LORAIN/OHIO ASSEMBLY

[Furious1Auto]

Now I know that there are a lot more hogs - oops again- issues out there in other areas. We need to start posting them and bringing them out into the light of day so this membership knows exactly how they are getting screwed over!

Are you suggesting that when there are openings in stock that they should get licenses for senior employees who might want the job! I thought that members with 15+ years liked to watch low seniority employees driving high lows and IQ buggies!

Edited October 31, 2007 by Furious1Auto

[OHAP_Stumpy]

If you didn't look at the posting boards starting yesterday and for sure this morning. They had posted upto 21 Temp stock jobs. Those jobs are on both shifts...ie ...21 for days and 21 for nights according to the bid sheets.

[Furious1Auto]

If you didn't look at the posting boards starting yesterday and for sure this morning. They had posted upto 21 Temp stock jobs. Those jobs are on both shifts...ie ...21 for days and 21 for nights according to the bid sheets.

I was told that you had to have an in plant license to take a bid, why don't they just hold a Saturday class to get the high bid senior employee's a licensed instead using it to disqualify these people who have payed their dues on the line?

Edited November 3, 2007 by Furious1Auto

[Spring]

We have a tentative agreement. We have a union meeting on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Surely we will have some information especially seeing as how our Skilled Trades Chairman, Chris Viscomi, is a national negotiator. They wouldn't keep anything from us, would they? Also, I would expect that they should be able to tell us something about our local agreement. After all, they've been at it long enough, haven't they? We should be able to get some idea as to where the union wants to go and where the company wants to go.

[Spring]

Some light reading.....

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1194081678...l?mod=wsjcrmain

 

I'm working on the notes. Will be back with you all shortly.......

[Spring]

General Membership Meeting

November 4, 2007

 

 

Presentation of Agenda

Pledge of Allegiance

Prayer

Roll Call of Officers, not Present:

Pete Filiaggi, Ida Hess (asked to be excused), Kevin Harmon (asked to be excused), Michelle Schnur (asked to be excused), Jay Kiska (asked to be excused), Charlie Beedle, Chris Viscomi, Annette Fuller

 

Moved directly into reports:

 

Chairman’s Report – Nick Gallogly

A tentative agreement between Ford Motor Company and the UAW. A meeting has been called in Detroit tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. for Chairmen and Bargaining Committeemen. Based on his feelings, Nick feels we have a bright future at the Ohio Assembly Plant. He said there is a list of plants that they want to close but he does not know who is on it yet. He said that he really didn’t know anything at this time and that he would let the membership know as soon as he did. Tuesday the Region will have a meeting with the structure at Lima to update them. In order for this agreement to pass all the locals must vote on it. The International has given out no information at this time as they want the leadership to learn of it at the same time. He said that the VEBA was a big issue. There will be a bulletin put out on Tuesday for dayshift.

 

Order bank stands at 23,690. There is an order by U-Haul for 6,000 units for the first of the New Year. They are not included in the current order bank. We are on an 8 hour schedule with no more down weeks scheduled at this time.

 

Rebalance – the company is trying desperately to get their rebalance. It is not going well for them. Be very careful about what you say to the Company.

 

Local agreement – this is still being worked on. Of course we would not want to have a local agreement prior to a national agreement as things can change but there is movement. Nick said he didn’t see this taking a long time to resolve.

Stock temporary bids – these are posted. You must already possess a tug or lift license to bid on these jobs. This was outsourced with the COA but has not been moved on as the company has not given the union the contracts so that the union may try to compete. Nick has received many calls as why this is not going up for bid on seniority. He said he was trying to protect as many people as possible. He’s hoping they are bid out permanently soon.

Collection to feed the hungry. We only have 4 bags of food. He’s hoping that we’ll start contributing to help out the less fortunate this holiday season.

 

President’s Report: Tim Donovan

The unemployment was a mess. He thanked Laura Jones for allowing them to use her pin and social security number to access the site and straighten things out. The state lost a disk with information on it so some members were on that disk and therefore will not use their social security numbers on line due to fear of identity theft. If so, they will not receive unemployment or sub. To the members who do not know how to access the site or have no computers, please come to the union hall for assistance. He contacted Betty Sutton’s office. He spoke with one of her aides as she is in session. He said it should be easier now.

