February 2001, UE 506 News
MEMBERSHIP STANDARDS
Often we hear about pockets in the Plant that are hyper critical of the Officers, a particular Board member or a Divisional Chief Steward. But what are the responsibilities of each and every member?
The subject arose from the floor of the first shift membership meeting in January. The complaint registered dealt with members who consistently act contrary to the best interest of the Local.
The concerns raised didn’t lend themselves to a "witch hunt" and in fact we caution the membership against driving wedges in our membership base, especially as we face layoffs. The Officers have no intentions to isolate or alienate any member unless they are accused of the most grievous charges as outlined in our Constitution. However, the points taken from the floor were well taken.
Every member has to take a commonsensical approach to what they do and what they don’t do when it affects the good of the Union. Working overtime, for instance, on the same jobs the company has targeted for layoffs is not in the best interest all concerned. That’s not to say that all O.T. is improper, members, discussing matters with their Steward, have to weigh each situation and use that commonsensical approach to decide what’s best for everyone. Jeopardizing orders by not working O.T., if that’s truly the case, is not a prudent action.
Members traveling to all corners of the Earth to support GE operations was also raised as a concern of one member attending a meeting in January. Here again, we have to look at each situation and judge based on it’s own merit. If the trip helps directly facilitate the transfer of work from our Plant to other locations, we would expect that no member would participate in that venture. However, if by participating in a project the membership could benefit, we quite naturally would condone such involvement.
The final decision on matters described above rest on each and every member placed in those situations. When considering those decisions, your Union representatives are more than willing to help you weigh the pros, and the cons. By each member taking responsibility for their actions and always acting for the good of the entire membership, everyone in the Union will benefit.
SECOND GENERAL ELECTION NOTICE
UE Local 506 will conduct nominations for all general offices during membership meetings on February 21, 2001 at the UE Local 506 Union Hall. Times for the meetings are 7:15 a.m. (third shift), 1 p.m. (2nd shift), and 3:25 p.m.(1st shift). Also during the February meetings, the membership will select tellers for the General Election. Nominations for the following offices will be taken from the floor at each meeting. They are: Business Agent, President, Chief Plant Steward, Vice President, Local Recording Secretary, Financial Secretary, Treasurer, Executive Board Member at Large (three to be elected), Sergeant at Arms and Trustee (two to be elected).
The election will take place on Thursday, March 22, 2001 at the UE Local 506 Union Hall. The polls will be open from 6:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Voting machines will be used for all offices except Executive Board Member at Large, which will be by paper ballot.
Absentee ballots for those members scheduled for temporary military leave will be available on Wednesday, March 7, 2001 at the union hall and must be returned no later than Wednesday, March 21, 2001.
By virtue of this election, the Business Agent, President and Chief Plant Steward will be delegates to the District Six Council and to the UE National Convention.
Kitchen's Kabinet
This month brings us bad news in the form of permanent reductions. The company notified the Union of the necessity for layoffs because of a decline in locomotive and off highway orders.
As we work our way through these layoffs, the Stewards system should work hard at keeping members informed of events as they unfold and make sure members are fully aware of their rights. Stewards, representing members affected by a layoff, should put themselves in the shoes of those members and ask themselves: If they were the ones personally affected, what would they like to know and what information would be helpful. Anytime layoffs occur in someone’s life there are sure to be difficult issues facing them. One thing you can be sure of is that the Union is doing everything possible to minimize the impact.
How does the layoff procedure work? As Stewards, many of you may not know exactly how the system works because you’re a new employee who hasn’t experienced a layoff before or you may be a seasoned veteran who has not seen layoffs in a long time and are no longer familiar with the entire process. Whichever category you may fall in, the worse thing you can do is either give out wrong information or be the recipient of wrong information.
The local layoff and recall procedure is six pages in length. Not many members have read the entire procedure and if they have, remembered or understood the entire document. Simply put the process is based primarily on seniority.
