As the Holidays quickly approach I wanted to give you a quick update of what’s going on and what your union is up to. We have been to several hearings at the NLRB standing up for the handlers that have been mistreated, suspended and wrongfully terminated. We are fighting for the $400 stipend MSA has wrongfully taken from you, replacing it with a paltry $80 dollars.
The math used to justify an $80 stipend just doesn't add up. We know it, MSA knows it, and every handler being forced to spend their own money for MSAs benefit knows it. Did you know if you rent a car from any of the National car rental companies and bring it back with dog hair in it, much like your personal vehicles, they will charge you a $175 surcharge to clean the dog hair out of their vehicle? The top hotel chains will charge you an $125 surcharge to clean your room that has a dog in it . That’s $300 right there. Also, when was the last time you were able to take public transportation to work? I bet MSA would be proud if you took their dog on the subway or the bus during rush hour. They require you to have a car to transport their dog, so they should be responsible for a car payment, car insurance, car maintenance, and parking the vehicle.
How much is that worth to many of you? About $750 a month? Let's add this up, $750 plus $300 for cleaning. Then add dog food, biscuits, beds, toys, kennel fees, tolls, plus the time you and your family spend making a well rounded stable canine that MSA will threaten to take away from you and your family at the drop of a hat for imaginary rule violations. They will then tell you to abide by the code of conduct as management continuously breaks every rule threatening you if you don’t work every tour they throw at you and your canine.
So let your supervisors, district managers, and upper management know $80 dollars doesn’t cut it! We'll continue our legal battle for the return of the $400 stipend and continue to demand it be increased in our negotiations. Let MSA management know it’s time to stop dragging their feet and give you and your partner a fair contact.
Bill Beaury
The canine stipend, much like the handler salaries at MSA Security have been frozen in time, but when management decided to make a change, instead of increasing the stipend as a responsible company would, they butchered it. Whenever the topic of a raise came up management was quick to point out that we were getting $400 a month tax free and that $400 should be considered part of our salary. At one time we were threatened with getting a 1099 for the stipend. There was a proposal that the stipend would increase yearly and cap out at $1000/month. It would have been fair, but as we have come to learn, nothing about MSA is fair when it comes to the handlers. Same old story, they kept the salary and held the ESOP over our heads, all the while telling us we were "employee owners" and would someday own the company and have a seat on the Board of Directors but of course that never happened and now we have to fight just to be treated with some dignity. Imagine what this place would be like without the union? Scary. Arrogant and egomaniacal managers rule MSA and we are expendable to them, they expect us to be loyal but that loyalty is not a two-way street. The State Department contract for the validation center as a matter of public record is almost $100 million dollars where does all that money go? $80.00 stipend what a joke. $100 million from the State Department yet MSA allowed dogs to go overseas and is complicit in the canines suffering and the deplorable conditions they had to endure. The dogs I'm most cases were starving, dying of thirst, infested with fleas, feces and worms. The poor dogs probably welcomed death. No oversight, no assurances that the dogs would be cared for properly, a black eye for MSA, but no accountability, no discipline. I would say the Virginia guys have it pretty good and go along with "business as usual", while around the country we look forward to another cold winter with a leash in our hands. What's been done in Virginia Glenn? What steps have been taken to make sure something this tragic never occurs again? MSA Security has become a joke in the working dog community thanks to our leadership.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update Bill and thanks for fighting the good fight, God knows it can't be easy.