November Newspaper

Grievance Article - Brian Onyschak Well, now that the dust has settled time to get back to our regular business. It is that time of year when we post our Shop Steward nomination form around the property. I encourage everyone to consider signing up before the deadline of December 2nd. You will find the forms posted in your Plants. Please remember, if you were a Shop Steward last year, it is necessary for you to re-sign to indicate that you are still interested in remaining on the Grievance Committee. The role of a Shop Steward is very important. You are the eyes and ears of the Union. Without you, it would be impossible to keep abreast of all the situations that happen across the property. There have been quite a few enquiries about a Shop Steward School. We are looking at putting on a school early in the new year. Once we have dates confirmed, we will be contacting everyone. We are still dealing with a few issues concerning bargaining. As of the writing of this article, the meal ticket problem is still outstanding. We have had discussions with the Company and are cautiously optimistic that we can come to an agreement. If we are unable to resolve this issue, we will proceed to arbitration. Another concern is the Company’s scheduling of different shifts across the property. We thought we had an understanding in bargaining, but that doesn’t seem to be the case now. We have filed a grievance on this issue and hope to have discussions with the Company in the near future. Contracting Out is still an issue with our Union and there are a lot of rumours out there. At our next Executive meeting, we will be discussing the whole issue of contracting out and how to police it. The last issue I want to touch on is the discipline for alleged actions during the strike. The Company has sent us a list of the proposed discipline. We have requested that they supply us with all the evidence they considered when determining what level of discipline they believed was appropriate. Once we are in receipt of the evidence, we will be contacting all members affected to discuss their situation. In closing, I ask everyone to be patient while we try to get these issues resolved. Again, thank you for all the support you have given us solidarity works! In solidarity, Brian