In this column, I won’t attempt to reprint the entire layoff procedure but what I will do is remind the Stewards that it is your responsibility to field any questions regarding the process and make sure the process is being followed properly. The Chief Stewards will have a copy of the Local Layoff and Recall supplement available to them to answer any questions you may have. This would be a good time to read your contract book to familiarize yourself with the pertinent language on layoffs and transfer of work. Articles you would want to read are Article VII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XV, XXIII and XXVII. These Articles contain important information on language and benefits available to members impacted by permanent reductions.
FOR EXAMPLE: Article XIII, Section 2 of the UE-GE contract reads as follows: The Company will provide each Local, on a monthly basis, information on employees laid off for lack of work after notification has been given the employees; the information will consist of the name, home address of record, occupation, department and Foreman. The Foreman will give the Steward information on extended layoffs whenever possible one week before the employee is laid off.
Stewards should make sure that information like service dates, job classifications, break-in status for pieceworkers and progression levels for dayworkers is accurate. Believe it or not the Company does makes mistakes.
In closing, our first Stewards class will be Thursday, March 1, 2001. 3rd shift at 7:30 am, 2nd shift at 1:00 p.m. and 1st shift at 3:30 p.m. (save the schedule printed on this page).
SIGN UP FOR SPORTS
COMMITTEE EVENTS
The Sports Committee is happy to announce a few of their upcoming events.
Annual Saint Patrick’s Day "co-ed" Volleyball Tournament
Where: *Eastside YMCA (*note the change in location)
When: Sunday, March 11, 2001, 9:00 a.m. sharp!
Cost: $15.00 per person, includes short sleeve T-shirt
Team applications must be received at the Hall no later than March 1st.
Annual UE Local 506 Bowling Tournament
When: *Saturday, March 24, 2001
Three Shifts: 9:00 a.m., 12 noon and 3:00 p.m.
Cost: $60.00 per team
*Note: The tournament will not be held on Easter Weekend this year
To ensure the shift your team desires, Sports Committee Chairman Roger Zaczyk advises teams to have their completed roster and money hand delivered to the Hall (during normal business hours) as soon as possible. Shifts are assigned on a "first-pay" basis. Entries for Bowling Tournament close March 9, 2001.
Applications for the Volleyball and Bowling Tournaments are available from your Chief Steward, Sports Committee members or at the Union Hall.
See you there – The Sports Committee
NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE
64 Local 506 members received their layoff notices on Monday, February 5, 2000. Those affected members represent a little more than half of 129 layoffs GE announced on January 25th. Of the 129 figure, 100 are related to volume reductions while the remaining 29 apply to the notice of the Company’s intent to transfer Building 63-warehouse work.
Intent Bargaining on the transfer of warehouse work began on Friday, January 26, 2001. The Company maintains that they need to send certain purchased materials directly to a privately operated warehouse in Kansas to better service customers west of the Mississippi, thus bypassing the Erie warehouse. An added benefit of this move, according to the Company, is a substantial saving in transportation and labor cost.
Under the terms of the Contract, as it relates to non-production work, the Company is obligated to give at least 60 days advance notice, and bargain with the Union for a period of at least 45 days. Several meetings, dedicated solely to the warehouse, have been held between the Union negotiating committee and the Company committee. The Union Committee consists of Building 63-18T Chief Steward Mike Jelinek, the Local 506 Officers and the Local’s Recording Secretary. The Company Committee is comprised of the GE Union Relations staff and the warehouse manager, Gary Smith.
As of this writing, talks regarding the transfer of work have not produced any significant results. However, the Union Committee continues to pour over the information they requested of and received from the Company in an effort to develop proposals to keep the jobs in Erie.
The Union's efforts to offset volume related layoffs have not been in vane. As was explained in the February 2nd Local 506 NEWS Supplement, the Company agreed with the Officers request to "scrub" the Plant to detect areas that are currently undermanned. That project has uncovered about 30 jobs as of this writing, giving members targeted for layoff a better opportunity to stay in the Plant. Further, the Union has been working exhaustively with potential SERO candidates to make sure they fully understand their benefits and therefore paving the way for early retirements and reducing the need for some layoffs. As of February 5th, 27 SERO candidates, on the effected jobs, had chosen to accept early retirements. More are expected between now and March 1st when the rest of the notices will go out.
