Collective Bargaining - We won't be stopped.

Neither ISS nor ICA responded favorably to our five month long appeal to reason. It's clear that only collective bargaining will change our circumstances. Individual employees have appealed in the past and ISS has either ignored them or responded with a token response. Only under union pressure has there ever been significant change. The higher % represented – the greater that change. Your support is very important and we want to count you in the % represented.

ISS recently responded with a characteristic token response. In their lowest paid District One they raised pay 25¢ (see letter below). We’ll take it as a demonstration of good faith and encourage management to continue in that direction while reminding them that $19.04/hr is the mean hourly pay for our job description in Florida as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In FDOT District Four the union negotiated a contract giving ISS bridge tenders four (4) paid holidays. In FDOT District Two a different union negotiated a contract giving ISS bridge tenders five (5) paid holidays. In compaarison State workers receive seven (7) and Federal workers get nine (9). But, in FDOT Districts One and Seven we get zero (0) paid holidays and are paid at a subsistence level. Only organizing and negotiating can stop wage and benefit theft at the hands of ISS & ICA.

But it’s far more than pay and benefits. We wish to improve bridge safety, enhance operational efficiency and insure we're protected while on the job. We need indemnification from lawsuits that could be filed against us personally due to job related issues. We want to be free to report risks without fear of reprisal. We need to be free from ISS pressure not to rock the ICA boat (a conflict of interest that FDOT needs to fix). Management must respect our right to organize, collectively bargain under the law and STOP interfering with our rights. It's more than doing the right thing, it's the law.

Bridge Tenders: Stand up for your rights. Don't surrender literature to supervisors, don't tell them about it. Pass it from hand to hand, don't leave it on the bridge. If asked to surrender anything refuse. It's your property and it's your protected right to organize. We're now in communication with Districts One, Two, Four and Seven and thank our fellow bridge tenders for their solidarity. Please share this web address with ALL bridge tenders — help us spread the word.

ISS: Stop your exploitation! Stop your profiteering! Stop your wage theft! We object to your capricious policies. Your attempts to isolate and compartmentalize are no longer effective, dependence on ignorance is lost to the web. Stop alienating us. Face facts and do the right thing.

ICA: Stop protecting ISS (it's them, right?). You know right from wrong. You can't hide, get your head out of the sand. Intervene or accept the guilt by association that outrages and polarizes your workforce. We want to work together and you need to earn our cooperation with your support.

FDOT: We have alerted you to the travesties occurring under your blanket Agreements with ICA/ISS/C&S. We ask you audit the payment path to your operators and then stop the unjustifiable disparity between today's wage and the clearly published wages prevailing in our locality. It's more than following the letter of the law, it's about fair play. Give us the protection we deserve in your next round of Agreements. You deserve a closer relationship with us, we want to work closer together.

11. First Request for FDOT Intervention

 

Bridge Operators Organizing Committee

FDOT Districts 1 & 7

www.exploitingtenders@gmail.com

August 26, 2013

Florida Department of Transportation

Office of Maintenance

ATTN. Mr. Tim Latner, Director

605 Suwannee Street

Tallahassee, FL 32399

Dear Sir,

When choosing to outsource bridge operators we doubt your department envisioned the rampant profiteering and exploitation that ensues under ICA and their subcontractor ISS. We, the bridge tenders of Districts 1 & 7 suffer under their abhorrent and capricious employment policies. The following disparities, bully tactics and conflicts of interest threaten the safe and reliable operation of your bridges. We ask for your kind intervention.

Wages and benefits cause us great personal pain. Please refer to the latest Department of Labor (DOL) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report to see the mean wage for bridge and lock tenders in Florida reported at $19.04/hr. Our gross pay in District One is $8.25/hr and in Seven it’s $8.75/hr. In at least two other previously unionized Districts ISS pays up to $10.75/hr with benefits that vary according to the union contract.  In Districts 1 & 7 we receive no holidays, sick days or personal days - virtually no benefits at all.

