reached an agreement and the issues were resolved. If it comes up again, we will address it again. Mark is dealing with issues in Skokie. He made calls and it will be resolved. All of the board members have been answering members questions everyday. The board texts, calls and communicates several times a day to discuss issues and coordinate responses. We have video meeting tomorrow at 11:15.
I speak at least once a day Helen or Anne from Council 31 for their meetings with the county, sheriff, hospital etc. I relay our issues to the Council and they call for our input. So we need to know what you know.
Please help us do what you elected us to do. We need to be in Solidarity now more than ever. When issues come up tell us and let us work on it.
Social media can be an excellent tool during this time of isolation. We can stay connected and not feel so alone. But please be smart about it. Please be polite during conversations. Let’s talk about kids, pets, hobbies, cooking experiments (that in may case have gone horribly wrong at times), who delivers the best wine, home improvement projects you finally have time to get done, what our relatives are doing, who still has toilet paper and what arguments will work to convince 5.0. that, yes going for Scotch is considered an essential trip (Chris Anderson I’m counting on you for this one!). Talk about issues on the cases you are working on at home.
Let’s please leave the complaints about work/management to informing your Union representative in private so we can work the problem constructively.
Skokie and 69 W.Washington worksite please contact Mark Douglass
Rolling Meadows and Maywood worksites please contact Joshua Nathan
Bridgeview and Markham worksites please contact Colleen Gorman
555 W Harrison and City Branch Courts please contact Brett Gallagher
Juvenile court please contact Kyan Keenan
Civil and Police Station Unit please contact Theresa Nelson
26th Street please contact Takenya Nixon or Kevin Ochalla
I am always available in an emergency situation from any site.