Locked out from June 28th, 2010 to August 2nd, 2011.
November Archive
November 22, 2010
Well we did negotiate today, if that's what you want to call it. The company talked with us today but that's as far as it went. Nothing was agreed upon and the company was basically waiting to ask us when we would be ready to cave. News Flash! Never! Also, the company is not wanting to pay us for our vacation that we EARNED LAST YEAR! We are still on to meet tomorrow. There was a new article today in the Huffington Post highlighting the NRC violations, and of course, Pistol Pete Dalpe had no comment.
November 18, 2010 (part 2)
What a great reception in Morristown. It was obvious that this town knows what this corporation is all about. In a town with very few Union ties, we received honks and waves all day long. The local police were very accommodating and courteous. We were met by several other USW locals, district leaders, and other unions including the UAW, IBEW, Machinist, and AU. There were Union Presidents there from the other Honeywell plants in Buffalo, Hopewell, and Delaware. We had a lunch time rally where Darrell and several other leaders spoke. A delegation of the local Presidents from the 4 Honeywell plants attempted to deliver a letter to Dave Cote, you can read it here. The delegation was stopped at the entrance to the compound by security where they took our letter and said that they would deliver it to the appropriate Honeywell representative. After several minutes security returned with this response from Allen Clark. As you might have suspected, it contained the same old tired lines that we've heard since the end of June. Who would have thought that Honeywell had more than one person capable of dishing out the same response. I guess Peter Dalpe was off today. We are greatly disappointed that Dave Cote did not take the time to meet with us, but are glad that we got our message across. We haven't given up nor will we ever. If you ever want to see the Metropolis site return to normal, you better come to the bargaining table ready to negotiate. Otherwise, this will continue, because we won't back down. Our next stop........ The shareholder's meeting.
Our "Solidarity Riders" have had a great time taking the fight right to Dave Cote. We gained strength together on this 40 hour road trip and have a renewed solidarity. Honeywell definitely doesn't realize who they're messing with. Our day ended with a great dinner and a police escort through the rush hour traffic. We thank the people of Morristown for their warm welcome and the Morristown Police. We would also like to thank those that walked extra time on the picket line to cover the shifts of those that went. It was an amazing show of solidarity and a great example of why we will last ONE DAY LONGER and win this fight!!!! See you back in Metropolis.
November 18, 2010 (part 1)
This morning, as many of you are waking up, we are already 750 miles into our solidarity ride. We are planning to arrive in Morristown around 11:00. We expect several Unions from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York to join us as we rally outside Honeywell's headquarters. We have invited Dave Cote to address the crowd at the rally. We'll see if he has the courage to do so.
November 16, 2010
Well looky looky who has NRC violations. The company has been cited by the NRC for violations of their license. The violations range from trainees getting "help" during their qualification evaluations to a release of a small "wisp" of UF6. We all know what a "wisp" is to Honeywell management. You can read the report in its entirety here.
In other news, a scab left the plant in an ambulance today after an accident at EPF. We hope that Honeywell wakes up before it is some one leaving in a hearse.
The "Solidarity Ride" leaves tomorrow, if you aren't taking the trip be sure and bring your family and friends to the send off rally at the union hall at 4PM. Peter Dalpe released Honeywell's statement which we would relay to you here, but it's the exact statement he released for our August 7 rally.
November 15, 2010
The "Solidarity Ride" is only 36 hours away. Today our Local issued a press release about it so the cat is now out of the bag. There are still some seats available for retirees, family members, and members of other local unions on the buses. Please contact a member of the CAT team or a committee member for more information. The send-off rally will be held Wednesday at 4:00 P.M. at our Union Hall. All of our supporters are invited to come.
The company has been busy with some plans of their own. They have started construction of a new lab building. When you consider that they have repaired many of the roofs around the plant, resurfaced the parking lot, and upgraded the PA system, you have to ask yourself how they can claim that they are losing money. Maybe all those improvements will some how increase production? I doubt it though. It looks to me like they might have misrepresented their position to the public. Most people I know call that a lie.......
November 11, 2010
Just some more food for thought....
Quote from Larry's November 2nd letter. (Taken word-for-word from Honeywell's website.)
"There is no company proposal to eliminate 50 jobs. I have no idea where this assertion comes from. It certainly does not come from the bargaining table or from company representatives."
Quote from Honeywell's current contract offer. (Also taken word-for-word from their website.)
"SECTION 3. Effective September 1, 2010, the Works shall have the ability to subcontract the work currently performed by the following classifications: General Utility, Painter, and North Laundry. Any employee laid off as a result of this action shall receive the severance set forth below except that the Works agrees it will not lay off any Painter who is in that classification as of June 22, 2010 due to subcontracting.
SECTION 4. Effective September 1, 2010, the Works shall have the ability to subcontract the work currently performed by the following areas: Service/Stores and Instrument/Electrical. Any employee laid off as a result of this action shall receive the severance set forth below except that the Works agrees it will not lay off any Instrument/Electrical employee who is in that classification as of June 22, 2010 due to subcontracting.