Veteran’s Day is 11/16/07. There is no Election Day holiday as this is only a Primary election and not Federal. There will be a gate collection on 11/9 for Feed the Hungry. Flu Shots will be available on Thursday for $10.00 at the union hall from 9:30a.m. – 6:00 p.m.. The Women’s Committee Lunch with Santa will be 12/8. The collection for the Homeless Vets will be 11/15. CAP council recommendations are on the website. Remember to Vote!

Tim spoke out against the current Avon Lake Mayor. He said that the current mayor is constantly commenting to the papers in a manner derogatory to our membership.

 

The Recreation Committee is sponsoring a casino trip to Allegheny, New York on 1/20/08. The cost is $35.00 with $20.00 in coins returned back to you.

 

The Christmas tree gift donations will be up soon and the collection for the needy children will end on December 14th. Please support these children at this time.

 

Reading of Previous minutes – accepted

Financial Report – accepted

Recommendations by the Executive Board:

1. To donate $300.00 to Feed the Hungry – passed

2. To donate $500.00 to Clothe A Child – passed

3. To go ahead with the new drive on French Creek Road – passed

4. Call letter – to pay Ron Bills 40 hours for the down week so that he could be in the office at the union hall – passed

5. Feed the need partnership with LCCC $300.00 donation – passed

6. Workplace Partnership for Life – organ donations – meeting in Dayton (for Tim) – passed.

 

Shop Problems

Jerome Howard asked about the temporary bids for material handling. He asked if they were having classes for licenses. Nick said no that the jobs would be filled since they were being covered now.

 

Mike Sheets asked to have his grievance re-opened. He was terminated. Jerry Donovan said that it would be better if he didn’t have it re-opened and then he could appeal directly to National Ford Department. Motion died for lack of a second. The union will assist Brother Sheets in his appeal to National Ford.

 

Jerry Donovan asked about the 21 temporary stock jobs. He asked if senior people could bump to days. He said that the BCs had made the agreement that they could. Nick said that no he was not allowing them to bump as the jobs were temporary.

 

Mary Springowski said that if that was allowed to continue then the union was helping the company circumvent the contract and circumvent seniority. She told how jobs were being “temporarily” filled and that seniority was not being taken into account in any cases. She mentioned the door fit job and stock jobs. There are jobs in the garage that have not been bid or posted and have been temporarily filled since the consolidation. Nick agreed that this was the 3rd union meeting that she had brought up this same issue. He disagreed that any jobs had been temporarily assigned since the consolidation. He said he didn’t know of any. Mary said she would give him names after the meeting.

 

Jerry Donovan said that he thought that maybe there was situation with a freeze on the COAs due to national negotiations. Nick didn’t know anything about it.

 

Denver Casto said that if work was being added to jobs, he was a torque inspector and could be reached at 1036. He said that with the company combining jobs, they were often using the wrong tools. He said that we can put a stop to that. He said Bob Vieta had been a great help to him. He said that he had access to tooling requirements for the jobs and if there was an issue on tooling that the job would have to be split or the proper tooling put into place.

 

Luwanda King said that she hadn’t had her issues resolved. She said her grievances had not been settled and that she had three of them. She wanted to know who determined who worked and who didn’t on weekend work. She said the company was not going by seniority or by the overtime equalization. She does not have a base job and has been temporarily assigned to the garage. She said that she reports there everyday. She said the company had eliminated a headlight job. She said that there was supposed to be an extra person to assist but this wasn’t being done. They worked people on Saturday and she wasn’t called even though she had more seniority than others. She said that Mike Piscione was her committeeman and had written some grievances. She asked about show up pay for 4 hours since she showed up.

 

Pete Kristensen said something needed to be done about the toe in pit being fixed. He said that it is always going down. Brian Mitchell said that #1 toe in pit is breaking down frequently and the units then back up creating congestion in the area. He has brought it up in good and welfare meetings about fixing the #3 toe in pit. Bob Vieta said this had been spoken of at the VQR meeting. It will take $600,000.00 to fix this and they are waiting on approval. John Pena said this should be approved by Wednesday. Approvals are taking between 1 and 4 weeks.

 

The issue was brought up by several people regarding hood props. Hoods have fallen on several employees recently. Dave Candelario said that he spoke to Vern Meyers as they were having problems in pre-wipe. The holes are overshadowed and they were grinding the props to make them thinner so they would fit.

