USW Local 2-232

formerly PACE 7-232

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

Membership Meeting 

Sunday July 25th, 2010

USW Local 2-232 Office

8500 W. Capital Dr.  LL 101  Milwaukee 

9:30a.m.

Election for Trustee at Large 

will take place during this meeting.

  Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.

Region X Conference informative for Local officials

By Scott Godshaw (from Local 7-232 Reporter)

            President Greg Gorecki, along with executive board members Joe Chambers, Scott Godshaw, Ralph Schweiger, Michael Foster and grievance representatives Karl Schneider, Mike Merrill, Jesse Edwards and John Nalepinski attended the PACE Region X Spring Conference on March 10-12 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

            As is the case with most conferences, the Local dignitaries spoke first to kick off this event. The message from them, which included St. Paul Police Chief Feeney, who said, “Labor is the greatest resource this town has” and he continued to say, “Labor is under appreciated. You are being attacked and the savings are at your expense. Labor is what made this country great. This is not the time to layout. It’s the time to band together and speak now on the values of labor”.

            Leon Towne, PACE Vice President and Region X Director, gave an update on Region X, still the largest region in PACE. Sixty-eight contracts were opened in 1999 and all but two were settled. In 2000, sixty-nine contracts will be opened and negotiated. We will not be included in this as Strattec’s Contract will expire in 2001 and the Briggs Contract will expire in 2002.

            He also talked about problems with Sawyer Lumber, a newly organized PACE company from Michigan that is having trouble negotiating their first contract. On Sunday, Towne also went through his 15 point recommended agenda for the 2000 negotiations to the announced 411 delegates.

            On Saturday, United States Senator Paul Wellstone treated us to a speech from Minnesota. Wellstone, the Labor Senator, as he is known, all would agree, was the highlight of the Conference. He is truly an inspirational and motivational speaker. He spoke of several bills introduced that he helped shoot down, including, but not limited to, the “Safe” Act, an Act to gut OSHA, the “Team” Act, an Act where companies choose Union leaders and the “Family Friendly Workplace” Act, a bill to get rid of the 40 hour work week and lose premium pay in the process for overtime.

            His focus for real welfare reform, stopping violence and less growth in prisons was good education, good health care and a good job! He stated that emphatically! He went on to say we need true labor law reform and the continued right to organize. Wellstone proclaimed, “Sometimes you’ve got to start a fight to win a fight”. His oration was interrupted several times by standing ovations.

            I, for one, am glad that United States Senator Paul Wellstone is truly a friend of labor.

            Other speakers included PACE International Treasurer James Dunn, PACE Vice President and Director of Governmental Affairs James Philips, Jr., PACE Director of Research and Education John Vanjonack, PACE Director of Pension and Insurance Deborah Kennedy and Saturday night the keynote speaker, of course, PACE International President Boyd Young who spoke again of the need to organize and the reasons for the late endorsement of Vice President Al Gore for President.

            On Sunday, two interesting resolutions were introduced by John Vellardita, President of PACE Local 7-1202 out of Madison. The first resolution pertained to creating a meeting time for Region X delegates to meet with the rank and file advisory board members at Region X conferences. This position was created from the UPIU-OCAW merger. This resolution passed.

            The second resolution discussed pertained to developing strategy to arm bargaining committees with alternatives to employer demands for 12-hour shifts. The resolve also included special training dealing with this issue. This resolution did not pass, as the majority of the delegation felt the International Reps. would be able to get us as much information as needed for alternative work schedules upon request. Despite the failure to adopt the resolution, Vice President Towne did recognize the valid need that Local Unions have to obtain more information on this subject. He did commit to have information on continuous work schedules available at the September Collective Bargaining Conference.

            Our contingent was unanimously in support of both resolutions. This is one reason why it is advantageous to send the maximum delegation allowed.