Baron Von Munchenhausen

Not quite sure why you think the no voters are mad. It is what it is and apparently all the yes voters enjoy going without a pay raise for 12 years while salary gets their merit pay increases. If the company can buy you with a lump sum then you did the right thing by voting yes. As for me I would have liked to see a pay increase for somebody other that the 2nd tier workers. I would have then been a yes voter too.

Apparently HR figured out they can move their own bookcases up front and don't need MW's afterall.

The Machine Repair trade was a trade "not to be repopulated". They are just following the contract and not adding any more machine repair to the plants. Wasnt machine repair work supposed to go to the main trades. Are you serious? Machine Repair is a core trade. Get a pf or mw to rebuild a spindle or scrape in a slide and we'll see how long that lasts. The company needs to provide some type of upskill training for these other trades if they wish to combine them. And yes I would rather have the other trades out on layoff, than water down the machine repair trade if the company won't upskill. The local, region and national should be involved in any type of consolidation because it sets precedent for all plants.

Uhhhh....What the hell does working in South America have to do with our local allowing contractors into the Romeo plant??? I'm lost!

Here I am beating a dead horse again about contractors working in plants. I work at the Romeo plant and we currently have pipefitting contractors here hanging sprinkler lines while pipefitters that were laid off are working the production line. The least this union can do considering the upcoming layoffs is allow the pipefitters to do the work the contractors are doing even if it is only a temporary assignment. There are a ton of contractors in this plant over our shutdown here and it blows my mind that the local union allows this to happen.

Are you serious? Look, I started this because I have nowhere else to go when the plant chairman is not enforcing the contract. I am a dues paying union member and I like being part of a union, but representration here is non existent. I have called the servicing representative and still have no luck. The local union is dysfunctional and management here is taking advantage of the non union leadership. I'm all for a great working relationship with management, but we need the contract enforced on both sides, not just to benefit the company. Go buy a Toyota just hold on!

Like it or not seniority rules. The union should allow low seniority in zone to be forced to go out of zone. The union is based on seniority. Why should someone with 20 years be forced out while someone with 5 stays put? That makes no sense at all and goes against everything the union stands for.

Look, you need to be a little more clear. I have a hard time understanding your posts. Randy our chairman is the final word in the plant, not a committeeman. For some reason we can't seem to keep one area group within a 56 hour spread let alone a plantwide list. The company isn't following the language and Randy needs to enforce it. That is how it works at unionized plants.

Hopefully enough production people will vote him out. The next regime will have a real hard time because management is so used to doing whatever they want.It will be a big job but can be done with the right people.

Several tradesman went to find out why the contract wasn't being followed on Friday. Ellison was taking the time to explain to us that he was going to get Dawn Rowley a past HR manager to explain the intent of the contract to us. Randy does not want to be involved. He came threatened to kick us out of the office if we didn't show respect. Granted things got heated but no one was being disrespectful. Apparently Randy doesn't want to be involved in the trades issues. He wants the ex company HR manager to do his job. Basically, the contract "reads overtime imbalances of greater than 56 hours will be supplemented by the plantwide overtime list". The company and union interpret that to mean that low to low houred employees in each area group must have a 56 hour spread in order to supplement from the plant wide list. Had that been the intent of the contract it should have stated that so when we voted we knew the intent. We now have the union and company agreeing and the people on the floor disagreeing. Also this plant wants to implement a skill matrix for trades. What can each tradesman do in each department. What a joke!!! We are all journeymen and can figure anything out. This familiar face part of the contract is BS too. This is just a way to get the company's favorite person in on overtime whille locking out the low houred employee.

It would be nice if Randy posted when the joint council meets and when we actually have a union meeting. The only meetings that the membership knows about are the ones we had to explain the new contract awhile back. What about a skilled trades meeting? When are those? We haven't had one since I've been in this plant. Randy will blame Brad but Randy needs to attend also. This is one more thing Randy isn't doing. Ellison seems to be ok, but I don't know yet.

It is what Randy hasn't done that is his issue. He is the plant chairman. If Brad is not doing his job it is up to Randy to find out why and help the members. The infighting between Brad and Randy is hurting everyone hear at the plant. When I go see Randy all I hear is how Brad is not doing this or how Brad is messing this up. Fix it Randy you are the chairman. Guiterrez doesn't impress me either. I called, left a message and he never got back with me. When I was talking to Randy, Chris jumped on Brad when he wasn't even part of the conversation. We need to come together, Brad and Randy don't need to like each other but they do need to work together for our benefit. As far as working overtime while there are people on ILO, until this union is actually a union and we are out for the benefit of everyone instead of just ourselves people will work every bit of overtime afforded them and screw their union brothers and sisters.

Why not hold the company to the contract? They hold us to the contract. Let's enforce it on our end.

Here in Romeo at Local 400 under the great and all powerful Randy we as tradesman have given up on our union to enforce the contract. The contract language states that we are to maintain a 56 hour overtime spread between the three area groups. Once the 56 hour threshhold is met the company is to supplement a group by going outside that group to the next lowest hour trade on the plantwide list. We have a particuliar group with people at 200 hours working while people with 70-90- hours are sitting at home on the weekends. It appears that the company tells Randy their interpretation of the contract and he says ok. What a joke. I've seen him and bitched at him and he says he'll correct the situation only to come in the next day to find everything exactly the same. I think he is in bed with the company. This is by far the weakest local I've been associated with. Even my supervisor says "I could tell you to do anything and what are you going to do? Call your Committeeman?" It is a sad state here when management knows they can do anything they want and Randy and Ellison won't do anything!!! It is so discouraging especially because we are paying for this unrepresentation!

I work at Romeo and I didn't even know we had a union. With the representation we get it is like having two company's in the plant. One pays you and you pay the other.