To the membership,
As we start the process of building bargaining proposals, it's good to see the committee collaborating and thinking outside the box. Little words like "may" and "shall" have big implications imposed in the right places. You may get vacation this year, or you shall get vacation this year. For certain groups, getting vacation is pretty difficult, as the Company continues to cut crews and vacation allotment, all while producing record profits! As reported by Teck, they saw a %247 increase in first-quarter adjusted profits in Q1. Copper has been hanging over $4.50 a pound, which is really good for them, so it should be equally good for us. It surprising to see the continued drive to cut costs and bypass critical repairs and shutdowns. Climbing the corporate ladder must be harder than we thought..... Speaking of that, the committee was quite surprised by the amount of staff who responded to the surveys! Over 40, with great commentary on some of the problems they are experiencing. Guess everything isn't all good on their side either. People have been asking for more details on the process of bargaining, so we would like to take some time to stop and explain. As much as we will, and want to, discuss everything we are doing, building or proposing, we have to be extremely careful on what we put out. The Company is tied into every network, Facebook and email system, and constantly remind us of that by gloating they got an email blast. By informing you, we will be informing them. So what will we communicate? Once we enact the plan we have in place, we will provide constant updates on dates we plan to meet with the Company, progress at the table, issues or hiccups, and all important information pertaining to bargaining. We will provide as much information as possible, without giving away our position(s). We also want to be able to communicate directly to you, so we will hold onsite meetings, give the CAT team information and launch strategic campaigns as we progress through the bargaining cycle. It's also a good reminder that information that you hear or rumors that are started are put to rest quickly. There is nothing better than a good rumor, but it can do a lot of harm before it does any good. Get your information from a reliable source! Thank you for everyone's support so far, keep up the solidarity and keep informed! In solidarity, USW 7619 Bargaining Committee PS - DID YOU KNOW? In 1999, as part of the Company's bargaining strategy, they laid off 19 of our brothers and sisters? We called them "the hostages", and the Company proposed getting rid of them in order to sign the contract. Obviously, our Union said no way, fought for 109 days to get them back to work and signed a deal which kept them all employed. That's where the "Remember 99" stickers came from. "We start together and we will end together" Comments are closed.
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August 2021
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