Moving Ahead

Wow what a ride. I have only been in office a short time but it is easy to see what needs to be done. The problems I have found in Zone 4 are nothing new, just the age old story of a company that is looking to make all that it can, any way they can. They are doing exactly what I would expect management to do.

We need to be deliberate and organized in our approach if we expect to protect our rights and get all that we should from this business relationship. I am not saying that the managers in our Zone are being unfair, often they are being fair and sometimes going above and beyond, but they are not looking out for our best interest and that is understandable.

That is our Job!

In concert with the Union’s Incentive Committee I am looking into the incentive plan, along with your assistant grievers and some key employees. We are hoping to fine tune the plan. Develop it to the point that it will be a consistent and fair representation of our input and efforts.

I have been preparing for 3 assistant griever elections due to petitions from 3 of our units. It is good to see a fresh interest in getting involved and I am looking forward to dealing with the new assistants as well as the ones that you already have your faith in.

Along with a couple of key members and their assistant grievers we are looking into developing a plan for OAM in the 80”. In the recent week long outage we started working on some ideas to co-ordinate the people in our division working together under the concept of OAM. We paired up operators and millwrights by their willingness to work together and their skills as well. This will give us a direction and commitment to move us forward while following the contract and its guidelines.

Ours is a history abounding in spectacle and misfortune. It is also one of vision and faith steeped in confidence and commitment. If we stand together there is little that we can not accomplish. We need to start here in our mill. The 80” HSM. We need to unify and stand together as one group asking for what we need as individuals and expecting it as a group in the age old call of unions everywhere:

"United We Stand"