Lap Dog

When I post something on hear, it is not hearsay. I check it out to try to be sure it is true before I post it. Like I said earlier, what have I posted that is not true? When you say you have not heard anything about what I have implied, if you haven't it is because you are not asking the Union Reps. They have confirmed everything I have posted on hear. So you must not be asking or you would know it is true. It is true that Quality is better when the regular operator is performing the job but why would you get the Company to start the day shift at 10:00 so night shift could work instead of using the Cross System Overtime. That is why it was put in the contract. They would bring the Truck people over and train them on a job after their 8 hours shift on trucks and by the weekend the Truck person would do a job by themselves. Just like they have done in the past. After the first Saturday, you would not have that many new people to train because the same people pretty much opt off each week. Besides they did have doubles even with bringing in the oppsite shift and lots of them in Trim and Chassis. Sounds as if our Chairman got something new in the contract for himself that none of the rest of get. He gets to take a 4 hour lunch last Friday and come back to the Hall so messed up he can hardly walk or talk. At least some people were smart enough to keep him out of the plant but I know he made some phones calls that did not make any sense. Oh if you want to check this one out to see if it is true, ask any of the secretaries at the Hall or anyone else that was at the Hall Friday afternoon. I know that job must have a lot of pressure and you need to unwind sometime but since Friday was the only day he worked last week, looks like he could have got drunk any one of the other days. Maybe he is so good taking care of business, he only needs to work one day a week and take a 4 hour lunch on that day. I can't wait to see you explain this one away too.

The problem is the Truck side should never had to go back to the 5 day work week. If the Chairman would have done his job in Local negotiations the issue would never have arisen. He is not being honest with the membership when he stated the Company would not abide by the Local Agreement about the Twin Cities agreement being in the contract. Same with the phony strike vote. Same with the Cross System overtime. Same as stating at the February membership meeting that trucks would be going back to the 4 tens in 2 weeks.I am not sure he is being honest on anything. You say the Company conceded on the 4 tens which they did. Could the Chairman resolve it himself. No. He had to call the International and they resolved it. Just like everything else, he can not settle anything locally. He has to call the International and have them get involved. That is how the Local Union get the reputation in Detroit that the Local Leadership doesn't know what they are doing. When you say I have tried to discredit or bash the Chairman, name one thing that I have printed that is not true. If I put something on here that is not true and I find out different, I will be the first to admit that I was wrong. I try to deal with facts and not the wild rumors that go around the plant. So let me know what I have said that is not true.

Again, where is the language that was rolled over? If it was agreed to be rolled over, there should be some language saying that. I do not see anything that you are referring to.

I have read the language in the Local. The only language I saw about the AWS is the letter which states " When business circumstances dictate, KCAP will reserve the right to work a 4 day, 10 hour schedule without overtime premium from Monday through Thursday inclusive. In addition, KCAP will retain the right to work a 3 crew schedule consistent with customer demand. If a standard Alternative Work Schedule for these configurations has been established nationally, they will be adopted at KCAP". Would it have been so diffcult to add and if employees work on Friday, hours will be paid at the overtime rate. Also why would anyone want to agree to any AWS that would be agreed to nationally and not work it out locally. I do not understand why he would have that last sentence put in at all. I would rather negotiate my on fate than leave it up to the national parties. You say that the COA was signed off in the local negotations to carry everything over into the new contract that would pertain. I can not find anything in the Local Agreement that says that. Maybe you can tell me where it is at and I will take a look at it. I can not find it anywhere. Let me ask you a question since you seem to know a lot about the agreement. You only state that someone told me this bunch of crap. Are you saying that he did not try to sneak the language into the agreement. Because if you are, then you are saying some of the other Union people are liars.

The language I am referring to is if the Truck side is on the 4 day work week and come into work on Friday, they would be paid overtime for hours worked on Friday. If this language would have been put in the Local Agreement, then there would never have been a disagreement with the Company about being paid overtime on Friday and Trucks would never had to return to the 5 day work week. Things like this happen when you already know everything and do not want to take any input from anyone else. This is one of the reasons he is being called the Dictator. He doesn't want any one elses opinion.

Looks like our Chairman has ran into a little problem. He has reported at the Union Meeting and in bulletins the reason for having to go back to 5 day work week was because the Company did not want to honor the language in the Local Agreement about the 4 day work week and being paid overtime on Friday. Well guess what? He did not get the Company to agree to put any language in the Local. He spent 5 months getting minor changes in the agreement and left out the one of the things that should have been on the top of the list. People have been questioning him about the language, so then he tries to sneak the language in the Local with out the Company knowing it. Apparently the Company caught up with the changes he tried to add into the agreement and that was what the big arguement was during his last grievance meeting. I checked this out with 2 different Union people before I put this post up because I wanted to confirm that it actually happened. Both of them verified that it did happen. Apparently he was not confused when he put it in the bulletins, he was just flat lying to the membership or he would not be trying to sneak the language in now. I can't wait to see how he is going to try to answer this one. I guess we will have to wait til we get our contract books to see if it is actually in there or not. It is not a good position to put yourself in when you start lying to the membership and the Company at the same time. I would think he has lost any creditability he had with the Company too. Maybe this is the reason we voted on the contract in December and it is almost April and we still do not have our new contract books. Hopefully at the next Union Meeting we can get his explanation.

Looks like 22 people will be showing up Monday the 31st from different locations. There will be 11 production people and 11 Skilled Trades. All the Trades are electricians. Suppose to get the next group on April 14 which will be about 30 total. Some of the Skilled Trades will be coming from Tulsa and Nashville but haven't seen anything on the Production people from either of these yet.

