MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS AND TIMES ARE:

Second Notice - UE Local 506 will conduct nominations for all general offices during membership meetings on Thursday, February 15, 2007 at the UE Local 506 Union Hall. Times for the meetings are 7:20 a.m. (third shift), 1 p.m. (2nd shift), and 3:20 p.m. (1st shift). Also, during the February meetings, the membership will select for alternate-tellers for the General Election.

The election will take place on Thursday, March 22, 2007 at the UE Local 506 Union Hall. The polls will be open from 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 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, 2007 at the Union Hall and must be returned to the Hall no later than 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 21, 2007.

Nominations for the following offices will be taken from the floor at each meeting. They are: Business Agent, President, Chief Plant Steward, Vice President/ Recording Secretary, Treasurer, Executive Board Member at Large (three to be elected), Sergeant at Arms, (one) Trustee and (one) Alternate-Trustee

By virtue of this election, the Business Agent, President and Chief Plant Steward will be delegates to the Eastern Regional meetings and to the UE National Convention.

In just a little over 3 months, UE-GE National Negotiations will begin in New York City. At that same time the IUE-CWA-GE Negotiations will commence. In all, 13 National Unions will send representatives to join the two negotiating committees to try and hammer out an agreement. The next big event leading up to the negotiations will be a UE-GE Conference Board meeting. That meeting will be held in March to put the final touches on our list of bargaining goals. Local 506 Members with suggestions to improve the GE Benefit Package can raise them during the February 15^th Membership Meetings. Those suggestions will then be presented Conference Board for approval.

• The first week of talks opens on Tuesday, May 22^nd and runs through Thursday May 24^th.

• The 2^nd week schedule calls for meetings on Tuesday, May 29^th through Thursday, May 31^st

• The 3^rd week schedule will be Tuesday, June 5^th through Thursday, June 7th

• Sessions scheduled for the fourth and final week leading up to the end of the current agreement will be held on Monday, June 11^th and run through Sunday, June 17th (contract expires unless extended).

• On Tuesday, June 19^th, UE-GE Conference Board Delegates will vote on the contract and then take their recommendation back to the UE Locals for a membership vote.

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The subject will be Contract Negotiations and presented by UE-GE Conference Board Secretary Steve Tormey. Steve has led the UE Negotiating Committee for six sets of Contract Negotiations and he serves on the small table during the crucial final week of talks. Stewards are encouraged to attend and interested members are welcome to attend.

EARLY BOOMERS CONTRIBUTIONS APPRECIATED

I read with sadness that retired Local 506 Member Ed Leupold passed away recently, he was only 60 but he had been ailing. For those of you who didn’t know Ed, he was an honest, outspoken guy and a solid union member. Ed served our Country in the military, for two tours during the Vietnam War. I know he volunteered with the scouts and I’d bet there were other community groups that he gave his time to.

Ed, along with many of the other early "Baby Boomers", helped carry the torch passed on by the aptly named "Greatest Generation". The torch that boomers have carried from the 1960’s until now is fueled with the values they were taught, the responsibility they have taken upon themselves and the desire to make a better life for future generations.

In helping prospective retirees with their paperwork, I began to see an increase in retirements over the last couple of years, but more recently, as more and more 506 Members reach 60, there has been a surge of calls for help. With the increase in boomers reaching retirement age, I thought it would be important to write about the contributions they made to our Union and to thank them.

Most of the early boomers began working in the Plant directly after high school in the 1960’s. Their grandparents and parents had struggled through the Great Depression, fought World Wars and organized Unions to pave the way for a better, safer life for them. But things didn’t turn out quite as well as their parents had hoped. The boomers soon found out they would have their own struggles to overcome.

1969 Strike – In October of 1969, UE Members voted to strike GE. That strike came at time when most of the early boomers were just starting families. Despite the personal hardships they experienced, these young workers walked the picket lines everyday with the older 506 Members. The picketers endured a harsh winter and they went through a Christmas without a paycheck but they stood tough for 102 days to secure a strong contract for themselves and improve working conditions for future GE Workers.

Along with fair wage increases, the 1969 strike resulted in the Union securing a consistent COLA formula that continues to protect us from inflation. The Union won Sick and Personal Days and improved vacation time. Due to the strike, a corrupt merit-raise system was replaced with a guaranteed rate progression and, of great importance, the Union maintained the right to strike (GE wanted to eliminate our right to strike over grievances).

Corporate Downsizing - Although Local 506 has fought the Company over many serious issues throughout its 70-year history, I believe that there wasn’t any era more demanding than that of the 1970’s and 80’s when corporate downsizing was running rampant throughout the country. It was in that era that many boomers started to get involved in the work of the Union and some were elected to 506 leadership positions. These new representatives teamed up with the established 506 leaders to confront Automation – The first wave of attacks came about in the 1970’s when GE was hell bent on eroding our membership through automated machines and devices. It was the low service boomers and the future workers who had the most to lose. Not only did automation pose a threat to jobs, it also had the potential to become "Big Brother" monitoring workers’ performance to cut piecework prices or used as a tool to discipline. Through the alliance of boomers and the established leaders, local agreements were negotiated that limited GE’s use of that data. Agreements were also forged to make sure the new-tech jobs remained in the hourly bargaining unit. Without taking automation issues head on, you can only try to image what an upper hand the Company would have in today’s high-tech industrial world.

Moving and Closing Down Product Lines - Boomers, again working with the established leadership, should also be credited with resisting GE’s effort to downsize by closing the Foundry and moving the Diesel Engine Division out of Erie. Those leaders and the membership launched a public campaign to expose GE’s plans. Churches got involved, Politicians condemned GE through written proclamations, petitions were signed and hearings were conducted. The Local was not successful in saving those jobs but the line was drawn, 506 Members made it clear that any further attempt to remove jobs would be met with the same aggressive struggle. As a side note, several key pieces of the Job and Income Security language in the National Agreement were a direct result of the pressure the Union exerted on the Company to deal with the effects of job loss.

And the list goes on…. boomers have struggled through numerous business downturns, they fought Code Consolidation and they overcame the divisive Japan Trip (another story for another time). But most of all the early boomers (along with the younger boomers) have worked hard to maintain the UE’s integrity as a true independent rank and file Union.

So thanks go out to the generation of workers that include those who have retired in recent years, those who are about to retire and those who will retiree within the next few years. They like earlier members have made contributions to the Union - But the story doesn’t stop here because I see membership meetings filled with new members, I see younger members running for steward and signing up for training. These members will have their own ups and downs and their own struggles to face but I am confident, because of the commitment I see, that they too will fight hard and they will maintain the integrity of our Union.