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James "Gappy" Burney |
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| Vice President | |
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James "Gappy" Burney |
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| Vice President | |
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Vice President’s Update
Brothers and Sisters, since taking office in July of 2013,
your Bargaining Committee has had a lot of BS thrown at them by the
company. I believe that the company knows they can’t manipulate the
leadership and the recent show of solidarity from the membership
speaks in volumes! We have really rallied together recently to show
the company that this is indeed a strong and united Union.
Unfortunately as with any group of people in any workplace, we
still have a couple of naysayers who want to drag us and the
momentum down for their own personal/political gains. Well I can
tell you, it’s not working. And I’ve never in my 18 yrs. at Alcoa
been so proud of this membership in stepping up and proving what
I’ve always said, the elected officials aren’t “the Union” all of
you are the Union and we are the voice for all of you! Well the
company is seeing that now!
For all of you who have our backs and give words of
confidence, we thank you and would just like to give you some
information on some of the issues we’ve been tasked with to fight
for the membership and to just let you all know that we don’t let
anything go by and we do whatever we can to protect the membership.
This info is to keep you informed and to also be able to let the
naysayers know that we truly have the membership’s best interest at
heart. Metal Room:
3 months into our term (Oct.
2013) the company informed the Union leadership that they planned on
reducing the metal room dept. from 8 employees to 4. The company’s
plan was to have the metal cut @ supplier to be more cost
competitive. The Union requested information on when they would be
“cutting to length” @ the supplier? And also what were the costs of
using other outside companies to do the work currently? The company
then agreed to hold off reducing until they actually cut to length @
supplier (apprx. 6 mos. the company told us and international).
Board charges were filed in Jan. 2014 for not providing the
information requested to argue the cost effectiveness from using
outside vendors to perform the saw work (we won this charge for
delay of info). Again in Oct. 2014 (1 yr. later and still not
cutting to length @ supplier) Alcoa’s H.R. manager
informed the Union they would be moving forward with reducing
the metal room employees (currently 6) down to 3. The Bargaining
Committee along with our new International rep, requested a meeting
with the company. We argued that the company lied to us and
International (Region 2B director) about the 6 month time frame for
cut to length @ supplier. The company showed us a 2 mo. Cost sheet
for cutting stock @ the scab outfits and admitted the costs were
higher. Currently 1 yr. and 4 mos. later the metal room has not been
reduced and are working 64 hrs. 12 hr. Rule:
Aug. 2013 the Union requested information for the Yale safety
study used to implement the 12 hr. work rule (not in our contract).
After months of attempts to get this info, the Union filed a board
charge (2-2014) which we won for delay. The company stated they
didn’t have the Yale study on which they based their power point
communication on concerning the 12 hr rule. We contacted Yale and
had a copy of the study the next day. After over a year of
grievances and info requests, the company settled the grievances
with Mark Mohn and the 12 hr. rule was lifted!
Job Combo:
In May of 2014 the company proposed a job combination in the
pressroom taking apprx. 27 classifications and combining them into
3. The Bargaining Committee fought w/ the company for 5 months on
this issue, filed 7 board charges and ultimately got the company to
settle on leaving 15 classifications intact with most employees
getting a raise, for the most part for doing the same job as always
because the company has no idea how to train.
W.E. Overtime:
The company decided to take the stance of not allowing
Skilled Trades to work casual O.T. during the week to try and force
them to work weekends while contractors were on the lot every day.
The company wanted to cherry pick one word “reasonable”
O.T. out of the contract and ignore our past practice and verbiage
in the C.B.A. In 1 mo. time, John Kordeleski filed 175 grievances.
The company ended up paying over $13,000 for settlement and stopped
denying casual O.T. thru the week!
Performance Pay:
As you all know, the company put $3.5 million of liability
from Breaks and Clean up case against the financial part of the
performance pay, which is 50%. Amazingly the performance side which
is also 50%, in 1 mo. went from @ or above target on each factor to
below the threshold. We have specifically detailed information
requests on how the company computed these numbers?
Alternate Weekends:
Grievances and Board charges have been filed. Our contract
says 26 weekends per yr. The company believes they can split the
membership up on these weekends. Past practice shows we bargain for
the membership as a whole to be on all the same weekends!
Break & Clean up:
For over 4 yrs. the leadership has been arguing this issue
and with every win the company tries another weak attempt to get out
of what they owe this membership for their mistakes. The current
Bargaining Committee is standing ground that all members were
affected and all need to be compensated in full for every penny
owed! No less, period!
Again for those of you backing us and giving encouragement we
appreciate it greatly! We are the Bargaining Committee but also
members of this great local. If it affects all of you, it affects
us. Stay strong and let the naysayers know, we’re not just rolling
over and we do all that we can to protect and maintain this strong,
proud membership!
In Solidarity, James “Gappy” Burney James V Burney
Vice President UAW Local 1050
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Vice President Report