USW Local 2-232

formerly PACE 7-232

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

"Most Effective Conference I've ever attended"

           Last month membership approved Ross Winklbauer and myself to attend the Industrial Union Council Legislative Conference in Washington D.C. I believe it was probably the most effective conference I’ve ever attended during my time as an elected Union Representative. There were over 3700 delegates there. Rich Trumka, Secretary/Treasurer, AFL-CIO chaired the meeting. The delegates were from all over the country. They represented members of the U.A.W, Steelworkers, IUE-CWA, Unite, United Mine Workers and at least 5 other major Unions. We all came together as one voice to send a message to our elected officials that we need to re-vitalize American manufacturing. While there were many issues that needed to be addressed the leadership of the council prioritized what they felt were the most pressing issues: health care, worker’s rights and the trade deficit. Guest speakers were brought in to elaborate on the issues . They suggested an approach to use with our congress people and senators and then bussed all of us to the Capitol, to lobby our representatives. We only had about 4-5 hours to do this but we used our time effectively. We focused on the congressmen that represent our members. We did meet with Congressman Petri, along with 15 other delegates from different unions. We had two meetings with Congressman Kleczka’s office. First with his aide and then later when the Congressman was available he personally met with us. Congressman Sensenbrenner was not available, and then we just ran out of time. Congressman Kleczka was familiar with our issues and was very supportive of the issues we raised. That’s not unusual though, Kleczka has always been good for working people. Congressman Petri, on the other hand, was a completely different experience. Petri did not seem well versed on the issues nor would he commit to a position on them. We told him we will be watching how he votes on issues and when election time comes around we will inform our members as to how he voted on issues that affect us. My only regret about this conference was that it was too short. This was the first conference with all the Industrial Unions together, and they plan on convening on an annual basis. Hopefully we will be represented there next year, and the delegates will have more time to lobby the politicians.

BRIGGS

            We met with the Company regarding the Menomonee Falls plant. The Company laid out the fact that their lease expires in September of 2006. They are exploring different options right now, but as of February 12, 2003 nothing has been decided.

            They did admit with the implementation of the new measured day work system, the Menomonee Falls warehouse has become a lot more efficient. This was one of the things the Union had hoped for when we agreed to look at the new system. The Union will also continue to work with the Company on some type of incentive program for the newly established time measured area.

            As of right now, it is still in exploration stage but it is something we will continue to pursue.

            The Union received an amended WARN notice from the Company regarding the job elimination in M-8. Originally the reduction was supposed to take place in March, it has now been pushed back to about the middle of April.

DIE CAST UPDATE

            There is no update. We continue to get mixed reports from the Company. Some say that we could hear something by April, others say an agreement is going to take some time. My opinion is, I’d rather not hear anything until they have an agreement. It seems that some of the salary people keep adding fuel to the rumors. We will get the word out as soon as we know anything that is definite.

MICRO

            On the status of the micro line, the word we were given is that it could start up at any time. It could be as soon as next week to some time in the future.

            The Bargaining Committee has requested a meeting with John Shiely to ask him about the state of the business. We’ve done this annually, but as of now, we do not have a date for this meeting.

STRATTEC

            We met with the Company on February 6th to third stage a few grievances. Two of the grievances were for job performance.

            The other grievance we discussed was the way the Company is ignoring the insource/outsource language. The Company said they will be more aware of that issue and get that message out to their W.G.L.’s. The language basically states that whenever practicable the committees will be provided the subcontracting information in sufficient time to allow it to review the proposed subcontracting before it takes place. This is in order to attempt to minimize subcontracting.

            We were having some issues with the way vacation pay was being calculated and interpreted. Karl was able to get with the Company and resolve that issue, and it was resolved before a grievance had to be pursued.

             There has been more talk by the Company regarding job consolidation. The Job Consolidation Committee has not met with any consistency. The Company had pretty much abandoned the meetings prior to the lay offs starting last July. The Company now feels a sense of urgency and seems intent on putting the consolidated jobs in place without the input of the Union’s Committee.