Negotiations Update - Week 3

Brothers and Sisters,

There has not been much movement these last few weeks beyond the relatively easy stuff on the table. For a few more details please head over to the System Council U8 website.  As I've explained before the plan is to do online updates through the SCU8 website in an effort to drive traffic there, as well as giving a consistent message to all the members. If you go to www.ibewscu8.org you will see the weekly newsletters Brother Phil Howard has been putting out. I will update you from our website as well, but please use the SCU8 site foor the most up to date info.

One area of focus I do want to mention is the "Boilerplate" language. Typically it looks like this:

The Company has the right to amend, modify or terminate these plans and/or to change the employee costs for these plans at any time in its sole discretion, provided that any such changes also apply to the non-represented employee population. 

It sounds fairly benign on first pass, but understand the ramifications to our benefits if we accept this language . If this language is ratified by us it essentially means the company can make changes to whatever this language is attached to whenever they like! And they NEVER have to come back to the negotiating table to bargain over these changes again. Consider the consequences to this for a minute and I'm sure you can understand why this is so bad for us. 

Please keep this in mind as we work our way through negotiations, and understand why this "Boilerplate" language is something we cannot accept. I will be talking about this, and everything else going on at the negotiating table, at our upcoming monthly meetings. So make sure to get to the meetings in order to stay current on what's going on in negotiations. Feel free to talk to your Stewards and Officers in your respective work locations as well. I am trying to keep them informed on a weekly basis also, but they are a good way to filter your thoughts and concerns up to myself and the rest of the System Committee as we move forward.