One sister said there was no time to check the props on the flex job. Also, there is no hard stop on the job. They mentioned an employee who was injured in this way back in August so this issue has been on going for some time. Laura Jones said that if we can’t get the hood props in on days that we just leave the hoods down. This is not being done on nights. Robert Gonzalez said they were loose down on his inspection jobs. Paul Triplett said this was the first he had heard of it and he can do nothing if he is not informed! He and Bill Bowe will be down on Monday to investigate.

 

Tim Donovan made a motion to pay the necessary expenses to send the bargaining structure to the meetings on the tentative agreement.

 

Laura Jones made a motion regarding sending 6 people for Roberts Custom Software (and since it was seconded and accepted we don’t know what the rest of the motion was).

 

Motion to adjourn.

 

 

**Please note: These are not the official notes of the union meeting. These are only the personal notes of the author. These notes are in no way authorized, recognized or sanctioned by the Union, Ford Motor Company or any of their agents. In fact, they really hate it when I put these out!

 

Respectfully submitted by Mary Springowski

[Just Wondering]

What's going on with our union? I was at the meeting today when Jerry asked about stock drivers bumping days by seniority and Nick said they couldn't do it. Then Jerry said he knew that Mike had made the agreement with the company that they could. Nick said that he decided that they couldn't bump. WTF?! Now our chairman is going against seniority? I don't care how you try and spin it it is just plain wrong!

 

I got another question. How long is temporary? I know when I worked in the econoline unit before this consolidation that temporary was 90 days but some other folks brought up how some people have been on jobs temporary since we consolidated! Hell, one lady even stood up and told us she was temporary in the garage and she's complaining because they don't work her by seniority on the weekends. Just remember this crap when they come around asking for your vote in a couple of months. The garage is Mike Pishone's area. Seems like he can't handle his area, don't it?

[Powertool Princess]

Thanks, Mary! Great job. I was there but I like to read your notes afterwards. There's a lot of us that really appreciate what you're doing.

[Furious1Auto]

Thanks, Mary! Great job. I was there but I like to read your notes afterwards. There's a lot of us that really appreciate what you're doing.

I concur!

[BIGMARY56]

I need some help - I don't know if I am doing this right - I am in the Garage on Day shift and have not received any information about this contract and I am hearing that we will be voting on this thing Monday? I don't see my rep very often - does he know anything? I don't even know his name. I need to know where I can get this information. I don't like to cause trouble or nothing but this is getting me upset. Someone please point me in the right direction.

[Furious1Auto]

I need some help - I don't know if I am doing this right - I am in the Garage on Day shift and have not received any information about this contract and I am hearing that we will be voting on this thing Monday? I don't see my rep very often - does he know anything? I don't even know his name. I need to know where I can get this information. I don't like to cause trouble or nothing but this is getting me upset. Someone please point me in the right direction.

The Highlights and full contract can be found at this sight, just click on the word LINK!

[Spring]

I need some help - I don't know if I am doing this right - I am in the Garage on Day shift and have not received any information about this contract and I am hearing that we will be voting on this thing Monday? I don't see my rep very often - does he know anything? I don't even know his name. I need to know where I can get this information. I don't like to cause trouble or nothing but this is getting me upset. Someone please point me in the right direction.

 

 

I believe your rep is Mike Piscione. Who is your group leader and your supervisor? Either one of them can page your rep and have him come see you. Or leave a note in the union log book by the bottom of the ramp across from where they drive onto the CAL line. I walk in through the garage. If you are over by the CAL line you can ask any of the people over there and they can point me out. You can have my copy.

[justwanttowork]

I need some help - I don't know if I am doing this right - I am in the Garage on Day shift and have not received any information about this contract and I am hearing that we will be voting on this thing Monday? I don't see my rep very often - does he know anything? I don't even know his name. I need to know where I can get this information. I don't like to cause trouble or nothing but this is getting me upset. Someone please point me in the right direction.

I asked the parts runner to go up front and get some copies and take them to the garage.

I hope he did and you got one

[BIGMARY56]

I asked the parts runner to go up front and get some copies and take them to the garage.

I hope he did and you got one

I did get one today - I don't know if your friend the parts runner brought them down - but I did get one. I thank you all for your help. You guys are so kind.

 

I just hope my union guy doesn't get mad at me for asking you guys - I have seen him act pretty violent towards others - a lot.

 

Thank you all once again. I don't know if I'll ever be back on here - hope I wasn't too much of a burden on anyone.

