Author: Admin

COVID-19 post!! I just want to in form our membership that now that Vaccine ages are starting to hit more of the average age around the plant that there is Special Vaccination leave and that all workers are allowed to leave work for 3 consecutive hours to get this done. I sent a email to our head of HR March 23rd to ask them to send a memo out to the frontline supervisors so that they aware of this and potentially have to schedule some kind of coverage. To this date I have never seen a memo come from HR stating anything and I will also be bringing this up in our steel OH&S meeting next week. If anyone has any issue with this let someone in the Union know or call me at 675. This is law they have to let you go!
Also with notifications of Covid the company has a covid response plan that states right in there about including the OH&S committee on positive cases, however the refuse to have us involved as repeated please to be involved. Keep in mind this is their policy not the law, we have had the OH&S branch here and I have told them this and again they also seem to be puzzled why they say they will involve us but choose to not have us involved, again he can’t force them as it’s not law. I brought us that it’s our rights as workers to the Right To Know. What we get now is a email mate the next day sent to Mike day and our staff rep Patrick. My stance on it is no one wants to know the name of the person we just want some information for mental health of “oh the is a positive case in say the pipeside 24” , so maybe that give someone a bit of relief that I work in steel I don’t feel like I am touching everything the positive case touched.
Next week I will also ask them with our SHA people on site if they will try to give vaccine shots at the medical trailer for ease for people on site as we have so many people around here.
I am told that our SHA person also has been telling people on the floor that when we have a new case that they will be posted on the tv screens at the Hilton again no one has included us in this information and I am not sure if that is true but I will also be asking that in the OH&S meeting.
Stay safe and everyone needs to do their own part here, I know there is sanitizers around here but me personally I don’t rely on anyone, wipe your own area down, wipe down where you are going to eat.
I am usually not on Facebook and came back on to post this information and my messenger still works if you need to talk or ask me a question, I will probably have a look for comments over the course of the weekend but messenger or 675 or 3065363282 if you wanna shoot me a text.

Scott Trenaman

Ryan McKenzie has been re-elected as Vice President.

Please read the this document regarding nominations for Executive Committee members that will be nominated on March 15 2021

Steel Division:
Anyone who had their shift canceled on June 25 and was asked to report anyway please contact the Union to be added to a group grievance regarding your pay.

As well anyone who had their shift canceled on June 25 but wasn’t paid for the day please contact the Union to be added to a group grievance.

Because of Covid 19 the membership meeting scheduled for tonight at 7:00 PM has been canceled.

Please read if you are O&T

The Company has informed the Union that all O&T employees should report to their regular scheduled shift on Thursday March 12 2020. Further information on the layoff and bumping will be discussed with management on Thursday.

Newest bump/displacement schedule. Bump forms are available at security at the change room building

The Union had a meeting with the Company and received an update regarding the ongoing issues surrounding the shutdown in Steel and Pipe.

STEEL DIVISION

The Company has made up a bumping and placement document that people can use to determine where they are working and where they may be able to bump during the layoff or cutback. Please refer to the following document.

Please note this document is a work in progress. Namely there are two positions below the bump line in the greaser position that are missing.
As of today the Company states they intend to run the skeleton crew until around April 1st and then starting operations in the Meltshop and then starting operations on April 15 in the Rolling mill.

PIPE DIVISION

There will be another meeting regarding the Pipe Division at 1 pm tomorrow. We will update further after that meeting.

EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE INFORMATION

If you are applying for EI at Service Canada or online please DO NOT check the box that it is a group layoff. This will slow down your claim according to the Company.

Steel Division

Today the Union was informed that the Steel Division shutdown that was scheduled to begin at the end of March has now been started today because of the Cyber attack of Evraz on March 5 2020. The 3 day layoff is still in effect until Monday March 8 2020 . As of now everyone will be working Monday and the layoff for March 12 will most likely be cancelled.

Pipe Division

As of today the Company plans to lay everyone off starting March 12 18:00 for two weeks until they can resolve the issues surrounding the Cyber attack. The Union has been informed that layoff notices under Article 12.12 (a) part 4 began to mailed out into today.

https://www.usw.ca/members/scholarships

Evraz North America fined $322,000 after worker seriously injured in 2018

There will be a Solidarity Rally with locked out members of Unifor 594 at the Co-op Refinery

When: Saturday, February 1

Everyone attending will please meet at the USW 5890 office (#26-395 Park Street) at 11:00 AM. We will be joining with other USW members from Saskatoon and surrounding area then convoy to Gate 7 Co-op Refinery for a Solidarity Rally

If you have any questions please call the office @ 306-569-9663 or email m.day@usw5890.com

LETS STAND TOGETHER FOR WORKERS AND PENSIONS

Brothers and Sisters,

In an effort to keep the membership of 5890 more informed, your Grievance Committee would like you know that in the past 6 months the Local has filed almost 140 grievances with the company. In fact, since ratification there has been over 520 grievances filed. We have seen an increase in both Terminations and Drug and Alcohol testing since a new Director of Human Resources Canada was hired. Focusing on the last 6 months here is a breakdown.

*15 Terminations

* 8 Post Incident Drug and Alcohol Tests

*1 Reasonable Suspicion Test

*15 Indefinite Suspensions

*2 Disqualifications

*7 Grievances for suspensions over 4 days

*17 Grievances filed for 3 day suspensions

*3 Grievances filed for 2 day suspensions

*15 Grievances filed for 1 day suspensions

*10 Grievances filed for written warnings.

*18 Grievances for Line of Progression/ Overtime violations

*9 Grievances filed for the Company not following Timelines as outlined in the C.B.A

That is 106 suspension days filed in the past 6 months not including the Terminations.

