November 30, 2007 Volume 07 NO 47 MEMBERSHIP MEETING Tuesday, December 18, 2007 6:30 p.m. Local Office—5321 First Place NE, Washington, D.C. (Walking Distance from Ft. Totten Metro Stop)

It has always been the tradition of Local 2336 to have a holiday celebration in conjunction with the December membership meeting—refreshments will be served.

The Local office will be closed for business from Tuesday, December 25th through Tuesday, January 1st. The office will open for business as usual on Wednesday, January 2, 2008. The Local Officers will be checking its email and office answering machine during this period, and will respond to any pressing issue.

The Local’s Finance Committee will convene its annual budget meeting on Thursday, November 29, 2007 at the Local office.

Secretary-Treasurer Brenda Savoy along, with our accountant, will sit down with the Finance Committee to develop the budget for 2008. The Committee consists of Brian Reed, Bonnie Barrett, Denise Gardner and Drucilla Jones.

Since bargaining convened on Monday, November 19^th, there has been no progress on any of the Union’s demands. The Union has reviewed and discussed data that had been requested in earlier sessions. However, no agreement has been reached on any issue.

The bargaining will continue daily until further notice, and the Local will communicate any updates as we receive them from our bargaining committee.

As our members are aware, the Union has been bargaining with the Psychiatric Institute of Washington (PIW) since May 31, 2007 in an effort to obtain a contract worthy of our membership.

Since the beginning of this process in May, and with our members working without a contract since its June 1, 2007 expiration, we have been involved in many grueling sessions with PIW. However, we have been unable to reach agreement on many major issues.

Therefore, in an effort to move these negotiations forward, the Union has requested the intervention of a mediator into this process. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service have been notified and the process is scheduled to begin immediately.

Bargaining resumes with the McLaughlin Company on Thursday, November 29, 2007. The Union will attempt to come to terms with the company regarding the issue of health insurance during this session.

The Union and Company bargaining committees have exchanged proposals with very little movement by either party.

When bargaining resumes on Monday, December 17, 2007, it is the Union’s intent that we "break this log jam" and move negotiations toward a successful conclusion.