MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS AND TIMES ARE:

UE General Secretary Treasurer Bruce Klipple will swear in all recently elected Local 506 Officers during the 3^rd Shift membership meeting on April 19, 2007.

Secretary Klipple has served as a National Officer since 2001. He was formerly the President of Local 141 representing the PA Pump and Compressor workers in Easton, Pa. Bruce then went on to become a National Field Organizer and an International Representative, a position he held for 11 years. Bruce will serve on the negotiating committee during the upcoming UE-GE National Negotiations.

It’s a long day and busy day for the Election Committee Representatives and Tellers, but election after election 506 Members step up and volunteer for this important function of the union. The March 22, 2007 General Elections were no exception when the following members stepped up to do their part to keep the elections fair and operating smoothly. Thanks to all of the following volunteers for your commitment:

QUICK NOTES ON THE CONTRACT

With just a little over a month until the start of UE-GE Contract talks there’s plenty for all of us to do in preparation. The Local needs volunteers to help out at the June 2^nd Rally, see page 2 for info on an upcoming meeting…. It goes with out saying that every member’s participation in the Rally is vital to securing a fair Contract. This will be the only major CBC Contract Rally so it is important that we send a strong message to GE… Buttons and stickers are on order and should be distributed soon. We need visibility in the shop and although we had some vender trouble early on, members should be able to pick up Contract shirts within the next week. In addition to the "All Aboard" shirt, we will have a shirt with "Fighting for our Future" theme that was the winning slogan in the Local’s Contract T design contest. Brad McCurdy, 42-7 won a new 506 jacket for his suggestion…. The UE-GE Conference Board met in Pittsburgh on April 2^nd to finalize the Bargaining Goals for negotiations…. We distributed the first National UE Contract Leaflet two weeks ago – the leaflet was titled "GE’s Competition – There isn’t any". More leaflets will follow…The Local is in the process of revamping our Contract communication network to make sure everyone not only receives information but also so members can communicate back to the negotiation committee. Lastly, the National website will have all current updates posted, you can link up to it by going to the 506 website at www.uelocal506.org/…We will have a lot more on the 2007 UE-GE Contract in the May 11^th 506 NEWS.

NOMINATE CONVENTION DELEGATES
AT APRIL MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS

Nominations to fill (4) rank and file delegate’s seats to the 70th UE Convention can be made at the April 19, 2007 membership meetings. We are calling for the nominations early this year because the June 2^nd Rally and the July Contract vote will serve as monthly meetings in those respective months.

Pittsburgh, Pa will be the site of the convention. It will convene on Sunday, September 16, 2007 and will conclude on Thursday, September 20, 2007. The delegate election will be conducted during the membership meetings on Thursday, May 17, 2007. The four successful candidates, the officers and seven board members will participate in workshops and be assigned to specific committees where they will help develop UE policies and programs for the next two years.

FRANKLY SPEAKING

First I would like to thank the membership for giving me the opportunity to serve you another two years, it is both a privilege and honor.

Contract negotiations will begin on May 22^nd; if you have been reading the "Focus" series GE has been mailing to our homes, you know that the negotiations will be difficult. The bottom line is we work for the most profitable company in the world and our wages and benefits should reflect that.

Finally, in all but a few places in this plant, farmouts are a big issue. We have maintained all along that some buildings are farming out because that is easier than managing the workload of a department. The procedure for farming out is pretty simple; the COE leader gives the Chief Steward a "notice of intent" to farmout work, that Chief Steward then submits a "request for information" which includes the number of parts to be farmed out, the areas affected, the "actual cost" (what it would cost to do the work in the plant) and the "landed cost" (what it costs for the outside vendor to do the work).

Well that’s the way it’s supposed to work, but last week Building 2 Chief Steward Jeff Morealli received a "notice of intent" to farm out 220 parts per week. When Jeff received the "request for information", we looked at the landed cost" and found that the vendors price was over $15,000.00 per week more than it would cost to do the work here. Now, no one asked me, but I’ll bet we have some machinist in this plant that could figure out how to do that work here, and maybe we could send that $15K to the guy that got fired from Home Depot.

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