May membership meeting highlights

By Scott Godshaw

A Local 7-232 member who had been discharged from his job at Briggs & Stratton came to the May 25th membership meeting to appeal to membership. The brother made a motion to overrule the Bargaining Committee’s decision to not arbitrate his grievance about his discharge.

The member had been discharged for poor attendance. His work record showed several prior warnings and disciplines for attendance. The member was clearly over the number of points permitted under the Contract with Briggs & Stratton and could not offer the Bargaining Committee any mitigating circumstances to use in demanding that the discharge be overturned.

The membership agreed with the decision to not arbitrate his grievance. The member’s motion was voted down.

At the meeting several interesting communications recommended by the Executive Board were acted on and approved by membership.

Among those were:

The Local will be sending the Strattec Bargaining Committee, the Briggs Bargaining Committee, the Trustees and the Financial Secretary/Treasurer to the Pace Region X Leadership Conference to be held September 18-20, 2000.

The Local will be sending 9 delegates to the 21st Biennial Convention of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. The convention will be in Milwaukee from October 2 to October 4, 2000. Seven delegates will be elected and the President and Financial Secretary-Treasurer are automatic delegates for this convention.

A donation was made for Political Education to the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO in the amount of $1500.00.This donation is for contacting Union members both to learn what is important to them and to let members know where candidates stand on those issues. It will not be used for contributions to any candidates for political parties. It is important that members receive all the information on issues that concern them in the upcoming elections. What’s at stake here is the Presidential election and control of the State Legislature.

The Local recently purchased caps and t-shirts that will be for sale around July 1st, 2000. A policy was established to recognize participation of members who attend membership meetings regularly. This policy will award a cap if you attend 4 meetings year and/or a T-shirt if you attend 6 meetings within 1year. Note: If you accept the cap, you would have to attend an additional 6 meetings to also receive the shirt.

The local will be getting training for the Joint Board on Job Evaluation and Daywork. Important issues in this area loom large for both companies. Strattec with job consolidation and at Briggs with a possibility of overhauling the daywork system. This training will be presented by School For Workers in conjunction with MATC.

There was also a take-note. Festa Italiana, the largest ethnic festival of its kind in the country, plans to salute labor this year at the festival. The festival runs from Thursday, July 20th to Sunday, July 23rd, 2000.