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3/18/20
Brothers and
Sisters of UAW Local 1050, as you have probably heard by now from supervisors
trying to influence you, our contract extension from the company will expire at
11:59 PM Wednesday March 18th.
We were given
this deadline with the idea of being able to have a meeting with all of you to
explain all the details of the company's last, best and final offer. Your
Bargaining Committee has an obligation to explain to you fully what is in this
offer that affects all the membership including the retirees. The meeting would
allow the membership to ask any questions or express your concerns and then have
a vote.
The meeting was
set up for Sunday March 15th but was cancelled due to Executive Order by the
governor over the COVID-19 virus limiting, at that time, no more than 100 people
able to meet in a closed setting. In addition, we were told by The Department of
Health that we could be held liable if any member was to contract the virus
while attending the meeting. Our goal is to wait until this pandemic issue has
cleared before going forward with the meeting and a vote. It is the responsible,
ethical and safest thing to do.
The company
doesn't agree with this and even though they are currently splitting up crews on
their break times and moved tables out of the cafeteria to limit social
distancing but they want us to have 700 plus members get together for a meeting
and a vote. We will not put a vote ahead of our members and their family’s
health and safety. We have 7 retirees on our Election Committee that are at an
age that is high risk for this virus. We want to get through this as soon as
possible and know that everyone else wants to as well, but at what cost?
Keep in mind it
was perfectly ok for the company to be able to send letters to your home to say
vote yes, but your elected Union officials are not allowed to tell you to vote
no on a concessionary contract that would impact the entire membership. The
company wants to hurry up and have this vote regardless of your health concerns.
Please keep
focused, stay healthy, wash your hands often and keep your social distances.
Continue to come to work as usual unless you hear otherwise.