History shows only when bridge tenders collectively bargain with ISS is there meaningful change. Our attempt to gain standing and collectively bargain was met with the unlawful confiscation of our petition when ISS demonstrated a blatant lack of respect for our rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Our offers of concessions and appeals to reason are stonewalled. We non-union-represented operators are employed “at will”, a relationship that creates fear of dismissal and demands our anonymity. ICA was notified and shows no concern.  It’s documented since 04/01/13 at: www.bestbridge.blogspot.com .

We are filing charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for unfair labor action. After asking the Employment Standards Administration’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) for an opinion, we believe FDOT-ICA-ISS are in violation of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA). We believe the spirit of the Davis Bacon Act (DBA) should prevail Statewide “subcontractors must pay no less than locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits in the area” and ask this protection against exploitation and profiteering at the hands of contractors and subcontractors is included in your next Agreement.

You too suffer from these middlemen with their inherent conflict of interest. Because ISS is dependent upon ICA for the contracting of and payment for their services they are obliged to maintain a cordial (preferential) relationship with their contractor. That obligation impedes our open reporting by ISS employees to FDOT inspectors. We are encouraged not to volunteer anything to FDOT inspectors and Drawbridge Malfunction Reports are completed only with supervisor approval. Please require that operators are employed under the “for cause” (currently “at will”) relationship necessary to speak freely and openly, making us full partners in the safe and reliable operation of your bridges.

We ask you to disclose the wage and benefit sum factored into your District 1 & 7 Blanket Services Agreements for operator services and if it includes a 3% annual increase. If not an explicit sum please give the parameters you use to measure, define and evaluate those costs.  While questioning the fundamental social morality of the State outsourcing our job, we recognize middlemen are entitled to costs plus fair profit. We are also entitled to what is fair including “indemnification from operator errors or omissions” in the next Agreement.

In summary, we respectfully ask you to:

1.              Audit ICA and ISS to uncover and stop profiteering.

2.              Insist operators are employed under a “for cause” relationship.

3.              Protect operators with indemnification against errors and omissions.

4.              Require no less than prevailing local wages and benefits be paid to operators.

5.              Disclose the basis on which you calculate and pay for operator remuneration.

It’s your right and your duty to stop this exploitation and end relationships that engender silence. Help us earn a modest living wage with benefits and protect your operators so we may better protect the safety of the public and the reliable operation of your bridges.

Sincerely,

The Organizing Committee

www.exploitingtenders@gmail.com

P.S. We regret the temporary need for anonymity, to be lifted once our charges are filed with the NLRB after which we may speak more openly and directly. Meanwhile please respond to our committee via email.

A 25¢ raise. Really? - A letter from a bridge tender.

Dear Jake,

I cannot seriously believe that they (ISS and/or "the Powers That Be") think that this move will keep us pacified. What an insult! A $.25/hour SURPRISE RAISE (since most of the tenders in our district have NO idea *what* has transpired since Mr. Hartman demanded that the initial 8-page document from our group be removed from all bridges)? Is this what they feel will make up for the disparity between what the South Florida bridge tenders have been earning ($10.50) since December, 2012?

I believe that the majority of our fellow workers would be GREATLY excited to hear that the most recent information from the Department of Labor Statistics informs us that  this group is now RIGHTFULLY asking for $19.04 per hour. And yet ISS thinks that $.25/hour will keep us quiet? I think not; our raise to $8.25 doesn't even come close! To me, this only further fans the flames of my anger. Especially since ISS once again showed thoughtlessness in their decisions.

When they gave us "all" $.25 more per hour, they omitted that "equal pay raise" for the employees of Blackburn Point Road Bridge. Blackburn Point Bridge has always been a "special" bridge, which is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is a one-lane swing bridge located on Blackburn Point Road in Sarasota County. This bridge requires that tenders go outside, in all kinds of weather, to operate the bridge from the center of the span. For that extra hazardous duty, the tenders on that bridge (used to) get $1.00 more per hour than the rest of the tenders working for our company in our area. But, for some reason, when EVERYONE ELSE (who has worked for the company for more than one year) got $.25/hour more, these folks on Blackburn Point Bridge did not get anything.