In that same period of time there has been 21 grievances resolved ranging anywhere from written warnings , 1 day suspensions and 2 day suspensions being removed, reduction in disciplines and pay for time lost.  The largest grievance resolve in terms of pay was the De-gasser grievance in which was settled with the company paying out over $16,000.

GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE;
Ryan Mckenzie [Chair]
Kyle Fisher[Tubular]
Brad Gibbons[Steel]
Kim Roberts[O&T]  

The Membership meeting tonight (November18) has been moved to the Union Office at #26 395 Park Street as the room usually used at the Union center is unavailable

The Company has changed their policy on the process of buying boots. From now on members and probationary members will have to pay the 25% of boots up front or at the time of purchase.

It has also been brought to the attention of the Union that some people purchasing boots who paid 25% up front were also charged 25% on their paycheck. Please double check your pay stub if you recently purchased boots.

This past week members from USW Regina locals 5890, WASCO 5917, Calgary locals 6673, and Tenaris Prudential 7226 met for a Building Power Course facilitated by Mike Zielinski from The USW International Office, Strategic Campaign department. District 3 Director Steve Hunt and Assistant to the Director Scott Lunny opened our meeting on the first day with bargaining strategies and success stories and offered their support. We talked about ideas and strategies to enhance our communication skills, ways to increase solidarity and prep for upcoming bargaining.

We have established a CAT team (Communication Action Team) to share information in and make sure our membership is up to date on all our issues in real time. The point of the CAT team is to involve a broad spectrum of our membership to relay information from the Executive and the bargaining committee. These roles will be an integral part of our bargaining going forward and will have a large role in our fight to preserve and enhance our position in bargaining.

There will be specific training sessions for CAT team Coordinators and members- details to follow.
We still require a few more members to work with the coordinators, if you want to make a difference and be active in the process please reach out to your local President.

The four locals have committed to dates for a Bargaining school which will include CAT team coordinators.

Katie Simpson · CBC News · Posted: Jan 10, 2019

“Canada has engaged in a number of charm offensives … and so far, those efforts have yielded next to nothing” .

                                                                                                                                      -Marc Rowlinson

The prime minister’s inner circle is ramping up another lobbying push in Washington to terminate American tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Two senior government sources say that ministers with connections to American national security portfolios will be tasked with reaching out to specific U.S. officials to push Canada’s anti-tariff message.

The campaign is based on Canada’s long-standing position that the tariffs are both illegal and absurd.

Last June, the Trump administration invoked a rarely used national security provision — Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 — to impose 25 per cent tariffs on imported steel and 10 per cent tariffs on imported aluminum.

The tariffs are based on the argument that, in the event of a national emergency, the U.S. needs robust domestic steel and aluminum industries. Canada has openly attacked the tariffs, pointing out that Canada is not a threat to U.S. national security.

One source said the new lobbying campaign actually began when Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a visit to Washington in December.

Early in the new year, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan delivered a similar anti-tariff message over the phone to the new U.S. acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan​.

And Finance Minister Bill Morneau also made Canada’s case during a face-to-face meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in Washington yesterday.

Now, the lobbying push is seeking new targets. Officials at the Canadian embassy in Washington are drafting a list of influential Americans who may be open to Canada’s message.

Once that list is complete, individual ministers will be tasked with reaching out to those officials, by phone or in person, to press Canada’s case.

Both Freeland and Morneau will use the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland as a forum to meet with their American counterparts and push them to nix the tariffs.

They won’t see U.S. President Donald Trump there. Trump announced on Twitter today that he would be skipping the forum to focus on the current federal government shutdown and a swelling dispute with House Democrats over his demand for a border wall.

Paul Moen, a principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group and an international trade lawyer, said Canada’s strategy makes sense — but it should also reach out to business and labour leaders and the new faces in Congress who took office in the November midterm elections.

“With the new Congress in place, that’s a new opportunity to build some new relationships, build on some old ones, but also to broaden the engagement with the business community, with the labour community,” he told CBC News.

But Mark Rowlinson, a spokesman for United Steelworkers Canada, said the window for charm offensives has long since closed and it’s time for Canada to draw “a line in the sand” by refusing to ratify the revamped North American trade deal until the tariffs are dropped.

“I’m skeptical​,” he said. “It’s clearly the case that Canada has never posed a threat to U.S. national security, and I don’t think anyone on either side of the border has ever really taken that seriously. Canada has engaged in a number of charm offensives … and so far, those efforts have yielded next to nothing.

“What they should be doing is saying, ‘We will not sign, we will not ratify the new Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement, unless and until these tariffs are dropped.”

In fact, neither of the two senior government sources who spoke to CBC News is optimistic that Trump will abandon his enthusiasm for tariffs any time soon.

On Tuesday, Trump tweeted a defence of his tariff policy by quoting an interview on Fox News with Mark Glyptis, a local president of the United Steelworkers union from West Virginia.

One of the sources said that Canada will be stepping away from any arguments that connect the tariffs to the updated North American free trade agreement.

Some American lawmakers and business leaders who oppose the tariffs have said publicly they should be dropped, since they were meant only to serve as leverage in the trade negotiations.

One of the sources told CBC that Canada doesn’t want to touch that argument because it’s too similar to the line Mexican officials are taking in their own push to end the American tariffs.

Canada does not want to be lumped in with Mexico, the source said, because Mexico might end up agreeing with American demands for export quotas on steel.

CBC News has reported that American trade officials want both Canada and Mexico to accept caps on how much steel they can import into the United States, based on a portion of what was imported in 2017.

“That’s crazy,” said the source, adding Canada will not entertain the idea of accepting quotas.