We are deeply saddened by the sudden death of Brother Rob Beaudry. He will be in the thoughts and prayers of this of this Local as we extend those though our condolences to his family & friends.
News, Developments and Information
Remembrance day
Job Evaluation Committee Update
Representatives of both the Union and Company Job Evaluation Committee met on Friday. I don’t have any information on how the meeting went at this time but factual information will be shared with our membership when we have it. I also want to mention that Brother Paul Euteneier, Chief Steward for O&T has joined this committee.
Chub Card Update
Four group grievances were submitted to Evraz today regarding the time card system the Company has thrust upon us all. If necesary additional grievances will be put in to ensure all concerns are addressed
Relationship Status Survey
Support = Strength
Participation in this Local by the membership has never been stronger. Attendance at monthly meetings is up. Many new Stewards are taking training. We have a Women Of Steel (WOS) committee breaking ground. Our social media sites such as this one and our Facebook page are popular. We even have the involvement of our Steelworkers On Active Retirement (SOAR) lending their support. Brother’s & Sister’s, your participation at any level in your Local makes us stronger. Lets continue to make this happen.
Solidarity Forever!
Corey Liebrecht, President
3rd Quarter Profit Sharing
Has been announced by the Company and will be $1.32 per eligible hour.
Employees beware: The perils of posting on Facebook | rabble.ca
We Are Steelworkers
Early Shift Change
It has come to our attention that some area supervisors in the plant have been trying to discredit your Local Union Executive and myself in claiming that we are misrepresenting our membership in regard to early shift changes. Let me assure our members that your Union has NOT in any way asked the Company to remove early shift relief in any department. We know for a fact that some of our members have indeed enjoyed the practice of early shift change before 6am for many years. We have expressed to the Company on a number of occasions that our members have been quite happy with this arrangement and would like it to continue.
New Shop Stewards
On October 18th & 19th the Local held a Level 1 shop steward school. We would like to congratulate the following members and welcome them as new stewards.
- Chris Massier
- Doug Demin
- Ryan Mackenzie
- Scott Mackie
- Jim Cassano
- Mike Smith
- John Schmidt
Monthly Membership Meeting
A reminder to all Brother’s & Sister’s that the monthly membership meeting is on Monday Oct 22nd 2012 at 7:30pm sharp. It will be held downstairs at the Regina Union Center 2709 12th Ave. This is your Union. Participate in it and show your…Solidarity Forever!
In Reality
The new Chubb swipe card time keeping system starts this Sunday Oct 21st 2012. The Union wants to remind all members that in meeting’s with the Company, they have said they consider an employee to be on/off the job when they have swiped in/out at a card reader location.
Women Of Steel
Our National Women’s Conference “Working Women, Working Union” will be held November 14-16, 2012 at the Holiday Inn, Toronto, Yorkdale.
The conference theme this year is “Working Women, Working Union”. We will reflect on the progress to date on achieving equality – is there a union advantage? We will identify the steps women and women’s committees are taking to move the equality agenda forward and together develop strategies to organize and engage women to advance our objectives at the bargaining table and through political action.
Chubb Card Update
A meeting was held yesterday between the Union and Company to discuss the implimentation of the new Chubb Card system and the affect on shift changes. This is what the Company is shoving at us.
Airport Security Screeners Across Atlantic Canada Hold Strike Vote | USW
Steelworkers Supporting The United Way
Brothers & Sisters once again displayed their support for the community this morning during a shift change at Evraz with a successful kickoff breakfast to a month long fund-raising campaign for the United Way that was said to be the most successful ever. Your donation or pledge supports 32 different charities or can be directed to a charity of your choice. Last year our members gave $51,000 locally to this cause that was matched dollar for dollar by the Company. Your support does make a difference.
Chubb Card Update
As everyone should already know Evraz has stated they intend to implement a time clock system or “Chubb card” system starting on October 21. There have been many questions from many members regarding this new system and how it is going to address issues such as shift start-end times, changing clothes, clean up time and overtime. There is a meeting scheduled on October 11 involving both Pipe and Steel Seniority, Shift and Overtime Committee’s and Evraz. Evraz representatives have stated they intend to address all of this issues with reliable answers.
There will be an update on this subject on October 12 or October 11. Please check back here.
A quote from Leo Gerard
“We are as reasonable as anybody when employers want to approach us reasonably and want to talk about how to benefit our members, but let me tell you this. Any Company that has it’s heart set on killing our Union or hurting our members, any Company like that needs to know, that this Union and it’s members will fight in solidarity till our very last breath if that’s what it takes. We will last one day longer.” –
Leo Gerard, USW International President
Benefit Society Update
There was a general meeting held on September 20 open to all Benefit Society members in locals 5890, 5917 and 6717 to report on recent events and to elect new officers to adminster the fund.
The following brothers were elected:
President- Vasco D’Ameida
Vice-President- John Forster
Treasurer- Tory Sand
September 24, 2012 – Group Calls on Premier Wall to Support “Open Government”
Union calls for inquiry into mining safety | Communications, Energy and Paperworks Union of Canada
Steelworkers Not Affilated with America Income Life
It has come to the Local’s attention that some of our members have been receiving phone calls from a company called American Income Life. The person calling claims to be representing the United Steelworkers out of BC and is offering extra life insurance to our members for a fee. The USW does NOT endorse this company in any way. The Union is unsure how they have obtained a list of members names and phone numbers. We want to assure our membership that the Union does not sell or distribute in any way, or at any time, lists or partial lists with the personal information of our members. The USW takes the privacy of our members very serious and holds this information in the strictest confidentiality.
In Solidarity!
USW District 3 & 5890 Executive
The ‘new’ Saskatchewan: Oklahoma North?
Of the litany of proposed changes contained in the Saskatchewangovernment’s Consultation Paper on the Renewal of Labour Legislation in Saskatchewan,the most pernicious is the suggestion that employees be allowed to opt out of paying union dues, yet still receive the full benefits of union membership. This idea is dangerously reminiscent ofU.S. right-to-work (RTW) laws that already pervade the American south and have recently been proposed in northern states likeWisconsin andIndiana.
If this is the direction the current government wants to move, then it is incumbent that the people of Saskatchewan recognize what the adoption of RTW laws entail, because it will not only affect union members, it will affect all workers in our province, unionized or not.
Drug and Alcohol Reasonable Suspicion Workshop
Locals 5890 and 6673 (Calgary) attended a workshop in Regina on September 17 to educate stewards in the process of assessing and determining impairment. This workshop has provided stewards the knowledge to properly and effectively recognize a worker that may be under the suspected use of drugs or alcohol in the workplace. It is important for our Union stewards and OHS members to be proficient in assessing workers for impairment. The local believes that in the past Evraz has overstepped it rights to test members for drugs and alcohol. The purposes of the training is to keep our workplace safe from drugs and alcohol and to protect our members from unwarranted and unreasonable submissions to testing.