So now I am not only angry for myself, as an employee of the state-wide Florida bridge tenders' system run by ISS, but more humanely, as a fellow member of this district of which most of us got a measly raise and a select few did not. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? You talk about disparity ... wow.

A Sunshine State Bridge Tender

(who does not feel very sunny...)

10. A Call to Reason

 The Organizing Committee

To Stop Exploitation

exploitingtenders@gmail.com

 

June 24, 2013

Mr. Jim Howard, General Manager, ISS Facility Services

1805 SE Hawthorne Rd.

Gainesville, FL. 32641

Dear Mr. Howard,

You violated our rights including the right to protected concerted activity. Words fail to describe how appalled we are with your interference or the distain felt by your employees at your heavy handedness. Your confiscating our literature is viewed as a needlessly aggressive delaying tactic. We again encourage you to be responsive and reasonable.

Our first demand was simply equal pay for equal work across Florida. In April all you had to do was give us the same raise the union forced you to pay South Florida. Instead, you chose to ignore us and in response to your stonewalling we began organizing and increased our demands to include back pay with interest. Your confiscation response in an attempt to crush our resolve senselessly escalated, polarized and emboldened us.

We have been forthright and transparent in sharing our plans and abhor interference in return. Your misconduct forced us to the National Labor Relations Board where we will be filing charges against you, organizing our representation according to DOL process and holding a secret ballot supervised by the NLRB. You will not be able to ignore us.

You are forcing us to engage in a more demanding and sophisticated response. You raised the stakes, we raise our demands. Since you’re making this a long and arduous process we demand all what is rightfully ours right now - the current mean pay scale reported by the US Department of Labor Statistics for our job description in Florida.

When your supervisors confiscated our literature they claimed the tender house as your turf. We plan to approach the FDOT for their opinion of your claim and we will ask them to disclose the amount provided under the ICA blanket agreement for bridge tender pay and for an audit to uncover suspected unethical profiteering.

We currently have committee members from all four of your west coast supervisory districts. Since you force us to become officially recognized, we will reach out to all your Florida districts to better amortize the greater effort you’ve imposed on us.

Again in an attempt to be reasonable you can stop our action by increasing pay & benefits now, to equal South Florida with back pay and interest but only if you agree to encourage ICA/FDOT to include Federal minimum pay protection in any future blanket Agreement.  This is your next opportunity to do the right thing and time is of the essence.

Sincerely,

The Organizing Committee

c.c. Mr. Richie Rhodes, ICA            ENCL. Copy of our 6/24/13 letter to Mr. Richie Rhodes

9. Second ICA Appeal

 

The Organizing Committee

To Stop Exploitation

exploitingtenders@gmail.com

June 24, 2013

Mr. Richie Rhodes

ICA Systems Operations Manager

1719 Apex Rd, Unit B, Sarasota, FL 34240

Dear Mr Rhodes,

We previously asked for your kind intervention and thank you for any efforts you may have made on our behalf. Enclosed please find a copy of our letter of June 24^th to Mr. Howard that responds to his confiscation of our literature package during the week of June 6^th. Please join us in our effort to defuse this troubling situation.

Please note we offered to temporarily settle for less than the pay to which we are entitled in return for prompt reconciliation. If accepted, this is a limited and temporary concession. For ISS to qualify, ICA must agree that under future FDOT blanket agreements with ICA the minimum pay to bridge tenders will be defined as equal to or greater than the currently published mean pay for our job description in Florida according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and this protection will be regardless of future subcontractor chosen by ICA.

Unfortunately we must now go on record for bringing the disparity, suspected profiteering and opportunist activity of your subcontractor to the formal attention of ICA. We ask ICA to take appropriate action to investigate and correct the problems with ISS and to be proactive in preventing any such future abuse.

We noticed in your blanket Agreement with the FDOT that ICA indemnifies them. Please clearly confirm and define our individual indemnification against personal civil liability stemming from bridge-related events caused by us or occurring while we are on the job.

You know that at each step along the way we have disclosed our next and will continue to do so in an effort to avoid avoidable action. A summary and letters to the bridge tenders are published at www.bestbridge.blogspot.com and we invite you to visit.  Please help us avoid further escalation and polarization. We look forward to your response.

