President’s Report
Strattec
negotiations to begin this month;
Layoffs
continue to mount at Briggs & Stratton
by Greg Gorecki
President
Strattec
With the expiration date of the Contract nearing, we will soon begin
negotiations with the Company. We were scheduled to begin talks in March of
2001. With the election for grievance representative pending until March 16th,
it is quite possible that we will not begin until after the final election is
held. As of the writing of this article, no specific time or date is confirmed
for the beginning of negotiations.
We were recently informed by our members and then by the management at
Strattec, that they have installed a surveillance camera to try and curtail some
activity near the dock area that has been taking place on the off shifts. The
Company said they were not sure who was doing this illegal activity, but by the
evidence that was being left behind, they were convinced it is something that is
detrimental to our members and their employees.
I want to take this opportunity to tell our members that if you have a
problem with drugs, alcohol, or any other chemical dependency, you need to get
help. If you don’t know how to go about it, you can contact your grievance
representative, steward, or call the Union Office at 414-463-7425. We are not
counselors, but we can get you pointed in the right direction. Also, keep in
mind that anything of this nature will be kept confidential. The Union’s main
concern is to help our members and their families.
P.I.C.
The Partners in Change (PIC) Committee has been revamped. With the
progress of the Committee starting to become stagnant, the group agreed to make
some changes. Two salary people and two hourly people agreed to step off the
Committee and replace them with new people in hopes of restoring some new life
into the Program. Also, the Company will be bringing in an outside facilitator
from the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service (FMCS) to facilitate the
meetings.
Briggs & Stratton
Production continues to slow with no real end in sight. It is hard to say
if this is just our business or are we just part of the nation-wide economic
slowdown. Several conversations with management people seemed to offer little
input as to what is on the horizon as far as when production might pick up in
the near future.
The Bargaining Committee met with the Company on a number of shop rule
changes that the Company has considered instituting. The Company said they did
not have the specific answers to some of the questions the Union had asked. They
were going to review some of the questions we had and get back to us. While the
Union objected to many of the new changes the Company wanted to implement, they
were not sure when they were going to do it or how it would be handled.
Menomonee Falls
At the Menomonee Falls Plant in Department 472, it was recently brought
to the Union’s attention that due to outside agencies such as the Department
of Transportation (D.O.T.) demanding certification for people handling hazardous
materials, it is going to require some additional training for our employees out
on the dock. The Company is in the process of hiring an outside firm to come in
here and train our members. This will be an on-going thing, so new members being
bumped in or members remaining on the job, will have to be tested every 2 years.
Some of our members have already passed these tests and others will be scheduled
for further training in the next few months.
