Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The grievance procedure states that the employee will first attempt to address his or her concern with the supervisor. (Paragraph 28) If that fails, then the committeeperson can be called to handle a specified grievance with the supervisor. (Paragraph 29) If the grievance cannot be addressed with the supervisor, then it shall be reduced to writing and taken to higher supervision as per local practice. (Paragraph 30) The local practice we are trying to implement is to take a problem through the process before writing the grievance. Hopefully, this would have the problem addressed in a timely fashion, and lower the grievance load at the same time. The first priority is to address a member’s problem, and if at all possible, do it without writing a grievance; because that just slows down the process.

Last Friday a member asked if I had said we wouldn’t write any more grievances, because we are trying to lower the grievance load. Absolutely not. If there is a problem that cannot be resolved, then a grievance will be written. It is incumbent on management to address a member’s problem in a timely fashion. There are times when the member doesn’t have a grievance, because the issue they are raising is not a contractual violation. Then it is incumbent upon the committeeperson to explain the situation to the member and attempt to resolve the issue in another fashion. If the member still wants a grievance, then it will be written and processed accordingly. What we are trying to do is show the membership that their problems can be addressed without writing grievances, and get it done faster. Whether this works or not depends on the committeeperson and the supervisor working to address any problems that occur. So far it seems to be working in most areas. Our grievance load is down, and people are getting their issues addressed.

The demands have been compiled and the secretaries are typing them. There were several demands that were national in scope and cannot be bargained locally. Some were demands we should not adopt, because of the destructive nature they present. We added a question about having a demands meeting to the demands sheet, and although the response wasn’t overwhelming, we are going to have a demands meeting. It has been tentatively scheduled for Sunday, March 30, as a bulletin board posting will announce.

A new temporary Work Center and Health and Safety office is presently being installed adjacent to the center complex. Hopefully, the office will be up and running within a month. While it is not in the center of the plant, it is a lot closer than we are now. We are looking forward to the change of address.

The joint process to hire a locally appointed Human Resource and Development person has been completed. During the selection process, the top two candidates were quite close in selection points. In the end, management offered two positions because of the potential workload for training, GMS overviews, Workplace Organization, and the anticipated expansion of the Team Process into other areas of the plant. These positions, as well as, the other locally appointed positions are on a yearly review. The two successful candidates were Mike Vincent, HRD, and Dave Everts.

This process has been completed as well, and the successful candidate was Mark Monger. There are no easy selection processes, and none of these were cakewalks. Hopefully, the membership and management will welcome them into their new jobs and give them all the support they need.

The TEAM that was put together to address this issue was successful in gaining an understanding between the groups and management to solve the problems that started last year. They did so in a professional manner and in a timely fashion. They are all to be congratulated for a job well done under difficult circumstances.

Of the five we were approved to hire, three are here. One was a Journeyperson from the Alpine plant and two others have come from Kalamazoo agreeing to retrain from WEMR to Millwright. We have surveyed our WEMR’s and will place any who have agreed to cross train. We have several Journey people working in production that would retrain, but as of now, management won’t release them per direction from Detroit. Next step is to go after apprentices, and that will be our focus.

Yes, it was definitely a spill, and one that just keeps on giving. Last week we passed three splits to the level two containment person on two different days, and the week before that we let two get through. Every time splits get through to the containment person, the powers at corporation can reset our containment clock. Today we have to run two weeks minimum without splits to get out of it. I know it’s difficult to look at the same thing hour after hour, but it’s an important job, and it needs to be done well. the good news is that we are almost done with the run ahead steel and into the new stuff.

There were several members that thought these people were scabs working in our plant. Level two has to be a verifiable third party that means no one from this plant can perform this function. The assembly plant demands it, and we have no choice but to comply. The alternative is to load it on trucks and ship it to a warehouse somewhere, have someone else handle it, ship it back to us, and then we put it in boxcars and ship it to the assembly plant. This didn’t make sense for several reasons. For every one of their people, we have three people handling the steel so we shouldn’t lose all control of the process. We can do it cheaper when all the transportation costs and storage costs are added in, and it shows we can work together with management to solve a problem. It was the right thing to do at the right time.

Because of the splits that got through to the containment people, management hired some people to overview the process between the press, metal, and enhanced. The only line they are supposed to be auditing is K Line and the Wheel House part. There is a proposal in the works to have our own quality people do this kind of work, but as of this point it has not been agreed to. Even then I’m not sure because of the level two, our people would be allowed to audit this process. None-the-less, we are looking at things like this for the inspectors to do in the future.

Remember the filing period for vacations during the rest of the year is February 1^st to March 1^st. Don’t forget.

We have been working on adding people to this group. The amount of racks that leave this plant to outside repair facilities is in the thousands. The plan would add people to the group and identify the work that belongs to them. We are near to completing this agreement, and hopefully securing the future of this group.

Remember, if you have a question, ask it. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Yours in solidarity,

Mike Mansfield, Shop Chairman

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