Sincerely ,

The Organizing Committee

cc. Mr. Jim Howard, ISS Facility Services

ENCLS. Copy of 6/23/13 letter to Mr. Howard

8. Response to Confiscating Our Literature

Our response to the ISS confiscation of our literature is to prepare for a long, ugly battle. We are filing charges against ISS with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for unfair labor practices. What an unfortunate demonstration of their adversarial perspective.

We’ve learned more about labor law than we ever wished to know and now plan to hold a by-the-book secret ballot monitored by the NLRB. We’ve contacted the government, lawyers, law schools and law professors for guidance. Since it’s taking a lot more time and work and we don’t want to do it twice, we’ve raised our demand to the full amount to which we are entitled.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics currently quotes $19.04 median pay per hour for our job description in Florida. Why should we settle for less, especially from an adversary? Why should anyone perform a job for the State government for less than half of what the Federal government says we’re due? We didn’t make this up it’s a published fact.

We’ll post our latest letters in response to the confiscation after Mr. Howard and Rhodes have received them. In an effort to be reasonable we included an offer to compromise on pay in the near term in return for the assurance our pay will be fair and protected in the long run. We offer this as a gesture of good faith. Volunteering a loss of pay is a strong demonstration of how motivated we are to solve this problem early.

But, there’s something that can’t be compromised. Maybe we’re already protected and it’s not an issue and if you have a document please share it. We need to discover what happens if we make a mistake or someone claims we made a mistake at work and we’re sued personally. Are we indemnified against civil action and who comes to our legal defense? We must be certain we are personally indemnified (by FDOT, ICA or ISS) against any personal legal action stemming from our employment.

We’re taking great care not to rush into anything that results in avoidable difficulty or embarrassment to ISS, ICA or the FDOT. We are proceeding slowly but logically while telegraphing our intent. We sincerely hope they’ll learn early that we will not relent and that illogical response costs them compounding consequence. Most of us love our jobs and we know that tough love is the hardest, but they must do the right thing.

Not everyone has email so print all this stuff and share with every shift and especially between bridges (please make the effort to copy and pass it around). Please don’t leave it on FDOT property or read it on company time. Just pass it from hand to hand and be careful it’s not confiscated again. We know, it’s silly to have to hide our actions. They're just posturing and exercising bravado. We have the right, they're in the wrong, see for yourself...

The National Labor Relations Board protects the rights of employees to engage in “concerted activity”, which is when two or more employees take action for their mutual aid or protection regarding terms and conditions of employment. A single employee may also engage in protected concerted activity if he or she is acting on the authority of other employees, bringing group complaints to the employer’s attention, trying to induce group action, or seeking to prepare for group action. A few examples of protected concerted activities are: Two or more employees addressing their employer about improving their pay, discussing work-related issues beyond pay, such as safety concerns, with each other, speaking to an employer on behalf of one or more co-workers about improving workplace conditions.

We want to hear from you. We could use some photos (one juicy one from every bridge would be great) to make our blog more visually interesting.  Send photos and/or emails to: exploitingtenders@gmail.com. Volunteer!

Thanks for your support,

Jake (aka The Organizing Committee)

A Bridge Tender Chimes In

Dear "Organizing Committee:"
I was recently provided with a copy of your eight-page document, which was ordered to be removed from the bridges by Milton Hartman before I got a chance to see it. I am very glad I was able to obtain a copy. Very well done, by all parties involved!

I have been a bridge tender in my district for fifteen years now. The last time we received a raise (of $.25, which put us at $8.00/hr.), It was mainly due to letters and "noise" created by bridge tenders in my district. At each annual meeting, our district always brings up the #1 dreaded discussion - "when are we going to be compensated commensurate with our duties?"

We all have put our hearts and souls into this career - for many of us, the last we will have. Our district has been pronounced as the "safest" in the Florida system for many years. We ace our annual DOT tests every year, and we take pride in our service to the boaters, the community, the State, and the federal government.

Please add me to your list of supporters, and keep me "in the loop" with any updates.
Thank you for everything you are doing to assist us in this matter.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

A disgruntled ISS bridge tender.