Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Last week Thursday we had another torrid fire. Oddly enough, it was the very day that I was settling a health and safety complaint on the last one we had. So we will address the situation again. Management has a plan to replace the separate systems and combine them into one. Somewhere along the line, a commitment to that process hasn’t met the importance that really exists. A commitment to install that system as soon as possible will be necessary to address the latest problem. In the meantime if the situation arises again, common sense must prevail. If you are being surrounded by smoke and can see well enough to move to a place of safety, then don’t wait. Get to a place of safety. After that, we will worry about tracking everyone down.

In case you didn’t look at the bulletin board, Jim Store is the new JAR. (That stands for Joint Activities Representative.) Even though there was some confusion along the way, Vice President Shoemaker’s appointment letter cleared it all up. I am confidant that Jim will do a great job and has already hit the ground running. If you have problems with any appointed person, you can contact Jim at pager 123 (339-5123). I’m sure Jim won’t mind my advertising for him, and it is important that he knows about any problems in the appointed area.

We participated in a group work session January 14, 15, at the Western Michigan University SE Campus. These sessions were facilitated by Linda Taylor from the corporation, Norm Kaminski from the International Union, and Bill Shinskey, an outside consultant. It was a packed two days, and I believe there was a great deal accomplished. Tom McLean set the tone for the group when he said, (I’m going to paraphrase),

"In the past, the corporation always thought that if they took care of the customer, then the agreement would take care of the people. In the future, the new direction is: Management takes care of the people, they will take care of the customer."

I have never heard truer words from any member of management. That is the position the union has always taken, and it was great hearing it come from the plant manager.

There was open and honest debate between the two groups in trying to address long standing problems raised by both sides. As with any new process, there are going to be growing pains; but it’s nothing that cannot be handled. If management does change the way they look at the membership, then the job of elected representation could change forever. As one committeeperson said, "Sounds good. We’ll see how it works." I hope it does. Anytime management takes a more responsible role in dealing with the membership, we all win. There is more emphasis being placed on working together than I’ve ever seen. Coming from the top on both sides of the bargaining table the way it has, only increases the amount of expectation for success we are all hoping for.

Everything was going great until last week with our quality reputation. Then we were hit twice, and we still don’t know how it will come out. It just goes to show that sometimes it just happens. No matter what happens, we need to keep going forward and remain focused on the future.

Demands for the Local Agreement need to be turned in by Friday, January 24, 2003. We are still collecting data on whether there will be a Demands Meeting.

There have been a lot of questions about raises in pay for various groups. As far as I know, the only way to increase a wage is to combine classifications and assign the higher wage to the whole group, or get management to agree to a new classification.

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

Yours in solidarity,

Mike Mansfield

Shop Chairman

Local 730, UAW

Home Page