President’s Report

Issues at Strattec, production at Briggs

Thanks for input on surveys; Make plans for Labor Day

I want to thank all of the people who took the time to fill out and return the surveys that were sent to your homes. It was one way the Joint Boards felt we could get a feeling as to what the most important issues are to our members.

We had a pretty decent return and our secretary will be entering all the returns into the computer to tally the responses. The survey for Strattec Members was different than the one used by Briggs Members. We will calculate Strattec’s surveys separate from the Briggs & Stratton surveys to insure each unit has their own issues prioritized. We also appreciate the members who took the additional time to write their comments on the back of the survey. Your respective committees will be reviewing those.

Labor Day

Labor Day is a time for working people to celebrate. Our Union plans on doing this by marching in the Labor Day Parade with many of our fellow union brothers and sisters from all over Milwaukee County. I would encourage everybody to come down and march with us. We hope you would bring your family and friends with you. The march will start on 4th and Michigan and end up at the Summerfest grounds.

If you plan to join us, please call us at 414-463-7425 to let us know your shirt size so that we can try to get everybody a shirt to march in the parade. Once we arrive at the Summerfest grounds, there will be music, food, drinks and activities for children.

Strattec

At Strattec it seems the minute we make some progress by settling two grievances that were slated for arbitration, more issues seem to surface.

Strattec has informed the Union that they want to be a tobacco free facility. While some members might be happy, I think we need to keep in mind the members that do use tobacco products and how difficult it can be to alter your lifestyle by no longer being able to use something that you have become accustomed to for years.

The Union plans to address this situation with the Company when they reveal to us what their plan actually entails.

The other thing that the Company has raised to the Union is that they would like to activate the Job Consolidation Committee. According to the current Labor Agreement on Page 65, the Company has the right to sit down with the Union to address jobs that they would like to consolidate. This should begin to happen in August.

Briggs Production

At Briggs & Stratton production remains steady with nothing scheduled to pick up in the near future.

The last week of June the Company made an announcement that they plan to build a new hand-held engine here in Milwaukee. We were glad to see that M.E.D. was out pursuing new work. It won’t start up until June or July of 2001. It will probably employ about 50 pieceworkers and maybe 10 dayworkers, when production begins. While the work is not guaranteed to be here for any extended period of time, it was nice to see the Company realize the hard-working, talented workforce we have here in Milwaukee.

With that being said, my concern turns to a bigger item, which is the lack of orders for the Model 19’s. The lack of orders has postponed starting up the 2nd shift line indefinitely. Also, with M1 having an ample supply of component parts, things do not look very promising either.

In the twin factory, they seem to be on schedule to go back to 1,400 per day after Labor Day. M3 is continuing to machine more Model 28 cranks for the Southern plants. The Company has informed me that they have purchased additional machines to be able to machine a wider variety of cranks. This will not mean any additional work immediately, but could possibly open the door for possible future work.

At West Allis, slowly but surely, the machinery is moving to the Burleigh Plant. The Company has informed me that their intentions are to have everything that is moving to Burleigh over there by June 2001.