Dear members,
Due to reports about the poor condition and safety concerns of District owned vehicles that are used and/or assigned to DCSMEC members, the Union has filed a Grievance against the District in hopes of preventing a catastrophe. In the CollectiveBargaining Agreement the District agrees to “provide a safe workplace-and such safeguards as are necessary to reduce or eliminate accidents” which we feel the District is not doing.
In most areas where vehicles are used by DCSMEC employees, Management has informed us that there is currently no vehicle maintenance records or preventive/scheduled maintenance and therefore the current condition of the vehicles are unknown.
The obvious poor condition is well known. The DCSMEC Union has prepared (as part of the Grievance process) a vehicle inspectionreport which will be distributed to unit members who use District vehicles.
This report solicits general observations about the condition of the vehicle and is not meant as a comprehensive mechanical inspection, however it will give us a much better picture of the overall condition of the fleet as well as a guide for prioritizing repairs and/or replacement of vehicles. We ask all DCSMEC unit members to please participate in this effort so that we may verify the extent of the disrepair of the fleet.
It has been agreed to that Management will provide these vehicle inspection reports to the employees prior to the annual vehicle audit. The employees can, prior to the audit, fill out the report and return them to a DCSMEC representative who will be working in conjunction with the auditor, the day of the audit.
We thank everybody in advance for participating.
Joe Cortese
