To all members,
I would like to inform the membership as to what has transpired to this point. The 1st shift will be returning to work on Monday May 19th to resume production. All employees assigned to 1st shift should report at their normal scheduled times. I’m sure that there are concerns as to why management has decided to run one shift and it basically comes down to cost.
I’m also sure that members are wondering why management isn’t bringing the members back by seniority. The answer would be because your Local Agreement gives management the right to work members out of line of seniority up to 10 working days unless we mutually agree to extend that time frame. The Shop Committee decided to mutually agree to extend this to benefit the membership.
Currently 1st shift will work the first 3 weeks, May 19th thru June 8th. If the production demands remain the same then the 2nd shift would work from June 9th thru June 29th. If management needs to fill any openings temporarily during these 3 week periods, they will do so by seniority, in the classification and by department by the shift that is laid off.
This does protect any member from being displaced off their normal job and onto another if they were to bring members back in line of seniority to one shift. It also gives all members some benefits to draw their normal wages if only for a 3 week period. This was not a desired decision to make but one that we feel has less pain and hardship for the whole.
The skilled trades to work from May 19th
thru June 8th will be the 1st and 3rd shift trades.
2nd Shift skilled trades will work June 9th-29th
In Solidarity,
John Harlow