Branch News
December 7, 2019
Fellow Members- Let’s start off this month by reminding everyone that if you volunteer or are forced in for a holiday and you then do not show up, you will not get paid for that day. While we are on the topic of showing up for work, as I have repeated and repeated for years, management is cracking down on attendance. Now that they have an attendance-specific supervisor in this plant, the crackdown on attendance has begun to really tighten. Like I have stressed for years, attendance is the toughest discipline to fight because there is no gray area; you are either here or you aren’t. Management is also becoming tougher at each level about the discipline that is handed out. The really bad thing about this whole movement, though, is that the official in the Central PA District that is in charge of the attendance is dangerous because she does not seem to have any understanding of contracts or even how to be compassionate towards people that actually might be sick. She also seems to love to micromanage and be a bit overzealous, not to mention that she can’t admit when she is wrong. It’s apparent that she just cares about her bonus, her award, or her upward mobility; we are still just numbers and stepping stones. My advice is to take heed and start showing up for work, and when you are given advice by your shop stewards about improving or documenting your absences, you might want to listen. We had 27 people attend our winter Branch Meeting on 11/25 at Dolce Mamma Restaurant. Some of the items that I covered were: the PTF jobs that are open in some of our associate offices, the ever-dropping Function 1 numbers in this plant, the RI-399 appeals and settlements, the Christmas Annex, making the work environment better, and communications and events. My final topic was a thank you and gift & card presentation to retiring treasurer Mike Mohan on behalf of the members of the LVP&DC Branch. Mike wrote to me the next day to express his sincere gratitude to everybody that had signed the card. He appreciates everyone who took the time to thank him for his work, even if he hadn’t met a large percentage of them. Mike gave the treasurer’s report and spoke about how we have to keep an eye on the finances so that we never fall into the problems that we had before. We are financially stable now. When Mike and John Gibson took over the treasurer’s and president’s offices, respectively, we were over $700, 000 in debt; we are now over one million dollars to the positive in assets and funds. This speaks to the tremendous job that Mike and John have done in righting the ship of this Local. President John Gibson covered many topics during his presentation. He spoke about the ongoing CBA negotiations, the MHA and RI-399 settlements, the virtual timecard and online leave request functions on LiteBlue , and benefits open season. He also spoke about the grievance activity around the Local and the steward training. Finally, he covered the legislative issues for the Union and the administrative news from the Local. There will be a Blood Drive here at the LVP&DC on Wednesday, January 29th. Please be sure to look for information and be sure to sign up to donate. I will be calling this week about having a bowling event in late January or early February. Stay tuned for more details. I will be placing an order for sweatshirts at the end of this week. They are on sale for $30, so get your orders into me by Friday. The nomination meeting for Union leadership positions in the Local is this coming Saturday, December 14th. Please see the posting on the bulletin boards or on the web site for more details. In this busy holiday season, don’t forget to keep scanning everything that you can and also don’t forget to swipe over to the operation numbers when you get moved. The drawing for the holiday gift cards from the Union was held and the winners of the $40 Wegmans’ gift cards are: Tour 1—drawn by Teresa Craig………..Tim Frey Tour 1—drawn by Amber Wintermute…….Wayne Pulaski Tour 2—drawn by Maria Mieles………….Floyd Steinmetz Tour 2—drawn by Aji Singh…………..Bruce Rasely Tour 3—drawn by Kellye Flood……….Ron Miller Tour 3—drawn by Scott Newman………Francisco Rivera Union Meeting 1—drawn by Sean Craig……Lori Parr Union Meeting 2—drawn by Judith Abongo……..Teresa Craig Attended Both Union Meetings—drawn by Sheri Matchette……….Ebony Willis Union Meetings combined—drawn by Kayla Fillebrown………..Sharon Peters Union Meetings combined—drawn by Joe Prokopovich………..LaShonda Cox Union Meetings combined—drawn by Tony Miller………….Brian Odums Remember for next year, the more Union Meetings that you attend, the more chances that you have to win. Congratulations to the winners! Finally, in case that I don’t write another posting before the time, everyone have a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season!! Stay United, Stay Strong- Sean |
Branch President
Sean Craig 
Your Union RepresentativesLocal Memorandum of Understanding |