August 7, 2010

Brothers and Sisters’ of UAW Local 1050,

     Recently our Plant Manager published an article in the Forge Press concerning “high absenteeism.” The Union disagrees with this approach to again appeal to our fellow Union Brothers and Sisters about our attendance system. Our attendance system was negotiated and is a contractual obligation to both parties. We stressed in the 2006 negotiations the shortcomings of their new proposed attendance program to the management team in place then, but they insisted they needed those changes to “fix” the attendance system. So here we are now with a different management team again complaining about the attendance system. One of our members came into my office and asked me what presenteeism meant? To be honest I didn’t know, so I looked it up. Presenteeism: “Presenteeism is defined as lost productivity that occurs when employees come to work but perform below par due to any kind of illness.”¹ or “Presenteeism is a new term used by human resource professionals to describe circumstances in which employees come to work even though they are ill, posing potential problems of contagion and lower productivity” I hope that’s not what was actually meant by using that particular word.

     The Vice President and I were called to a meeting Wednesday at 9am with the Plant Manager and the HR Manager. We were presented a copy of the planned layoffs that were going to be posted before Noon that day. After reviewing the list, we had a few concerns that we addressed to the Lead Team on Thursday. The Lead Team is composed of all of the Department Managers. Some of the Managers were receptive to our concerns and stated they would look into it, which they did and lead to them making a few changes to their respective parts of the layoff list. Unfortunately there were a couple of Managers that felt “comfortable with their decisions based on the needs of the business.” The Vice President and I asked for a follow up meeting with the Plant Manager and the HR Manager for Friday morning, but the Plant Manager had personal business and could not meet with us. So again we met with some of the same Department Managers and heard the same story from Thursday. I ask all of our Union Brothers and Sisters to be our eyes and ears out on the floor. Please let us know if you believe anything is improper, we will investigate and grieve all violations of our current Collective Bargaining Agreement.

     The first two weeks in office and we’ve already been presented a proposal by the company to change hourly start times across the lot. The company believes that by changing the start and stop times that it will improve Productivity, Proficiency, and Safety. Everyone will work a straight eight hours (except FSW) and it will eliminate touch-hand relief in other Departments. We are still in the process of negotiating and have asked the company for supporting documentation. We want to make sure that the safety of our membership is not put at risk.

     Unfortunately, we had a Union Brother discharged for five no-calls that we believe are protected under FMLA. We also had two Union Brothers that received 7-day suspensions for refusing drug testing. The grievances have been filed to protect our member’s rights. The Bargaining Committee will be addressing the FMLA issue and the abuse of the program by the company. We have notified our Regional Representative of our intent to take this matter all the way through the legal system.

    Lastly, we had a disturbing incident on Wednesday July 28^th on 1^st shift concerning a note found in a restroom indicating a bomb threat that forced a plant wide evacuation. Brothers and Sisters, PLEASE be very careful in your actions and what you say. This is AGAINST THE LAW and an Intolerable Offense in our Code of Conduct. The company and respective authorities are investigating this incident. This is very serious as you have witnessed the Police presence at the gates and your personal bags being searched.

In Solidarity,

Chris Marotta

President, UAW Local 1050