The line speed increase will be 2 units per hour and is suppose to happen by mid April. It will not add a lot of jobs though. Some additional jobs will be added in Trim and Chassis but I don't think there will be many in Paint and Body. We are in the process of setting up the IP line in SUV to insource the IP's back into the plant. This will add about 28 jobs per shift. Production will start on the 2009 units but will be intergrated in starting around May. This is one of the reasons to transfer people in right away. They want people on the IP for the special builds that are being ran now.

I just got word last night that KCAP will be down the week of May 19 on the Truck side. Looks like the slow down for Trucks has begun. I don't understand the line speed increase of 2 units per hour and then we start having down weeks. It appears that someone is not looking down the road very far when you up production 2 weeks ago and announce a down week 2 weeks later. The high end units are the ones that are selling the least which are mostly being built in DTP. We are building mostly the low end units. I would have thought we would keep running and DTP would be getting the down time. Of coarse the way our Chairman keeps calling up North over trival issues, the Company has probably decided to send the message to KCAP, bad things can happen if you keep being stupid. Some of the Union people told me that he had a grievance meeting Monday on grievaces that are months old, and he got into an argument with the HR Manager, of coarse he acted his usual self and start ranting and raving, so the grievance meeting was over. So none of the grievances got settled again. Apparently he still thinks he can just scream and yell and the problems will be fixed. Sounds as if he has a new nick name. Truck people are calling him the Dictator now because he does not want to listen to anyone elses views and he knows what is best for everyone. Just like when the SUV was working the voluntary Saturdays. The Truck Committee people were trying to tell him to use the Cross System Overtime to supplement SUV. He had a better idea, let's change the start time for SUV and use the opposite shift in SUV to supplement on Saturdays. SUV was already working overtime so why not let the Truck people make some extra money if they wanted to. Looks like he would rather take care of the SUV people than give anything to the Truck people. I hope he does not continue to put a bad light on KCAP. Bad things happen when the units are not needed.

KCAP had 60 the early part of last week. Didn't hear anything later in the week.

I was at the last Union meeting when he told everyone that the Truck side would be going back to the 4 day work week in a couple of weeks. That was the February meeting. Now it is the March meeting and Truck is still working the 5 day schedule. It would appear he would have everything finalized before he would report it at the meeting. So how did it go from the end of February to the end of March? I won't be able to be at this meeting but I am sure if I were there would be more bad info.

There was 160 about 2 weeks ago. I heard a couple more quit but that is real close to the actual number.

I understand about the mix we build and DTP but what I am talking about is the overall sales of Trucks. January Truck sales were down 8% and I have not heard what February sales were but I did hear they were down also. So if sales continue to slide, Detroit can eliminate a shift of production and adjust the mix for each location. So if we were to go to one shift, I think we would be building almost 100% regular cab and DTP would still be building the high end units. I am sure you have heard about Chicago and Louisville going to one shift. When sales are not there, first it is down time, which each of the plants were having for the last several months. Then it will be mass relief if the plant is on tag relief. If that does not get the volume down to meet customer demand, the next step is to cut a shift. I don't think any of us want to see that and the Chairman at a plant will definitely be a part of Detroits decision on what plant to cut the shift. If the Chairman is taking care of business locally and Detroit is not continually involved with issues, then that is not a mark against us when those tough decisions are being made. I am just saying our dirty laundry does not need to aired up there now. The present Chairman does not seem to understand that and is continually calling about issues that should be resolved hear. Hopefully sales will hold steady and the need to cut a shift will not come into play. But if it continues to decline, I do not want a shift cut here. Then we will be making decisions about a buy out or move.

Well I guess I did not get it from the Chairman myself, but more than one Union person has told me that he did call up North on both of the situations I talked about. So I guess you are saying they do not know what they are talking about either. I try to deal with facts and not rumors. I hear all kinds of things that I do not repeat because of the source or know them not to be true. I guess I would ask you, what part of my post is rumor and what part is crap? Before you say it is a rumor or crap, I think you need to check it out to see if it is true or not. I will stand behind the things that I write and if I am wrong on something, I am not to proud to admit that I am wrong.

We did just take a strike vote but even the Chairman does not seem to know what it really is all about. At the last Union meeting, he said it was for work standards. I talked to some of the Committeepersons in Truck and they said they had settled all of the jobs. They were in the process of adding in the additional heads when the Chairman reported at the Union meeting he was taking a strike vote. Then after the vote was completed, he posted a notice saying it was over Local Contract issues. Anyone who has been involved with the Union at all knows you can not strike over Local Contract issues after you have your agreement finished. So apparently he doesn't seem to know why he took the strike vote. Looks like he is trying to play politics with the election coming in May. With all the dumb decisions he has been making, I sure hope someone runs against him and wins. I am concerned about the plants future. If he gets the reputation up North that KCAP can't settle their on problems with out getting the International involved, which it looks like he is doing, they will cut a shift in KCAP if sales continue to decline on the Truck side just to send a message. I heard the other day he called the International Union because the Company had units parked in the aisle. Number 1, I would be embarrassed to be Chairman and have to call the International to get units out of the aisle. You go stop the line until the Company gets the aisle cleared. It shows a real weakness when you can not take care of something this simple. He also called the International about some one getting time off for refusing to weld when the Company said the person did not need a burn permit. Then he finds out it was just a joke about the guy getting time off. Wouldn't you think he would know all of the details before he would call the International about something like this. Please someone run that knows how to make good decisions before he affects all of our future.