 

Mary

[Furious1Auto]

I did get one today - I don't know if your friend the parts runner brought them down - but I did get one. I thank you all for your help. You guys are so kind.

 

I just hope my union guy doesn't get mad at me for asking you guys - I have seen him act pretty violent towards others - a lot.

 

Thank you all once again. I don't know if I'll ever be back on here - hope I wasn't too much of a burden on anyone.

 

Mary

No burden, I hope that you come join in debate or at least continue to give accounting of what you whiteness on the floor so that we can all make an informed decision when it comes time to vote. I do know Mike personally and have some distant ties to him outside of the plant. He is abrasive in nature which does not make him inherently bad as long as he accosted the right people. Feel free to speak freely, if you are concerned that you will be retaliated against don't let anyone know you blog here and what your user name is. If he was violent with the management then I won't think bad of him, but if he is bullying the membership and making buddy's with the management I will have to take issue with it when it is time to vote. I will tell you that just by what you posted that you are earnest and want to stay informed. I prey that you still stay active on this sight, it is our best method of organizing and bringing issue's to light. My commitee man said he was pushing for election debates, well I won't vote for any running for local election that doesn't have the balls to debate here and earn the right of passage. Those who refuse to because they lack literary skills and the knowledge of the contract will get a blank on the punch card from me unless I know them and their works!

Sincerely, Furious1Auto

Edited November 10, 2007 by Furious1Auto

[troublemaker]

The Highlights and full contract can be found at this sight, just click on the word LINK!

We need to fight for our rights...VOTE NO...We need better info about the buyouts ( layoffs?)

[troublemaker]

This is a quote from Mullaly in the article link below! I think they might be up to something.

He would not say whether Ford would reduce more workers through involuntary layoffs or buyouts, which would allow workers to leave voluntarily with compensation.

 

"Let's talk about that next week," he said, referring to a conference call Ford is to host after the company's more than 50,000 autoworkers conclude voting Monday or Tuesday on a tentative 4-year labor agreement with Ford.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...0342/1014/rss13

[StrangeHighways]

How many temps are at ohio assembly?

[BIGMARY56]

No burden, I hope that you come join in debate or at least continue to give accounting of what you whiteness on the floor so that we can all make an informed decision when it comes time to vote. I do know Mike personally and have some distant ties to him outside of the plant. He is abrasive in nature which does not make him inherently bad as long as he accosted the right people. Feel free to speak freely, if you are concerned that you will be retaliated against don't let anyone know you blog here and what your user name is. If he was violent with the management then I won't think bad of him, but if he is bullying the membership and making buddy's with the management I will have to take issue with it when it is time to vote. I will tell you that just by what you posted that you are earnest and want to stay informed. I prey that you still stay active on this sight, it is our best method of organizing and bringing issue's to light. My commitee man said he was pushing for election debates, well I won't vote for any running for local election that doesn't have the balls to debate here and earn the right of passage. Those who refuse to because they lack literary skills and the knowledge of the contract will get a blank on the punch card from me unless I know them and their works!

Sincerely, Furious1Auto

Thank you for your kind words - you seem like a nice young man despite what your name entails.

 

I have seen a lot of contracts in my days at Ford - but this one seemed secretive compared to other years. I don't know a lot about negotiations - but I would think that we - as a Unified Membership - would be at least included in on all the facts about the Contract.

 

Has your union guy passed out any information about the local contract. I don't want to sound mean - but I don't have a whole lot of faith in my union guy - I don't want to miss the information. We as members need information. My union guy has been trying to find out who I am - I am really concerned. Do you have any advice?

 

To answer your question - I have seen him get angry at us on the floor.

 

I have a full day tomorrow - and plan on having a great extended holiday weekend. To all, have a great Veteran's Day weekend. Thanks to all you Veterans for your service.

[Furious1Auto]

Thank you for your kind words - you seem like a nice young man despite what your name entails.

 

I have seen a lot of contracts in my days at Ford - but this one seemed secretive compared to other years. I don't know a lot about negotiations - but I would think that we - as a Unified Membership - would be at least included in on all the facts about the Contract.

 

Has your union guy passed out any information about the local contract. I don't want to sound mean - but I don't have a whole lot of faith in my union guy - I don't want to miss the information. We as members need information. My union guy has been trying to find out who I am - I am really concerned. Do you have any advice?

 

To answer your question - I have seen him get angry at us on the floor.

