CAN
DO — NYS DMV Comm. David Swarts renews QTP pact with PEF Pres. Ken Brynien and
CSEA Local 674 Pres. Mike Febraio. Pellegrino is 2nd left (rear).
Unions, DMV renew Quality’s license
By SHERRY HALBROOK
Just mentioning “Quality through Participation” (QTP), also called Total Quality
Management (TQM), is enough to make the hair stand up on the necks of many union
members.
“Quality” has often been a ploy of employers in the U.S. and abroad to get
around labor unions, work their members out of title, or eliminate their jobs —
all in the name of cooperation and efficiency.
Not so for PEF members at the NYS Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). They have
made QTP work for them since 1993.
“It’s worked really well,” said PEF Executive Board member Karen Pellegrino, who
is PEF labor-management chair at the department. “We just renewed the QTP
agreement with our new commissioner, David Swarts.”
Everything considered
“The 2007-09 Union Partnership Agreement for Quality allows us to work with
management and CSEA (Civil Service Employees Association) as a team of equals to
come up with better ways to do things that improve working conditions for our
members, services to the public and the efficiency of the department,”
Pellegrino said.
In announcing the renewed agreement, Swarts said, “I firmly believe that DMV
employees who do the work are in the best position to know where improvements
are needed and are the best source of recommendations on how to accomplish those
improvements.”
“Even if those improvements require fewer employees to do some things,”
Pellegrino said, “the agreement says no current employees can lose their jobs
because of that. We find better ways to deploy those members, but always within
their job titles. Nothing we do through QTP can supercede the employee contracts
or state law.”
Everyone involved
Any DMV employee can submit a proposal for how to improve things to the Quality
Executive Committee (QEC), which has two representatives from PEF — Pellegrino,
PEF Division 211 council leader; and Alice Wiley, Division 211
secretary-treasurer — along with two representatives from CSEA and two from
management. They meet monthly to review and evaluate new proposals and monitor
the progress of those that are being implemented.
Thanks to one of those proposals, DMV now uses teams of PEF, CSEA and management
to design any new offices or worksites, or renovations to established sites.
That means the offices are now more efficient, user friendly and worker
friendly.
And you can thank another proposal when you renew your car’s registration online
at the DMV Web site.
“This program helped us cope much better during the state hiring freeze and no
one had to work out-of-title,” Pellegrino said.
In addition to annual joint labor-management and monthly QEC meetings,
Pellegrino and the local CSEA leader now participate in DMV’s biweekly
management meetings, as well.
“We sit at the table, and we have a say,” Pellegrino said.
“Just the improved communication alone would be worth it.
The Communicator
July/August 07
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