USW Local 2-232

formerly PACE 7-232

Representing  employees at Briggs & Stratton Corp. and Strattec Security Corp. in Milwaukee, WI

Membership Meeting 

Sunday December 7, 2008

Frank Monreal's El Matador

9155 W. Bluemound Rd. Milwaukee 

9:30a.m.

   Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.

      I hope everyone had a very pleasant holiday season and enjoyed their time off. Now, on to the nitty gritty. Just recently a lot of rumors have resurfaced on the shop floor about job consolidation and the effects it will have on the membership. I will attempt to clear things up as best as possible. As far as consolidation goes, it is going to happen whether we like it or not. The Company is, however, beginning to implement the cross training that will be required to make consolidation complete. We as a Union have been pushing for the completion of the consolidation since it was added to the contract. Unfortunately, a lot of meetings on this issue were cancelled for one reason or another. Now we have a meeting scheduled to look over the Company’s finished products as far as added duties and training schedules. Membership should be aware that the Company can, more or less, consolidate the jobs however they please. We, as a Union, have a right to look over the new job descriptions and decide if the current pay scale is acceptable for any added duties. We also thought we had the right to help design and compile these consolidated jobs. If not a “right”, by definition, one would think the Company would extend the privilege of letting the Union help, because of the fact that members, including the Committee, are the ones performing the jobs. In the beginning in was that way, but as I eluded to earlier, the meetings ceased, and now we have a meeting set to look at what is for the most part being thrown at us. Unfortunate, that in this day and age with all the advancement in communication technologies, that we on the simplest levels still encounter such barriers. Just so everyone knows, for example, they consolidate a L.G. 17 and a L.G. 15 job, that the two separate seniority pools are now one. So once everyone is trained, a more senior employee that could previously not bump you out of your preferred working area, will now be able to do so.

    Following the current trend of lower employment, our current numbers at Strattec De Milwaukee are as follows. 441- Total members, 378- active, 35 laid off and 18 that opted for the retirement option that the Company offered after being persuaded by the Union. With that being said we would like to congratulate all the retirees and wish them good luck on all endeavors which they may pursue after serving their Union proudly.

    As far as the moving of machinery out of the building, particularly dept. 90, it appears to be complete, with the exception to the machine in dept. 64 (of which we had no idea it was going), however, the people movement resulting form the moves is still being carried out.