 

I have a full day tomorrow - and plan on having a great extended holiday weekend. To all, have a great Veteran's Day weekend. Thanks to all you Veterans for your service.

I have a good committeeman but he doesn't have the benefit of time, no matter when something happens I generally know it before him just from being an active member of this sight. Much of what I read here he is able to clarify for me, Spring is also a good source she and her family has been active in this local for a very long time! I'm not always so nice, just depends on whether or not I'm attacked!

Edited November 19, 2007 by Furious1Auto

[Spring]

For your personal information:

 

Please remember that these are MY personal notes. They should in NO way be considered the official record of the meeting.

 

General Membership Meeting

December 2, 2007

 

Presentation of Agenda

Pledge of Allegiance

Prayer

Roll Call of Officers, not Present:

Pete Filiaggi (vacation), Garry Martin (injured), Bruce Yates (working), Bryan Brummitt (asked to be excused), Bill Samples (asked to be excused), Ed Baire, Jimmy Hall (vacation), Bill Collins, Robert Majjassie (asked to be excused), Chester Smith (working) and Annette Fuller.

 

President Tim Donovan asked that all union officials who asked to be excused from last month’s meeting be excused.

 

Motion to accept minutes of last month’s meeting.

Recommendations from the Executive Board:

1. To pay for all expenses with the 12/07/07 Clothe A Child collection. Passed

2. To allow Chris Viscomi to attend the formal signing ceremony for the National Agreement. Passed

3. To pay for ½ page ad and complimentary business card ad for the Brookside Annual Yearbook. Passed

4. To donate $300.00 to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Jerry Donovan asked if we were allowed to donate more than $300.00. Tim Donovan said that we could donate up to $500.00 without seeking approval from the region. Mary Springowski made the amendment to the motion to donate $500.00. Passed

Motion to accept Financial report

 

Reports:

President’s report:

Tim welcomed Chris Viscomi back. He thanked him for his work on the National negotiations. Chris was gone 5 months.

The Christmas Holiday is our next paid holiday.

 

Tim met with Karl Zuber (mayor-elect of Avon Lake), John Hunter (mayor-elect of Sheffield Village), Nick Gallogly, Joe Lee, Kevin Wilkerson, Mark Ballard and John Piscura (mayor re-elected of Sheffield Lake) to discuss the negative comments that had been in the press in the past. He said that the meeting went well and it appeared that they were all on the same page and had the same goal which is to keep the plant open.

 

Sub checks – if employees filed their unemployment late it doesn’t look good for them to get their money. He asked that those members get with him after the meeting. He said they still needed to sign up for sub. He said that the company would pay the sub portion but not the unemployment portion. He said it might come down that employees would have to take legal action.

 

Lots of checks were held at the plant. For TFTs there was a glitch in paying them. Friends of the court and other wage withholdings were held up due to the centralization of payroll in Detroit. Nick said he had a letter from Rick Hancock in HR in Detroit. The bonuses were being withheld by court order. The checks were not printed because the company said the courts had to submit paperwork. They are working on this issue. Some checks were cut as of Friday and could be issued as early as Monday. Hopefully, no later than Friday. It is agreed that there needs to be a better system in place and the same issues will more than likely occur with the Christmas Bonus.

 

The Women’s Committee has a limited number of tickets left for Lunch with Santa. There is also limited seating for the Casino trip. 12/17/07 is the last day to pay for tickets. The Veteran’s Committee collected $2,345.00 for the Homeless Vets in Brecksville.

 

$2,614.00 was collected for the Second Harvest Food Bank. 618 individuals or 138 families were helped.

 

Chairman’s Report:

 

The order bank is 11,697. There are some Saturdays materially protected for the New Year but the dates are not available yet.

 

Rebalance – still a couple of weeks left to go on this. The company is not happy with the ways things are going. Expect them to go at it harder over these next several weeks.

 

680 votes ratified our National Agreement.

Nick wanted to go over issues with the new attendance program after his report.

Terminations – the company is taking a hard line on these as they can higher new employees at the lower wage.

 

Plant closing employees – 147 at Brookpark with RTBU rights to OHAP. 40 left at Sandusky. Then we would look at Gen in zone, Gen out of zone. If you turn down a job offer twice, sub will be taken away and you’ll only have unemployment. Once that runs out, you have nothing and you will forfeit your employment with Ford Motor Company.

