MARCH 2016 Brothers and Sisters! Well, we have officially started the road to bargaining for 2016. We had the full bargaining team at the Union Hall in Kamloops for the entire week, learning about our history, where our language came from, what the fights before us looked like, and what was happening at the other locals across the Teck Chain. Monday was an intro, and we talked about what bargaining was going to look like this year. Randy Gatzka, our staff rep for our area, was our guru, as he has been involved in previous bargaining here. Tuesday, Steve Hunt, district director of District 3, joined us, and we talked a lot about the history of our local. The 106 day strike in 1989, where the membership took the fight on to create the language in 3.07, where the Company was planning on contracting out all the HD mechanic work to Finning. On top of this, they had plans to contract out the Haul Truck work. If it wasn’t for the members who took that fight on, most, if not all of us, would not be employed at HVC today. We talked at length at the abuse the Company has put us under over the last couple of years, and how quickly they have forgotten who owns the language in the CBA. We talked about the 1999 layoff, where 18 employees were held hostage, and the Company demanded that the Local give up language in order to bring those employees back to work. Stretch Karsten joined us, and it was great to see two generations of activists! The stories of late night bargaining, antics on the floor, and the incredible solidarity that we have at HVC, were refreshing. Wednesday and Thursday, we built the 2016 bargaining questionnaire, which will be handed out at the gate Monday morning and Friday morning, as well as in the lunch rooms. We are in the midst of building our CAT (Communication Action Team) who will be the liaisons between the bargaining committee and everyone on the floor. If you would like to be a CAT rep for your area, please let us know. You will be responsible for getting information to, and from the floor, as well as being liaison when issues come up. Communication is key, and we expect to have regular and well informed updates as we progress. We also worked on building a list of items we need to look at during this round of bargaining, but we will not know what the membership wants until we see the surveys back. Make sure you let us know what you want, for silence will not get you anything. The deadline will be April 14th, and the committee is going to meet again on April 25th to 29th, to go through the information. The Company has not been easy on us over the last few years, and just recently, they have instituted even more unilateral changes. As of Wednesday of this week, they have eliminated any mutually agreed Stat Distribution agreements, went back to 14.05 (d), then created their own rules on how they think the language should read. Last week, Dave Adema sent out an email further restricting the Contracting Out Co-Chairs ability to attend contracting out meetings, similar to what they have done to the Grievance Chair. They have forced the Mill Electrical shifters to only have one person off on Vacation per AB and CD crew, even though their days off do not coincide. This all in only two weeks. We need to send a strong message to the management team at Highland Valley Copper as we lead into bargaining. We are a very strong local. We have a long history of fighting to the bitter end, and ensuring that not only did we keep what we had, but we improved on what we had. We are not going to give up one of the best pensions in Canada, so they can make even more profits while not ensuring we retire with dignity. We are not going to give up the best contracting out language in North America so they can bring in contractors to replace us. We will NOT bend, break, buckle or sway. This Company is not broke, and they have cut us deep to ensure their profits were over 200 million last year. 2016 may be a challenging year for production, but when the first or second quarter of 2017 rolls in, we will be producing 30% more copper than the end of this year. Remember, we are the ones that produce the goods for the Company. Without us, they do not make a penny. They tend to forget that without us, no wheels turn, no belts run, no mills spin and no copper leaves the property. Finally, we have created a separate email account for the 2016 bargaining year, for all employees to send any questions that they need answered. We would like to see you talk to a CAT team member, or a committee member first, but we know that is not always possible. We will ensure that your question gets to the right person, and gets answered as best as possible. That email address is [email protected]. The CAT team is still being built, but we hope to have the names up on the boards by late next week! There is an overall feel of excitement, as each one of us starts to fill out our role. Already, we have had great discussion on all kinds of topics, from all departments, and have started formulating game plans on how we are going to solve those problems. We have a very intelligent, dedicated and enthusiastic team, and we are all looking forward to bargaining this year. Stay strong, stay informed, stay active, and stay safe. United we bargain, divided we beg. In Solidarity, Kyle Wolff, President Local 7619 Comments are closed.
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