BLOG IS DEAD? NO, BLOG LIVES!

So, what's been happening lately? Too many things to post here at one time. Which is why the Local 4056 Blog has been withering on the vine. There have been changes on the Executive Board of the Local, there have been cuts in the Official Time Local Representatives get to work on Union business, there have been retirements, transfers, all of the things that can make maintaining a regularly updated Blog difficult.

Let's try one more time. Or more than one more time. I will attempt in good faith to update this page at least weekly. Herein, I will share with you what is affecting your fellow Local 4056 members. I won't use names, I'll disguise any content that may put a person at risk or under suspicion, but if someone contacts me with something that could be of interest to others, I'll post it here.

Let's start with the bats in St. Augustine. The Office there has been home to a bat colony, which meant that the workers had to be relocated to several nearby offices. Of course, nearby is a relative term, for one worker nearby was a 45 minute drive. The worker questioned management and the office aide about being compensated mileage for the commute but got less than a definitive answer. Yes, mileage is payable when you are stationed at an office other than your usual office. It's calculated by using your home office as the starting point of the trip, and what is payable is the distance from there to the alternate temporary location. For example, if you drive 10miles each way to get to work and the temporary duty station is 45 miles from your home, you would subtract 10 from 45, and voucher the Agency for 35 miles daily.

What else has been going on? There's been a nasty smell in the Kissimme Office (insert your own joke here)but that problem was short lived, and has been solved.

Also, the Manager of the Kissimmee office has been reassigned to Winter Haven, from whence she came. Kissimmee's AFGE Representative, the tireless and diligent Jose Jiminez had a huge part in recent changes made in that office that should affect the work environment and morale for all employees. Congratulations to Jose!

There are many hot-seats in the Tampa TSC but last Thursday all seats turned into hot seats because of a problem with the office air conditioning. That problem was resolved without bloodshed.

Orlando has had a recent rash of new hiring, and the CRTs are now in class. There were a total of 5 SSI CRs hired in Orlando (and 3 for Longwood), 2 Title II CRs and 3SRs hired since April.

Not to cast aspersions on any of the new hires, but more than a half, significantly more, are blood relatives of current or former managers and their spouses, or relatives of bargaining unit employees, or both. We truly have the best of both worlds here. Perhaps making a strategic change of one's last name will help one's chances for promotion around these parts.