 

Local contract negotiations – seem to be at an impasse. The company wants to take away tag relief, they want to be more extreme with general utilities, add work to group leaders and have area overtime for Skilled Trades. Shawn Otto said he had to have the area overtime and then got up and walked out of negotiations. In production, it looks as though they may be able to bring back some sequencing jobs. There is some 200,000 square feet of work that has been outsourced. Obviously, not all of it can be brought back but they are looking at what they can get.

 

With the Friends of the Court, etc. issues on holding back checks – there were some 3,000 checks held. This includes TFTs. The checks were cut but were held back. Nick thinks its because Ford can keep the interest. Nick said the courts sent the info back in October and that the blame lies with the company, not the courts. He said it will be the same with the Christmas Bonus. He said that Retirees always got their Christmas bonuses when we got ours, or only a week later. This year, the company will be cutting the checks on 12/21/07. Some might not even get their checks until AFTER Christmas. The retirees’ raises are usually in the beginning of the year. This year it won’t come until some time in the spring.

 

Regarding the Attendance Policy:

 

There was discussion on this. You MUST call off 15 minutes prior to the shift. 14 minutes and you’re late. Excused absences will now only be allowed in 8 hour increments. You’ll no longer be allowed to take just 4 hours.

 

The measurement period is 18 months. Chargeable offenses are A (AWOL), T (Temporary Medical), M (unpaid medical leave). Unchargeable is Medical Leave and FMLA.

If you are off 2 days due to illness, this counts as 2 occurrences. You get 4 freebies. 5th is an RW. 6th RW day off, 7th RW week off, 8th RW 2 weeks off, 9th RW month off, 10th termination. The company is going back 18 months on an employees record. If you have already served 2 weeks off, you’ll still get your 4 freebies and then the next time is a month off.

 

Employees that qualify need to apply for their FMLA. You are eligible if you have worked for the employer in the last 12 months and have 1250 hours, care for a spouse, parent or child with a serious health problem. You have a serous health issue, chronic condition that qualifies. More than a 3 day illness (calendar days). If it is a foreseeable issue then you must notify the employer. You must call in, you don’t necessarily have to see the medical health care provider if you have the paperwork. You do qualify if you receive medical care from a health care provider. Some covered conditions are arthritis, asthma, stress, depression, epilepsy, migraines, lupus. A condition may be considered chronic if you have been treated two or more times. Physical therapy is also coverable. Once the paperwork is filled out you don’t necessarily have to go to the doctor for coverage.

 

Judy Massel asked if she still had to get a note from when she takes her spouse to the doctor’s (she’s covered) and she was told yes.

 

Arlene Spurlock said she had been off for a week with the flu. Nick said each day she was off counted. He said the company was going back 18 months and that was how long the violation would stay on the record.

 

Mike Piscione said that the FMLA was good from January to December. They go strictly by calendar year.

Linda Kleinenz said that was for FMLA approval and you can’t have used more than 12 weeks of the FMLA for the chronic condition.

 

Jerry Donovan said that there seemed to be an issue with the company not seeming to know what the law required and the proper procedure for application of the provision. He said that under the law, the Company was required to notify the employee if their situation fell under the FMLA.

 

Jerry Shutovich asked what the number was on the form – 825.303B. FMLA.

 

Chris Ladikos of the Veteran’s Committee thanked the membership for their support for the collection for the homeless vets who come through the VA hospital in Brecksville. He said that they got help and got into jobs programs. Much of the work is outside so the purchase of warm clothing really helps a lot. He said over the years the membership has probably helped some 10 to 12 thousand veterans in Northeastern Ohio. Pete Kristensen reminded the membership that the Veteran’s Committee was here to help the Vets in the plant as well.

 

Brenda Davis Larkins thanked the membership for sending her and Laura Jones to Las Vegas to attend the CLUE meeting. She said that men should join, not just women. Angie Kolena thanked the membership for her opportunity to attend Black Lake.

 

Joyce Daughtery asked the membership to approve re-opening her grievance on her termination. Motion died for lack of second. Tim Donovan said she could now appeal it directly to the Executive Board of the International.

 

Shop Problems:

 

Christina Justice said that she has been and continues to be harassed by Robbie Merriweather. Michael Donovan said he would get involved.

 

Pete Kristensen said that there was a problem in the garage that has been ongoing. There is no training and seniority is being bypassed. He said that a very low seniority employee is getting all the overtime. He was trained in Lorain. Pete asked Nick to get with Brian Mitchell on this. Nick said that there were 3 g.u.s on days and 6 on nights. The union has requested 3 more on days.