SECTION 5. Effective September 1, 2010, in order to maximize efficiency and quality, the Works shall be permitted to subcontract all non-core tasks including but not limited to the following: Emergency Equipment Inspection; Crane, Hoist, Trolley, and Lifting Beam Inspections; Insulation; All Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) installation and maintenance; Scale inspection, calibration, and repair; All Security, Access, and Camera Maintenance; Sanitary Plumbing; All civil, carpentry, office repairs, & renovation; Snow Removal, Lawn Care, Buildings and Grounds; Fencing and fence repairs including automatic gates and sentry barriers; Mobile Equipment/Automotive; Scaffold erection and dismantling; Certified Welding; Environmental remediation, including mold, asbestos, lead paint, pigeon droppings; Brickwork, Masonry, Refractory; Tool room attendant; Sheet metal work; All Equipment Fabrication."
If you subcontract out jobs, they are eliminated. Larry lied......
November 10, 2010
There will be an important meeting tomorrow at the Union Hall at noon. There will be a presentation about our new insurance plan. All members and their spouses are encouraged to come. There will also be an executive board meeting at 11:00.
Please continue to sign up for the upcoming solidarity ride. It is open to retirees, spouses, and family members. If you would like more details about it, please contact any CAT team member or Committee member. The signup sheet is hanging up on the bulletin board in the Union Hall.
Tailgators is having a fundraiser for our Local on November 19th. They will donate .50 cents for every beer sold that night to us. Let's pack the place for them. It will be a great place to celebrate the conclusion of our solidarity ride.
November 7, 2010
Planning is coming together for the upcoming "Solidarity Ride." This will be a great event for our Local and a great showing of solidarity. Remember to go have dinner at El Tequila in Metropolis on Monday between 5PM and 9PM. All proceeds will go to the Telethon.
November 4, 2010
As many of you now know, Lyin Larry has sent another lyin letter to our homes. With so many issues it's hard to know where to begin. Let's start with the loss of jobs. Under the current proposal from the company, they would be able to contract out nearly every task that our mechanics perform, as well as many or our production jobs. Not only that, if they decided they wanted a contractor to do our work, instead of going by seniority (which virtually all union AND non-union shops do) they would essentially be able to pick and choose who they want to get rid of. This alone would set us back 30 years.
The letter also claims that the company has bargained in good faith. We've been looking for someone who agrees that offering the EXACT SAME PROPOSAL every time is bargaining, but we haven't run across anyone yet. They also claim that there has been a lot of misinformation about the company's proposals, but that is hard to explain since they have sent the proposal to our home, not once, but TWICE, and also posted it on their web site where it is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The next claim is the plant loses money every year. What company says they are doing great during labor contract negotiations? We had a town hall meeting in the plant break room less than 5 years ago where they told us how great the plant was sitting and how well the market looked. The reason the plant has lost any money is because of bad decisions and mismanagement. Also, according the the math we do in Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky, if we expect to make 10 dollars, but only make 5, we don't go around broadcasting that we lost the other 5 dollars we expected to make. We simply learn our lesson. If the facility is loosing money, cut your loses and sell it. (Face it, we know you won't do that.)
The UF6 market is not going anywhere, but up. There are new nuclear plants being built all over the world. The price of conversion has more than doubled since the lock out. Recent studies show that if ALL UF6 conversion facilities in the western hemisphere operated at full capacity, it would still only make up 80% of what is needed to run the current nuclear power plants. Without the release of the Department of Energy stockpiles, there wouldn't be enough to go around.
Larry also claims that the union refused to agree to a 24 hour no strike/no lock-out agreement, when in fact, the union offered an agreement of 30 DAYS, or any other extension for that matter, which the company never brought to the table.
It's comical how your letter points out that your proposal would not reduce retirement benefits for current employees. Do you really think we are interested in selling out our future employees? IT WON'T HAPPEN!
Let's face it Larry, you have a long way to go before you have ANY credibility. We know more about this situation than you have given us credit for. We know that Honeywell planned this labor dispute for over a year. We know that your original plan was for us to strike, and when we didn't you didn't know what to do. It took you a week to figure it out. We know that this company had no intention of bargaining and that this is the first step in standardizing the benefits at all Honeywell facilities. We know that you budgeted over $60 million for the dispute and have spent most of it already with absolutely no progress. Face it, we know that there are a select few of our members that are trying to "help" end the dispute by passing information to you, but what you may not realize is that almost every one of your salary employees has reached out to us and offered their help to us.
Our sincere suggestion to you is this;
We WILL NOT accept the current offer and furthermore, you aren't even close. Start from scratch. Open up a current contract book and compare our benefits with what your suggesting because that's what our members and their families do. If you did that, you would realize that we aren't stupid. We elected our committee to negotiate a contract for us. They were elected because of our confidence in them. You can't divide us and we won't let you ruin our future and the future of the next generation.
November 2, 2010
We hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween, and remembered to vote today. Please make plans to attend Thursday's meeting at 4PM. We have some important things to discuss. There will be another womens meeting soon, we will post the date and time when available.
