News and Info
Home
Business Manager
Centerpoint HL&P
Generation
Nuclear
Construction
Organizing & Political Advocacy
Events Calendar
|
 |
|
Business Representative for South Texas Nuclear Project & Lockheed-Martin
 |
|
Nuclear & Lockheed Martin Announcements
UPDATE
STP UNIT
Contract books are at the printers. Should have a delivery date decided within the next few weeks. We used a different Union printer this year due to problems we had with last contract books. They have to re-format the file to get the books to the size we wanted. This is now done and I'm waiting on a price quote and will get them done asap afterwards.
The updated agreement with Calibration & Testing is signed and in place. All the updated benefit packages with the Building Trades Locals were included. The outage will start soon and it's good to have all that finished and in place for the Union folks coming in. Remember that Crane Nuclear and Sun Technical Services are the non-union contractors that will be coming in to augment. They will receive the total package sum of $33.71.
Several issues have arisen lately. One being the overtime piece of your Incentive Compensation Plan. I understand there is some confusion about gross pay vs base pay plus overtime portion. The Union proposed in negotiations to use gross pay and even offered to drop the grievance on the back pay portion. We were not successfull, hence, the way it is now. I am going to take the method the Company has chosen to pay the overtime portion to our Attorneys to make sure it is correct and compliant with the law and is applied to us correctly. Another issue not specifically effecting the Bargaining Unit but our Brothers in the Build. Trades I have agreed to try and address. The issue is that of those brothers and sisters who were asked to stay after the last outage, did so and are now being excluded from the return bonus of $200.00. I can't believe the Company would alienate these employees for a mere $200.00. I have agreed to address this with Company management. Haven't decided who to start with yet.
Grievances/Arbitrations - We continue to have quite a few grievances. Recently most are over by-passed overtime and loss of opportunity to work 40 hours. All are at the proper step in the grievance process. We recently meet to prepare for Dennis Webre's termination arbitration. Dennis expressed no interest in returning even if he won his arbitration, we, therefore, negotiated a monetary settlement agreeable to Dennis and the Company. The amount, as part of the settlement, will not be disclosed. We are waiting to sign the final documents to close this out.
We also recently held Pat LaBay's arbitration (moving employee from MOST rotating). We feel the arbitration went very well. Briefs are due March 9th, the hearing will then be closed and a decision should be rendered within 60-90 days from there. The only other date set is on the passing grade issue 70% vs 80%. That arbitration is scheduledfor June 7th. We have also filed a grievance over the change the Company has made to the footwear procedure. We have a meeting scheduled with our Attorney's, for Feb. 26th, to go over the Certified grievances and see if we can move them along and get dates set to arbitrate them.
Remember, this year is an election year. Not only for the Local, but also for the Unit. Nominations will be held in May, election in June and take office in July.
Steward Training will be held this next weekend, Feb. 24th. Attend if you can!
The outage is upcoming, be careful and look out for each other.
LMS UNIT
As we know NRG gave us another final offer along with a personal letter explaining the Company's final offer and why they thought it was a good offer. We counseled with our Attorney's about NLRB charges for direct dealing or coercion, but they informed us that it would probally not perceived that way by the Board. The membership did respond with a resounding NO! The vote was 455 against and 37 for. Our negotiation committee has met, put together a counter proposal and delivered it to the Company. We are now waiting for them to schedule a date to meet and discuss our proposal. We hope that they got the message sent by the membership and come to the table with the intention to get a fair and equitable Agreement!
Grievances/Arbitrations - We had meet with the Company and reached resolution, without prejudice, on a lot of grievances. That was before the Company was sold this last time. They have informed us that all of that is on hold until we reach a new Agreement. I have not suspended the processing of any grievances due to this. All grievances are processed through the steps and certified for Arbitration as they would be any other way. We continue to get grievances over contracting work, overtime issues and not using in-house employees prior to contractors. We have filed the grievance over the Company changing your Benefit costs without negotiating and reaching agreement on the changes. The Company has acknowledged the grievance and requested that they wait till agreement is reached and then correct the amounts and refund everything prior to the agreement. We have informed the that this is unacceptable and that we expect a full refund now while the amount owed is small. We have not received an answer to this yet. Locally they say Corporate has not given them an answer. We will not wait much longer. I have the NLRB charge form filled out and ready to go and am prepared to go file it. We have a meeting scheduled with our Attorney's, on Feb. 26th, to go over the Certified grievances and see what we can do to try and speed the process along and get an arbitrator chosen and a date set to arbitrate the outstanding grievances.
Remember, this is an election year. Not only for the Local, but also the Unit. Nominations will be in May, election in June and take office in July.
Remember, as we go through these negotiations, "UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE BEG". What we have today did not come from who or what any of us have done, but was prepared for us by those who came before. What we do today will only effect us for a short time, but will have everlasting effect on those who travel this road behind us. Stand up and be counted.
Steward Training will be held next weekend, Feb. 24th. Attend if you can!
EAGLE PASS
We have settled several grievances over the last couple of months. The grievance over the Company forcing Bargaining Unit employees to act a Quality Control Representatives has been settled and we will no longer be required to perform the QC's work, but will be available to assist with the more complex tasks. Nacho's grievance was settled for 153 hours of upgrade. We made no progress on Lupe's about the flying eye splice, so that is is certified for arbitration. The grievance over the changes to the schedule for the deflation/inflation has also been certified.
Remember that in just about 2 years all sites will be back on the same negotiation schedule. It's never too early to start putting changes that you want to see in the Agreement on paper. The sites that are open for negotiations this year are Rio Grande City, Marfa, Yuma and Ft. Huachuca.
Steward Training will be held next weekend, Feb. 24th. Attend if you can!
RIO GRANDE CITY
We also settled the QCR grievance with the same outcome as Eagle Pass. We also had the grievance over the Company putting the E-techs on a 4-10 shift in violation of the Agreement. There was no resolution on that grievance and it was certified for Arbitration.
Negotiations are forthcoming! The Company has requested that we provide available dates. As you know Marfa, Yuma and Ft. Huachuca are also due to negotiate this year. We will ,as we have in the past, assist or at least offer assistance to the other Locals involved. Local 570, Tucson, Az. Assistant Business Manager, Mike Verbout and I have agreed that we will continue to support each others negotiations. I will attend Yuma and Ft. Huachuca's negotiations and act as their official notetaker and Mike will do the same for us. Marfa has been moved from Local #602, Amarillo to Local #583 out of El Paso. Mike and I will offer to assist them as we did with 602. This will be 583's first negotiation with Lockheed Martin. As we all know, assisting each other is important, as we all have similar language. Please start putting your issues together and get them to your steward or to me.
Steward Training will be held next weekend, Feb. 24th. Attend if you can!
|
|
|
Business Manager and Financial Secretary:
Greg Lucero
Business Representatives:
Rick Childers - Centerpoint Engery HL&P
Bruce Bettilyon - South Texas Nuclear Project & Lockheed Martin
Eddie Riddle - Outside Construction
Charlie Nelson - Texas GenCo & Reliant Resources
Mike Mosteit - Organizing and Political Advocacy
Office
4345 Allen Genoa
Pasadena, TX 77504
Local: (713)943-0716
Long Dist: (888)943-6110
Fax: (713)943-0162
|
|
|
