Rumors

I received a phone call yesterday from several work centers concerning call-outs. The general gist of the conversations went like this--- "our supervisor said that you met with the company over call outs and that the union was happy with how things are currently".

There are several issues with these types of calls. One is the fact that the "SUPERVISOR SAID" so and so. Please, stay in touch with your local union officers. Never take what your supervisor says as gospel until you have checked with a steward or the local union. Too many times that is how bad rumors get started.

The second issue with this is that the local union officers are no different than you, we all work under this contract. I am not a full time local union employee. I have to answer call outs just like you. I have been very vocal about my displeasure with the current call out system. The system is overbearing to certain groups and does not give proper credit to employees who respond to overtime. I have discussed these types of issues every month at the union meetings. Unfortunately, if you are not in attendance then you don't hear what is taking place.

The last thing I want to mention is this, the union is you, me and every other dues paying brother or sister working for the company. We are all the union. The union is not several people who are elected to perform the duties of the officers. We are simply mouthpieces for the whole membership.

The call-out issue is a big ugly sore spot right now and your elected officers are doing all we can to fix the problems. The company has agreed to sit down with us to look at the numbers and see if collectively we can come to an agreement over a better way to do things. that is a move in the right direction.

When and if the parties can come to some sort of agreement over how best to fix the problem, we will be bringing it to the membership for a vote. Call outs have a big impact to the lifestyles of the membership. It is important that we all have a say in how they will be handled.

I look forward to seeing you at next months meeting. Until then please work safe!

Call-Outs

Last month the System Committee met with Line Department VP's to discuss the current situation surrounding call-outs. The Committee presented management with several issues that are causing hardships to the membership.

The first issue surrounded the rotation of the list. It is very apparent that on the overtime list there seems to be two cycles. The NS employees rotate at the top of the list and the SL employees rotate at the bottom. This is causing a burden for the employees always at the top.

Another issue is the filling of shifts without credit. This seems to be a growing issue under the current "fill shifts" emphasis.

There were several other issues discussed concerning call-outs. The final outcome of the meeting has resulted in a commitment from management to sit down with us and look over the numbers. If we can come to an agreement over a better way to do call-outs, we will bring the agreement out to be voted on.