Agenda:

*UE-GE Conference Board Delegates met at the UE National headquarters on Friday, August 25^th, 2006 to begin developing bargaining goals and strategies for the 2007 UE-GE National Negotiations. *Note: For the over 1,000 Local 506 Members that have never been through contract negotiations, the Conference Board is made up of rank and file representatives coming out of all GE shops represented by the UE.

The delegates heard reports on the July 21, 2006 Coordinated Bargaining Steering-Committee (**CBC) meeting from General President John Hovis, Conference Board Secretary Steve Tormey and Washington I.R. Chris Townsend. All three representatives thought it was a constructive meeting. The CBC Steering Committee set a timetable for developing bargaining goals and pre-negotiation events. They also agreed to develop a contract survey. In addition, the UE-GE Conference Board decided to distribute and collect contract surveys in September – Local 506 Members should begin to see the surveys out this week. **Note: The CBC is made up of 13 National Unions that represent GE workers.

On another contract-related matter, Conference Board Secretary Tormey warned that GE has started their "softening up process designed to pave the way for company attempts to extract concessions in next year’s negotiations, particularly in the medical insurance area." Steve stressed the need to counter GE’s efforts by aggressively putting forward the Union’s positions on major issues of bargaining well before negotiations begin.

President Hovis reviewed the timeline for contract events for the delegates. John stressed the importance of each Local sending representatives to the October 21, 2006 CBC Meeting in Saratoga, N.Y. because it will be the only opportunity for rank and file leaders to meet prior to the 2007 negotiations. The next UE-GE Conference Board meeting will be held in December 2006 to continue the discussion of bargaining goals. Representatives from CBC Unions, including UE, will meet in January 2007 to refine contract demands submitted by the various CBC Unions. Tuesday, May 22, 2007 will be the opening day of UE-GE negotiations and the Erie Contract Rally will be held on June 2, 2007.

Attending the meeting for Local 506 were: President Frank Fusco, Business Agent Pat Rafferty, Treasurer Wayne Burnett, Building 63 Steward Pat Fedak, Divisional Chief Stewards Jeff Morealli, and Ron Dombrowiak and E-Board at Large representative Dennis McLaughlin.

Under the UE Restructuring Plan, adopted by the rank and file at the 2005 UE National Convention, three UE Regions would be established and each Regional Council would form sub-regions in geographic areas to enable periodic one-day meetings with the purpose of advancing the Union’s goals, further develop rank and file leadership and encourage membership involvement.

By Constitution each sub-region shall meet at least one time annually. The agenda for the meetings shall be developed with sessions aimed at promoting mutual aid and support through education, political action, organizing and other activities the Regional Council or local unions may decide to become involved in.

Please call the Local 506 Office to register (814) 899-3108

At last months membership meetings there were several issues that I wanted to give an update on. The first item regarded members that had successfully bid, but were still waiting to move to their new job. There are currently 18 people still waiting to move, that number was 70. Hopefully the number will be down to zero by the next membership meeting. The second topic regarded water fountains being removed from the plant. After a discussion with the company we found that some of the fountains had been removed because of a high chlorine count but not all of them. We explained to the company that suitable arrangements must be made if those coolers were not replaced.

Congressional candidate Steve Porter will speak at the 2^nd shift membership meeting. Because of prior commitments Porter is unable to attend the other meetings this month but will do so in the future. Steve ran for Congress 2 years ago and despite the fact that the national and local democratic party ignored him, Steve received 40% of the votes cast. The primary election results sent a strong message to the state legislators, the November 7^th election should be the exclamation point at the end of that message!

Every generation has enjoyed a higher standard of living than the one before them, that trend will stop with us. We can no longer allow the industrial base of our country to be destroyed. Manufacturing gave birth to the "American Dream" and both are being dealt a deathblow by the constant barrage of free trade schemes passed by the House and Senate. There is an $8.6 trillion national debt that increases by $1.75 billion every day (that comes out to $29,000 for every man, woman and child in this country). There are 46.6 million people without healthcare, all the while we continue to read about plant closings – It’s time for a change. We can and must do better.

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