Issues on February 21 Meeting Agenda Explained
Several issues, requiring membership approval, will be voted on during each of the membership meetings this month. With so many important matters to consider, we thought it would be helpful if the UE NEWS explained each matter to be considered in detail.
NOMINATIONS of OFFICERS – Every two years, the membership has an opportunity to place in nomination, for all General Offices, the names of Local 506 Members in good standing. By our Constitution, nominations are held at the February membership meetings. More information regarding nominations or the General Elections is available on page one and the UE Local 506 Constitution, Article V. If you don’t have one, copies of the Constitution are available at the Union Hall.
SELECTION of TELLERS – The names of members, representing all Divisions will be recommended to the membership and a vote will be held to seat them as Tellers for the March 22nd General Election. The Tellers will be responsible for conducting the vote and the subsequent tally of the votes.
LAYOFF and RECALL PROPOSAL – An Officer and Executive Board recommendation regarding proposed changes to the local layoff and recall procedure will be discussed and voted on during all three meetings in February.
At the February meetings, the Executive Board will recommended approval of a Union-Company negotiated proposal making seniority the only factor used when determining who will be laid off.
History – For decades, the Company maintained a right to initially layoff workers (who in the Company’s opinion) weren’t fully qualified by virtue of not being of break-in (pieceworkers) or still on progression (dayworkers). All too often this meant that a senior person would be laid off and a junior employee would remain.
In the late 1980s, during the extensive Job Consolidation negotiations, the membership voted, as a counter proposal, to remove this unfair layoff practice and as a result the Union was successful making seniority prevail for pieceworkers, however, the Company would not relent for the same provision to apply for dayworkers.
In the years since Code Consolidation negotiations, the Union has pursued fighting for the same seniority right for daywork employees. When we first got wind of a downturn in the business, and in light of the fact there had been a lot of recent upgrades, the Officers again made a proposal to the Company. This time, the Company was receptive to the language the Union suggested and, after several discussions, the Company agreed to a proposal that would afford dayworkers on progression, the same right Pieceworkers, who are not off break-in enjoy – the right of letting their seniority prevail at times of layoffs.
RETURN to WORK PROPOSAL – Prior to the February meetings, the Executive Board will review a proposal from the Company regarding members on Short Term Disability Insurance. The proposal, if put into practice, would give members on personal injury of illness a possible option to return to a production job while they are still recuperating. The program would only be available to members on STD who are expected to be disabled for at least six months and who volunteer to be considered for the program. Employees who elect to try the work that’s been offered can discontinue working and go back out on benefits if they find it discomforting. The Board’s recommendation will be presented at the meetings.
WASHINGTON LOBBY DAYS – The Executive Board recommends sending 8 members to the Washington Lobby Days to carry the Local’s legislative concerns to our federal representatives. The Lobby Days begin with a full plenary of delegates on Sunday, March 25th and end after a full three days of activity, on March 28th. The costs associated with this event include travel, lost time, per diem and room accommodations.
506-618 MEMBERS MARCH ON MLK HOLIDAY
Thankfully, the weather finally cooperated with the participants in the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday March. Temperate conditions replaced the frigid, snowy weather that marchers had to contend with over the last several years and although far from balmy, the milder than usual weather contributed to a record number of Erie and Erie area residents involving themselves in the January 15, 2001 event.
The now familiar city garbage truck, symbolizing King's successful efforts to resolve the 1968 Memphis garbage workers strike, again led the procession of marchers.
For the third year in a row, UE General Secretary Treasurer Bob Clark traveled to Erie to observe Martin Luther King's Birthday with the members of UE Local 506 and 618.
During the 1997 Negotiations, the National Officers were highly supportive of the UE-GE Conference Boards demand to make MLK Day as an additional paid Holiday. Since becoming a Holiday, many members have taken advantage of their day off by marching and or attending special lectures and religious ceremonies that celebrated Martin Luther King's life and the broader fight by many to secure civil rights for all Americans.
