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NOVEMBER MEMBERSHIP MEETING NOTICE Agenda:An election will be held to select Local 506 Delegates to the 2005 UE District 6 meetings (see a list of candidates on page 1). The financial officers will present recommendations for Fiscal Year 2005 (see page 3) The tentative 2005 Holiday schedule will be vote on (see schedule on page 2) Officers’ Reports, Committee updates and general business matters will follow.
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FORMER UE ACTIVIST JOE THOMAS DIES Joe Thomas passed away Saturday, October 16, 2004 at the age of 82. Joe worked at GE for 38 years and in that time served as a shop steward in Buildings13, 6, 2, 10 and 18 Refrigeration. He also served the Local as a Trustee, Assistant Chief Steward and as an Executive Board Member at Large. Even after his retirement in1984, Joe continued to work with Local 506 Committees, including organizing. At retirement, when asked how he got involved in the Union, Joe recalled an incident in the Refrigeration Division, when Tom Brown and Tom Rafter, both Assistant Chief Stewards at the time, put up a fight to uphold the seniority rights of a black workers. When questioned by a foreman why they, whites, would do this, they both replied that our Union doesn’t pay any attention to color. "That showed me what kind of Union we had." Having experienced company discrimination, Joe became a solid Union activist. |
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FRANKLY SPEAKING By the time this paper is distributed the Election will be over. Hopefully, there weren’t any "hanging chads" or Supreme Court decisions needed to decide the presidential race. If the predictions held up, a record number of people voted but no matter which candidate was elected, we will have a lot of work ahead of us if we are to protect our jobs and secure work for the generations that follow. Since former President Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into law in 1994, the results have been huge job losses and the creation of many more "free" trade agreements (notice I didn’t write "fair" trade agreements). Despite the promises of every politician to even the playing field - that hasn’t happened. If a company in Mexico is allowed to dump their pollutants in a river, or a company in China is allowed to operate a sweatshop using child labor, free trade will not work. That must be our next step, we must demand that any free trade agreements include, environmental laws, fair labor standards and health and safety laws. Stay involved. The Legislative Action Committee will meet on December 1st at 3:30pm, nominations for chairperson will be on the agenda. |
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VOTE ON 2005 HOLIDAY SCHEDULE The executive board has voted to recommend the following tentative holiday schedule. The schedule will be discussed then voted on during each membership meeting on Thursday, November 18, 2004. The language listed below this schedule refers to the floating holiday and represents the same terms as in prior years.
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ODDS AND ENDS Correction – My apologies to Dr. David Rosenberg for incorrectly identifying his association to the IUP. David heads up the UE Archives at the University of Pittsburgh and in that capacity he has been helping to preserve Local 506 records and photos. By the way, the John Nelson video shown before the Nelson Marker unveiling did not come from the WICU files as previously thought. The Week 53 Shutdown Averaging Period will run from Fiscal Week 47 (this week) to Fiscal Week 51. This will also be the Year-End Averaging Period. From the Officers, Executive Board and Staff, have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday and for those of you extending the Holiday weekend to hunt, good luck and be safe. |
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Local Agreement on "Regular Job" Adopted Local 506 Members approved language at the October meetings that better defines "regular job". After consolidating incentive job codes over the years, from about 650 down to 65 codes, old language regarding "regular job" became widely interpreted by some in supervision to require pieceworkers to do everything "under the sun", anytime and without compensation. The new language brings some sanity back to the matter by defining regular job "as the duties he/she (a pieceworker) expects to perform on a regular basis…not on infrequent occasions. The regular job may include duties in more than one classification as long as the tasks are performed routinely. On the other hand "regular job" may not include work in the same classification if it is dissimilar and performed so infrequently that the employee is unable to maintain earnings". The language sites moving a drill operator infrequently to a lathe as an example where the worker would be compensated. It is understood by the agreement that, "There is no blanket definition and each example must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis". We can probably expect some disagreements in the future, but with this new language, those issues ought to be "few and far between". |
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SPORTS SHORTS Annual Turkey Tournament - Today is the last day to sign up for the Sunday, November 21, 2004, Holiday Volleyball Tournament. If you’re interested, contract a Sports Committee Member or stop at the Hall. "Basket of Cheer Raffle" - You can show your support for the Sports Committees’ by purchasing tickets for the Annual Basket of Cheer Raffle. The proceeds help the committee continue their popular activities throughout the year. The drawing will be held after the 1st Shift membership meeting on December 16, 2004. Interested in NASCAR racing? Sports Committee Chairman Matt McCracken is putting feelers out to see who might be interested in an excursion on Fathers Day, June 19, 2005 to see a NASCAR race in Michigan. If you’re interested call him at ext. 6839 (2nd shift) or call his pager at 878-6144. |
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ELECT DELEGATES TO DISTRICT COUNCIL SIX Seven UE Local 506 Members were nominated in October, and accepted nomination, to serve as District Council Six Delegates or Alternate Delegates for the 2005 term. Seven seats will be filled through an election that will be conducted while each membership meeting is in session on Thursday, November 18, 2004. The candidates accepting nomination for District delegate are listed below, in the order they will appear on the ballot.
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In Sympathy The Officers and Executive Board Members of UE Local 506
wish to extend their sincere condolences
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