HIRING WILL BLOCK SOME FARM-OUTS
Recent talks with the company revealed that they planned additional farm-outs to free up workers for understaffed areas in the plant like the Building 6 multi story. Our initial objections to this plan and suggestion that they hire new workers to fill the vacancies fell on deaf ears until President Fusco explained the situation to members attending the September meetings. Judging by comments made from the floor, the membership was clearly against any unnecessary farm-outs. Frank told the members to go back in their respective divisions and tell their managers that they wanted nothing to do with their plans. Apparently the company listened to those complaints because they came back to the officers to say they would hire 30 new workers to meet some of their needs. A special thanks goes out to Building 6 Chief Steward Patte Dillen for her persistence (and insistence) in getting workers hired for the multi story to avoid future farm-outs.
JOB POSTING UPDATE
VOTE MAY BE ON OCTOBER
MEETING AGENDA
On April 6, 2006 the Local distributed a leaflet explaining
where the company was parked on Job Posting revisions. Negotiations had
begun earlier in the year to remedy what GE said were obstacles they
encountered during heavy volumes of hiring. At that point we had already
removed or amended some items on their "wish list" but they still wanted to
discontinue a past practice of allowing workers a right to go back to their
original job on a Poor Placement. They also wanted workers to stay on a job
for one year before they could bid again. Those issues were two obvious
sticking points with the negotiators and E-Board. We believe we are now at a
point where those two issues are off the table; however, the board wanted
further clarification before making a recommendation to the membership. The
Board was to meet again on the matter after the NEWS went to press therefore
we can only state that there may be a vote
during the October 19th meetings.
OCTOBER MEMBERSHIP
MEETING NOTICE
Nominate
Eastern Regional Delegates
at October Membership Meetings
A provision of our Constitution allocates delegate spots for the three Local 506 Officers. The names of nominees for the four additional delegate positions will be placed on a ballot and a vote will be conducted during the November 16, 2006 membership meetings. The four candidates receiving the highest vote totals will assume regional delegate status. The next three candidates will serve as alternate-delegates. In case of a tie vote, a run-off election will be held during the December 14, 2006 membership meetings.
Committee report and general business matters
MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS AND TIMES ARE:
Thursday, October 19, 2006 (All meetings)
7:20 a.m. (3rd Shift) 1:00 p.m. (2nd Shift) 3:20 p.m. (1st Shift)
FRANKLY SPEAKING
…and the survey says: After a week of logging the Local 506 contract surveys, the results are in. Of those members responding to the survey, the average age was 48.93 years young; the service was 19.24 years. The service ranged from 11 months to 42 years, age from 28 to 69 years young.
On wage rates, the responses were varied but most were within a range that indicated a need for a higher percent than was gained in recent contracts.
On the benefit side of the survey, health insurance (for retirees and current workers) was the main concern, followed closely by improved pension formulas, Cost of Living Adjustments for GE pensioners and paid time off. As expected the SERO category was a popular choice among the large group of high-service members.
The Contract Language side of the survey showed that the membership is deeply concerned with Job Security, Night Shift Differential for new hires, and the Progression rates for new hires.
Although we don’t expect any huge variances, it’s important to note that this is a preliminary survey report. Local 506 is part of the UE-GE Conference Board and as such we will compile all of the surveys from UE represented GE shops together for a final assessment. Those results will then be compared with the results of surveys submitted to the other 12 Unions of the Coordinated Bargaining Committee meeting during a scheduled October 21, 2006 meeting.
WHAT IMPACT WILL CAST PRODUCTS
HAVE ON BUILDINGS 5 and 2?
The title to this article is the question on many a members mind – especially the workers in areas of Buildings 5 and possibly Building 2 where cast products threaten to take away fabrication and machine work.
To address the matter, the officers requested a list of all "fab to cast" projects along with the planned cut-in dates and an assessment of the impact the projects will have on our members, if they are proven viable. The company supplied a list of the likely "fab to cast" projects during a meeting held on October 2nd attended by Building 5 Chief Steward Dale Rosenthal, Vice President Dale Stubenhofer and the officers for the union while the union relations staff and Randy Biletnikoff represented the company.
Through that meeting we found out that all of the projects are tentative until they pass testing in the field. We did sense however, that many would be accepted and incorporated into the production line. As this article was being written, the company was still breaking down the labor impact by area and therefore had not supplied that information to the union.
Assuming the worst and because Building 5 workers have already seen their work load dip due to previous engineering changes, the union requested that the "fab to cast" issues become a formal part of the upcoming Job Preservation discussions. The company agreed this would be a "prime candidate" for those talks.