At Briggs rumors continue, die cast problems, service changes; More layoffs and arbitration hearings at Strattec

by Greg Gorecki

President

As this summer gets ready to turn to fall we have several important events in the upcoming weeks. The first event will take place on September 2nd, Labor Day. This is a day that all working people can celebrate and relax, on OUR day. The best way I can think of is to spend some time that day with co-workers, retirees, family and friends at Laborfest.

The next event will occur on September 9th-12th where delegates from all over the state will attend the State AFL-CIO Convention in Madison to decide Labor's direction for the next 2 years.

While that is taking place, the primary election for Governor of the State of Wisconsin will take place on September 10th. Our Local has endorsed Tom Barrett for that race. Tom Barrett has been a friend of working people for many years and specifically our members at 7-232. Whether it was supporting issues like introducing Family Medical Leave, extending Unemployment, stopping Federal dollars from being used to train people to take work out of Wisconsin or pushing to get funding for our dislocated workers, he's earned our support. Please make sure to get out and offer your support to him on September 10th.

On a personal note, I would like to say congratulations and good luck to Colin Campbell who retired on July 1st of this year. I've known Colin for over 25 years inside and outside of work, and his dedication and knowledge of the Labor Movement will be sorely missed. Speaking for myself and others, we wish him and his family good luck and hope they will be healthy. We also expect to see him at all our Union functions.

With Campbell's retirement there were 2 temporary appointments that will be made to fill his vacancy Vice-President and Chief Steward. The Executive Board appointed Diane Kronenberg from Dept. 192 to fill in as Vice-President until an election can be held on or about September 27th, 2002. Also, Kathy Duchac was appointed to fill in as Chief Steward until the August 26th Steward Training Session, where a Chief Steward will be elected.

We have received inquiries from 4 members about their interest in the E.A.P. Program. The Union is trying to work through the United Way to try and set up classes or go through the U.A.W. to see if we could use their program. We appreciate our members willingness to get involved but we don't have enough interest to have a class put on, just for us. We will notify the 4 people that have expressed interest the moment we hear of an upcoming class or classes. On Sunday, August 4th Local 7-232 will be working the Labor booth at State Fair. There will be somebody from our Local at the booth from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. So if you are at the fair that day, stop in and say hello. The booth is located in the South Exhibit Hall on the southwest side of the fair grounds.

Briggs

Although the rumors continue to swirl around the plants that die cast is sold and it's a "done deal" discussion with management (2 spokespersons) denies any deal is completed as of the writing of this article. While we were told that no deal was completed, they did confirm that at least 3 firms have toured the Division with hopes of purchasing the Die Cast Division. Federal laws prohibit the Company from being detailed about the divisions likelihood of being sold, we will just have to wait until we hear anything definite. The Company said that if and when an agreement would be made on the Die Cast Division, they would inform the Union first. If that would happen, we would get the word out to the stewards via the Joint Board.

The other rumor that has been circulating is that the south end of the Burleigh plant will be moved into the main building and the south end would then be sold. This has not been confirmed but this was one of the options I reported on at the membership meeting earlier this year. The Company is looking to reduce space, and this could be one of the options.

Die Cast Division problems

Recently we have run into several problems in the Die Cast area, stemming from posting for work over shutdown, to blocking days together if you wanted to work and restricting people’s job preference while changing the day work provision of the contract. Probably the most blatant act was a department BUM (business unit manager) using his personal vendetta to deprive one of our members a transfer. These types of issues are uncalled for and have no business existing in the work place. We will continue to monitor these types of issues in this area and any other area and pursue these issues when we feel we have the evidence to warrant our position.

Service Division

The Service Division has contracted with a firm to supply data for a new time measurement system it would like to implement. A brief discussion with management revealed that the program has not yet been defined. They will be gathering data and timing some phases of the job, to see what is all involved in picking orders in Dept. 472. The Union was told that we will be kept updated.

We also experienced, what we believe is harassment of our members at this plant. There is a foreman who is sneaking around watching certain people and pushing the day workers to work faster. These types of actions do not bode well for a division that says it wants to "work together". We are facing enough stressful times right now, we do not need any additional "game playing" in the work place. Mike Merrill and myself did address these issues with the department manager, and he said that he will be more cognizant of the issues that we raised. Only time will tell.

Strattec

After informing the Union in December of last year that Dept. 90's production would be severely cut at the Glendale facility we received more bad news. We were informed that the Company also planned to reduce additional jobs in Dept. 64. These cuts were effective almost immediately. This caused a lot of havoc in the displacing of workers and bumping rights under job elimination. The Company had asked Karl Schneider for assistance in dealing with our members being moved around. In the short time Karl offered his help, he was constantly met with arguments and disagreements in the interpretation of the contract. I suggested to Karl instead of butting heads with them, let them do it their way and we'll grieve any mistakes that are made. While this is different from the layoff in January 2001, with Karl's assistance in that layoff the Company was able to layoff and recall over a hundred workers with very few problems if any. We're hoping this layoff will be handled in a precise manner, but only time will tell.

We did receive an unfavorable decision on the discharge case that was arbitrated in May. This case was about a person being denied an emergency leave because he was incarcerated, and the arbitrator stated "that incarceration is neither a good nor sufficient reason for granting a leave of absence". He also went on to say that in discharging the grievant, "there is no showing within the record that the Employer acted in an arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable or discriminatory manner".

We were supposed to arbitrate another discharge case on July 31st. This was cancelled and will be rescheduled because the arbitrator had a family emergency and could not make the hearing.

We had another grievance scheduled for arbitration regarding subcontracting of tool room work. That was postponed and the Company did request to sit down and try to reach an agreement, prior to arbitration. If that is not possible the nearest available dates that were given to us from the arbitrator are in October.