USW Local 2-232
formerly PACE 7-232
Season's Greetings
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Membership Meeting
Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.
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USW Local 2-232 formerly PACE 7-232
Season's Greetings * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.
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Members
at Strattec petition for separate Local Meeting
for Strattec Unit scheduled for May 21; Vote on Separation in Strattec Plant on May 24 by Joe Chambers A group of members in the Strattec Bargaining Unit have filed a petition to separate from Local 7-232 and form a new Local in the PACE International Union. This petition was turned in on April 2nd. The petition states: “PETITION TO SEPARATE LOCALS” “We the undersigned members in accordance with the By-Laws of our Local Union 7-232, Article IV (3), (4), (5), and (6), request a meeting to thoroughly discuss the separation of our unit, Strattec Security Corporation from Briggs and Stratton.” The by-laws referenced in the petition are below. These by-laws were put in place shortly after the Strattec spin-off in 1995. ARTICLE IV - JURISDICTION (3.) Petition to separate Workers in either unit may petition for their unit to be separated into a new local of the PACE. Such a petition must contain the signatures of 50% of the active membership in that unit at the time the petition is submitted. Signatures must be collected within a 30 day period. The petition shall be submitted to the Recording Secretary. (4.) On receipt of a petition for separation, the Recording Secretary shall verify the completeness of the petition. Upon assurance that the petition is valid, the Executive Board shall set a special meeting of the members in the petitioning unit for the purpose of conducting a thorough discussion of the effects of separation. Such meeting is to be set for not less than 30 days, nor more than 75 days from the date of receipt of the petition. (5.) Special meeting on separation Within 30 days after the special meeting, a secret ballot referendum shall be held in-plant, if possible, or at a convenient location near the plant. The motion to separate shall be carried by a simple majority of those voting. (6.) Division of Assets If a unit votes to separate, a division of the assets of the Local Union shall be made in proportion to the size of membership of each unit on the date of the vote to separate. The separating unit will form a new local with a new local name and be governed by all applicable provisions of the International Constitution. 280 signatures on petition Recording Secretary, Scott Godshaw, verified 280 signatures on the petition. This is over 50% of the 495 current members at Strattec. Meeting set for May 21st The Executive Board has set up the special meeting for the members of the Strattec Bargaining Unit to discuss the effects of the proposed separation. This meeting will be held, Sunday, May 21st, at 9:30 A.M. at Manning’s Restaurant on 76th and Good Hope. This meeting is for members employed at Strattec Security only. Vote on May 24th On Wednesday, May 24th, there will be a vote to determine if the members at Strattec want to leave Local 7-232 and form a new Local Union in the PACE International Union. Voting will take place in the Strattec Plant Cafeteria from 4:30 A.M. to 7:00 A.M. and from 1:30 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. Members may also vote at the Local 7-232 office from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. If the majority of the members voting vote to separate, the matter will be sent to the International President, who must approve the separation and issue a charter for the new local union. Assuming a charter is issued, the new Local will need to set up by-laws and hold elections. Local 7-232 will allocate a portion of Local 7-232’s assets to the members at Strattec and turn them over to the new Local. It is not clear how long that process would take, but it would be expected that the process could be completed before the end of summer. It is important to note that the by-law requires only a majority of the members voting to decide the issue, not a majority of the bargaining unit members as required for the petition. Therefore, members are encouraged to consider the issue and vote on May 24th. Members question wording on petition requiring vote Because there were many questions and misconceptions about the process to separate while the petition was being circulated, a special meeting was held for members at Strattec on April 2nd to explain the process for forming a separate local and to answer questions from the members. Some members at the April 2nd meeting said that they had signed the petition believing that it called only for a meeting to explain the process for separation, not realizing that the petition will require a vote on the question. This was raised not only because of the wording of the petition but also because of a leaflet distributed in the plant that claimed that the facts could not be presented without the majority of members signing the petition. That was not true as demonstrated by the April 2nd meeting. At no time prior to this petition, had any members asked questions about the process that were not answered. It was explained that while the wording in the petition may be less than clear on the issue, the heading clearly states an intention to separate into a new local, and the by-laws referenced also deal with the entire process. On hearing this, some members asked if they could remove their names from the petition. It was explained that this must be done prior to the petition being submitted. The petition was submitted at the end of the April 2, meeting so this was not an issue. Some people also questioned if this was a petition to decertify the union that could result in no representation. It is not a petition to decertify, PACE International Union and the newly designated Local will continue to represent members at Strattec if the separation occurs. There should be no break in representation, only a change to have all local union representation and administration come from within the Strattec Bargaining Unit. This will require a different structure for the much smaller local union. The new local union will need to decide how it will deal with representation and administration, within both the confines of the PACE International Union Constitution, the new local union by-laws and the representation structure negotiated in the contract with Strattec. The PACE Constitution requires a local union to establish an executive board and defines certain required officers. This is detailed in Article IX of the PACE Constitution. LOCAL UNION OFFICERS Section 1. The officers of Local Unions shall consist of a President, Vice President(s), Recording and Corresponding Secretary (or a Recording Secretary), a Financial Secretary and a Treasurer (or a Secretary-Treasurer), Guard(s), and/or Sergeant(s)-at-Arms, and three (3) Trustees. In addition, Local Unions may also have a Business Manager and/or Business Agent(s). Local Unions may combine the offices of Recording Secretary and Treasurer with one another, and the offices of Business Manager and/or Business Agent(s) with any other office. They may also combine the offices of Financial Secretary and Treasurer with one another. Local Unions shall not be permitted to combine the office of President with the offices of Financial Secretary or Treasurer (or Secretary-Treasurer), nor shall they be permitted to combine more than two (2) offices with one another. Any other combination, addition or elimination of Local Union officers, not provided for above, must receive the prior approval of the International President. Whenever a Local Union combines certain offices, all of the duties, authority and responsibilities of the offices so combined shall be prescribed as the duties, authority and responsibilities of the combined office. Section 2. Each Local Union shall have an Executive Board consisting of the officers and such additional members as the Local Union Bylaws may provide. The Executive Board shall meet not less often than once each month, and shall have the authority to act for the Local Union between membership meetings. The new Local Union would also need to decide if they need to rent an office, how they will handle time study and job evaluation, how, where and when the executive board and bargaining committee would meet and how the day to day administration will be handled. The remaining Local at Briggs and Stratton would also need to make some changes, including electing a trustee to replace the Strattec trustee and evaluating their needs as a smaller local. This change will be much less drastic for the Briggs Local, since the change will be smaller, and not unlike many others Local 7-232 has gone through in recent years as we lost members. There will be some reduction in income and there will also be some reduction in expenses and administration that will need to be evaluated. If the members do not vote to separate, no changes would take place. Note: questions and answers about this process are at the following link Strattec Separation? |
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