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The Union-Management
Committee October 2002 The change at Alta was like night and day. Before, the administration was centralized in one area, separated from the workers. The new administration spread the managers out, placing them in the same areas with the workers they manage. The siege mentality was replaced with an open door policy. One of the biggest improvements was the creation of a functioning union-management committee. Barbara Lopez, the chapter president, is proud of what they have accomplished.
“We sit down on a monthly basis and both sides throw things out to be addressed,” she explains. One of the committee’s major achievements is alternative work schedules. “We met every week for a couple of months, looked at other regional center policies, went through every possibility, and ended up creating four different alternative work schedules.” In addition to the common four 10-hour days work schedule, the group came up with complex schedules such as the 8-9-8-80, under which an employee can work eight nine-hour days and one eight-hour day and have a three-day weekend every other week. “We were able to discuss things as simple as cubicle assignments or as complex as part-time work. For six years we had part-time in the contract, but it was never implemented, and now it is about to happen,” Lopez brags. “We have a completely open forum. Every member can throw out ideas, but we put a lot of thought and effort into it. Performance evaluation, for example, if I say we would like to make a change, we have a frank discussion, and either we are able to make a change or we become clear about how the present policy works. If management won’t address a certain issue, they tell us why not.”
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