November 2011

Unions help working families fulfill their dreams in many different ways.  At SEIU, this includes yearly college schilarship opportunities. Through five different scholarship programs, SEIU award members and their children to pursue their educational goals at colleges, universities, labor study programs and technical schools.

General Eligibility Criteria

• SEIU scholarships are open to SEIU members or their children.  The Bonnie Ladin Scholarship is also open to local union staff.
• Membership must be for three continuous years as of Sept. 1, 2012.
• Scholarships will be awarded without regard to the sex, race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, age, or disability of any applicant.
• All awards must be for the academic year(s) awarded.
• Graduate students are not eligible.
• Officers and employees of the International union and their children are not eligible.
• Scholarship awards are limited to one per household.

General Application Instructions

• Applications should be filed online.  Please visit the individual scholarship information links below.  Applications can also be mailed to SEIU (name of scholarship), ISTS, PO Box 23737, Nashville, TN 37202-3737.
• Applications must be postmarked or filed online by midnight March 1, 2012.
• Winners will be notified in late spring and announced on www.seiu.org.

SEIU awards 53 scholarships each year

SEIU’s Lottery Scholarships

$1000 Scholarships (Renewable)

(To apply online, go to https://aim.applyists.net/SEIU)

Program Key: SEIU (for lottery)

There are 15 $1,000 scholarships available in annual installments for up to four years.

$1,500 Scholarships (Nonrenewable)

(To apply online, go to https://aim.applyists.net/seiu.)

There are 33 $1,500 scholarships; these are nonrenewable, one-time awards.

SEIU Competitive Scholarships

Moe Foner Scholarship for Visual and Performing Arts

(To apply online, go to https://aim.applyists.net/MF)

Program Key: MF (for Moe Foner)

Jesse Jackson Scholarship

(To apply online, go to https://aim.applyists.net/JJ)

Program Key: JJ (for Jesse Jackson)

The Bonnie Ladin Scholarship

(To apply online, go to https://www.nlc.edu/scholarships.html)

Nora Piore Scholarship

(To apply online, go to https://aim.applyists.net/NP)

Program Key: NP (for Nora Piore)

Application information is also available at www.seiu.org.

City of Houston | Financial Management Task Force

Mission

Financial Management Task Force (FMTF) will mark out the facts and describe options for addressing Houston’s General Fund long-term (30 year) financial obligations. FMTF will not audit and investigate the decisions that led to the present situation. FMTF will not recommend, endorse, or champion any single option but rather provide analysis of all available options.

Goals

Learn about the City’s revenues, expenditures, and long-term obligations, including revenue and expenditure limitations in the City of Houston’s Charter. Understand the services provided by the City to its citizens and assess the cost and necessity of those services. Establish a probable range of revenues and expenditures over the next thirty years and identify a baseline projection. Identify the structural deficit (if any) facing the City over the next thirty years by category. Create revenue and expenditure options for addressing long-term financial issues; identify benefits and drawbacks of each option. Define who controls the ability to implement each option. Identify a preferred and minimum reserve requirement that would allow the City to weather short-term cyclical changes in the economy and keep long-term financial plans intact.

Read More

HOPE members take charge and learn more about your pension and the discussions taking place at the Financial Management Task Force at City Hall!

It is important that we work together to properly educate our elected officials and the Houston public of the important work we do to keep our great city moving.

Silence is no longer an option; we must be vocal and prepared to work hard to ensure we can retire with dignity in our golden years.

Review of Pension Systems

Financial Management Task Force

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH, 2011 @ 12:30PM
CITY HALL / MEET BY THE REFLECTION POOL
901 BAGBY STREET, HOUSTON, TX 77002

Call for more information: 713-403-8888

You know the statistics for unemployed citizens are continuing to climb.

-We need to make Politicians listen to our demands:
-Focus on Jobs not Cuts.
-Repair our schools, roads and bridges.
-Keep our children’s education strong by putting teachers back in the classroom.

Mark your calendar and plan to join us as we stand with our brothers and sisters in unity on Wednesday, Nov 16th @ 3:30pm.

For more information call the HOPE office!

Article 14 of the 2011 Meet and Confer Agreement between HOPE and the City of Houston designates a new grievance procedure for COH employees to utilize. It adds 2 new grievable issues and creates a new grievance committee to replace the single grievance examiner from the prior system.

Under the previous grievance system, the grievable issues were:

1. Non-selection for promotion to a referred position
2. Hazardous working conditions not intrinsic to the job
3. EPEs with an overall rating of less than acceptable or
effective or the equivalent
4. Failure to receive an EPE if delayed more than 6 months
5. Failure to be paid overtime or compensatory time, if eligible,
appropriate, and worked
6. Written Reprimand (Reminder II)

The new system adds the following grievable issues:

7. Decision Making Leave (DML)
8. Temporary Suspension up to fifteen (15) calendar days

The addition of the DML and temporary suspensions up to 15 days is vital for COH employees. Prior to these additions to the grievance system, employees had no avenue to appeal a DML, and it was in the Civil Service Commission’s discretion whether or not to hear an appeal of a temporary suspension. Under the new system, if an employee receives a DML or a temporary suspension up to 15 days, he or she is guaranteed an avenue of appeal.

The new system has three steps instead of four. The first step occurs with the supervisor and his/her supervisor, while the second step is chaired by the director of the department and his/her designee. The third and final step, which is completely new, takes place in front of the new grievance committee.

The committee is composed of five people, while the previous system entailed a single grievance examiner. The members of the committee include two COH appointments, two HOPE appointments, and one of up to six law professors from the Houston area. The professors have a background in labor and employment law and are chosen on a rotating basis, so the committee changes month-to-month. This committee, with equal members from HOPE and the COH as well as an unbiased law professor, will allow for the most fair and equitable grievance system to date.

The HOPE members on the grievance committee are Gloria Mitchell from the Houston Police Department and Jeffrey Ybarra from the Public Works and Engineering Department. The HOPE alternates for the committee are Shiryl Chambers from the Parks and Recreation Department and Brian Goldberg from the Health and Human Services Department. The committee is scheduled to hear its first Step III grievance on December 6th , 2011.