 

Brian Mitchell said that the protested employee received his training in Lorain and he can’t stop him from being borrowed to cover absenteeism. Mitchell said that he had spoken to Darrell Sykes about the issue and Sykes started talking about taking all the g.u.s out. Michael Donovan became involved as of this past Friday.

 

Nick said that he was having a problem with some people complaining they wanted the overtime but then they didn’t want to learn the jobs.

 

Brian Mitchell said they had training money but it was used for overline and they were trying to get approval for more. He said that his general repairmen needed to be cross trained and he was trying to get training done by seniority. He will get a list to Michael and Nick.

 

Pete Kristensen said that the protested employee had 2000 seniority and he wanted to know why he was even in the garage. Pete said Virgil retired on June 1st and it took until the end of July for Pete to get released.

 

Jerry Shutovich said that he had asked that the rollers be placed on the same DROT. He said that is not taking place currently.

 

Jerry Matheny said he had been in the garage at Lorain and that he had to go on medical for bypass surgery. Prior to his leave he was a g.u. When he came back he was told that he didn’t have enough time to be in the garage and was moved to the frame line. He has 93 seniority and was replaced by an employee with 99 seniority. He said it was all about nepotism and favoritism in regards to job placement and that people were sick of it. There was more discussion on the protested individual who has been pulled out of the garage repeatedly. He on the DROT there now.

 

Matheny said this was not just happening in the garage but all over. These are grievable offenses.

 

Alvin asked if they were going to red line jobs in clean up. Nick said those jobs are gone. They have until 2009 unless there is available work. They are trying to get clarification on this right now. There is a rumor of an incentive package for the cleaners or an exiting bonus.

 

Jennifer Bores said that she too has a problem with the nepotism. She said her husband is going to Iraq to fight in the war and she wants to go days. She said Yates was the only one who would help her on nights in Trim. She said he wrote 3 grievances for her about the company not putting jobs up for bid. She said that Barb Reinhardt wouldn’t put them up because she was trying to protect her brother and that there had been an agreement between the company and a union rep to secondary the jobs. She said she had the right by seniority to move onto an open job and she wants to go days. Nick said that those jobs just opened up and had just been identified. Jennifer identified the bucket job, interior trim, etc as being open. Nick said they would have to be solicited by seniority. Jennifer said she was told by her committeeman to talk to Nick. Nick said he was not going to do the committeeman’s job and neither should the BCs.

 

Motion to adjourn.

 

 

**Please note: These are not the official notes of the union meeting. These are only the personal notes of the author. These notes are in no way authorized, recognized or sanctioned by the Union, Ford Motor Company or any of their agents. In fact, they really hate it when I put these out!

 

Respectfully submitted by Mary Springowski

Edited December 3, 2007 by Spring

[WS6JJP]

Mary, thanks once again for the meeting notes. I wonder why the company would want to get rid of tag relief? I know that would help their rebalnce/manpower issues but it would take more hours to make production. Doesnt make sense, not that anything does around here. Also, exactly what kind of work are they trying to add to the group leaders?

[Spring]

Mary, thanks once again for the meeting notes. I wonder why the company would want to get rid of tag relief? I know that would help their rebalnce/manpower issues but it would take more hours to make production. Doesnt make sense, not that anything does around here. Also, exactly what kind of work are they trying to add to the group leaders?

 

 

 

Nick didn't elaborate as to what kind of work they wanted to add but if you take a look at what's going on on the line you kind of get an idea. They've been trying to use the group leaders as containment people, repairmen and quality control as well as probably practically hold down an actual operation on the line. It's crazy but it's rebalance time. As for tag relief, the company is always going after that. They don't like having to pay the relief men. Bottom line. Ford has a long history of being penny wise and pound foolish. You'll see that very little of their decision making has to do with common sense and for the most part, the people making the decisions have very little idea as to what actually goes into producing a vehicle. You're welcome for the notes. I hope that they help people on the line. By the way, for as long as I have been here, it seems as though every negotiations the company tries to go after tag relief. I didn't expect this time to be any different.

[justwanttowork]

Has anybody hear if we'er doing the toys r us shopping after hours thing this year

[Spring]

Has anybody hear if we'er doing the toys r us shopping after hours thing this year

 

 

I believe it's December 16th. Check the bulletin boards for the flyers.