PARKING LOT – In an amicable effort to resolve the parking lot situation with the LPAC, we are asking that members attending UE Local 506 meetings please leave the front spaces (east) open to club members.
JEFERY IMMELT- Television reports of the Officers meeting with Jack Welch successor, Jeffery Immelt, were greatly exaggerated. Well not really, the 506 Offices were supposed to meet with Mr. Immelt on February 1st, after his meeting with the Honeywell Corporate Board. This was not to be as Mr. Immelt was detained. According to the Erie UR staff, we may have another opportunity to meet the new CEO, and to pass on your thoughts, next month.
NAFTA + WTO = FTAA – The Free Trade Area of the Americas is the formal name given to an expansion of NAFTA that would include all of the countries in the western hemisphere. Trade ministers are currently negotiating the massive NAFTA expansion in secret from a total of 34 nations in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
An estimated 395,000 U.S. jobs have been lost since NAFTA as companies relocate to Mexico to take advantage of weaker labor standards. The U.S. trade surplus has become a deficit for the first time and despite promises of increased economic development in Mexico, only the border regions has seen any intensified industrial activity.
After experiencing the failures of NAFTA, why would our government expand NAFTA on their original model?
RETIREES WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE
Retirees, eligible for Medicare, (age 65or older) were given a new opportunity to "Opt-Out" of their GE supplemental health benefit plan during the Fall 2000 enrollment period. The Company offered retirees in that category an option to cancel their GE coverage if they were covered by another plan. Retirees suspending their GE insurance were told their monthly Medicare Part B payment ($50.00 last year) would be reimbursed back to them. That’s where the problem begins.
Unfortunately, we’ve already identified two elderly retirees who inadvertently sent their signed opt out documents back to GE even though they didn’t have alternative benefits. Clearly, they didn’t understand the option and as a result lost their insurance. Normally, these retirees would have to wait until the November enrollment period kick their insurance back in, however, we’ve made arrangements with the GE Corporate Benefits administrators to make an exception in these cases.
We are bringing this to your attention because a lot of retirees read the UE Local 506 NEWS and many current members have folks who retired out of GE. If you know of any retiree who has had payment for prescriptions or medical bills denied since the beginning of the year, call the Hall (899-3108) and let us try to rectify the situation.
As we explain on page five in the article titled "Lay Off Talks and Transfer Work Negotiations Continue", we are during everything possible to avoid having anyone go out the door unless the member is voluntarily taking a Special Early Retirement (SERO). Unfortunately, even with all of our efforts to thwart anyone from being laid off, some may still be a reality. With layoff activity looming, we know that members on the lower rung of the seniority ladder are concerned about their benefits. In this article, we address the most important of all benefits, health, vision and dental. We will follow up with a more comprehensive breakdown of benefits later this month.
What happens to my own Employee Heath and Vision Insurance?
A. Regardless of seniority, employees retain their personal coverage for a maximum period of *one year. Your medical and vision continues:
With no contributions if you are laid off with three or more years of continuos service.
With your regular contributions (about $2 to $4 per week) if you are directly affected by a layoff before completing three years of continuos service.
Does that apply to my Dependent Coverage as well?
A. Yes, if you were enrolled in Dependent Medical at the time of layoff, you will be able to maintain that coverage under similar terms to your own insurance with:
With no contributions if you are laid off with three or more years of continuos service.
With your regular contributions ($5.79 to $8.67 per week depending on plan) if you are directly affected by a layoff before completing three years of continuos service.
*At the end of that year, employees have the option to extend their COBRA Coverage for their dependents and themselves. However, employees will be required to pay 102% of the plan’s cost. If you apply for the extended conversion coverage, you must do so within 60 days after your coverage is terminated.
Yes, if you are directly affected by a layoff, the CompanyDoes my Dental Coverage continue after layoff?
continues coverage under GE Dental Care for you and your eligible dependents for up to 12 months.
Q. Is that the same case with Life Insurance?
A. Yes, your GE Life Insurance coverage continues for up to 12 months. When coverage ends, you may convert to an individual policy.