Presidents Report
April 2010
Steelworker Sisters and Brothers:
Here is a summary of the issues and discussions that I’ve had that at meetings to report on this month. If you have any questions about any of this report feel free to call. There were many topics to report on.
20th Street Pedestrian crossing
According to US Steel the City of Granite has been complaining that Steelworkers crossing 20th street are walking against the crossing light, in other words jay walking. These complaints are originating from motorist calling the police department and reporting that Steelworkers are walking in front of them when the auto traffic has the right of way. US Steel in response to this has stated they’ll be out issuing citations to those who jaywalk if we can’t correct the behaviors of those causing the issues. I know as well as you do that this is only one side of the story. The other side is the behavior of the motorist. Since I cross at the 20th street I’ve have had as much experience with motorist’s bad behaviors as you all have. Since the City believes this is a pedestrian only issue I suggest we use our cell phones and call the Granite City Police Department (618.876.9027) and report all those who are breaking the traffic laws. While your at it call Mark Tade (618.451.4940) and let him also know that someone has run the traffic light. In the mean time though I’m advocating that we all push the button (which by the way didn’t work for about a year because somebody forgot the sensors in the road when they were rebuilding it and later the cost delayed putting them in) at the pedestrian crossing to stop the traffic for us. If these complaining motorist want to stop I’m going to oblige them. I hope you all do the same. Also this applies to the Madison ave crossing, which I understand has cars that run the pedestrian light pretty often. Lets find out who’s on the right side of this issue.
Veeder Health Right to Examine (HIPPA Rights)
When the plant was idled US Steel started scrutinizing absences (call offs) trying to determine when someone reported off sick whether they were fit to return to work before they returned for work. Your absence may be one turn or more. It didn’t matter. Now if you report off sick the report off operator asks you questions so Veeder Health can evaluate whether they want to have you report to Veeder Health to get your medical information and examine you. I know what most of you think that your health information is protected by HIPPA. That’s correct but I want to clarify this. It’s true you don’t have to supply your medical information to US Steel but they have the right to deny you to return to work if they determine they need to know more about your medical condition. All this being said I’m not for a moment stating you should trust Veeder Health. Remember Veeder Health represents US Steel’s interests not yours. Don’t think they have the same interests as your personal physician. You need to know your rights when you fall into this. Under the Local Seniority Agreement the Union bargained if US Steel wants to examine you they must have a doctor available to examine you within 24 hours. They can (and have) ordered tests after they learned what medical condition someone has. This also can add time being lost from work before you are allowed to return to work. If there’s a dispute about whether your fit to return to work then the dispute language in the Program of Insurance Benefits should be followed (Sickness and Accident language).
PLMC
We had our monthly Plant Labor Management meeting last week. I’d like to report on all of what’s happening with the plant but between getting this sparse sanitized information and being bound by the confidential agreements here’s all I have. With safety Granite City is no longer leading the other plants with injuries. Of course the goal is still zero. The area with the most injuries is Iron-making followed by Steel-making and then the Hot Strip. The shining star with Safety is Cold Roll with no injuries. As you all know US Steel Granite City has hired 92 people in the last 2 months. Sometimes we tend to not focus on how dangerous this operation is. We need to watch out for these newbies and make sure they go home whole as well as set a good example by showing consistent good safety practices. Operations, Coke making is close to being 100% and we as a plant are almost coke sufficient. Our Blast furnaces are running very consistent with few operational delays. The BOF is making repairs to the precipitator to prevent environmental non-compliance’s. The first part of the month BOF production was ahead of the target but the later part of the month there were issues that kept us from meeting the goal. The Hot Strip has been having issues with slab furnace roofs, which has resulted in running more turns to make our production target. There is presently a study to determine what has changed to cause these roof failures. Presently the 3G are now running coils that were processed on our Cold Mill and Pickle Line. The line is now running full. The Co Gen is not at full output (electrical) due to Sun Coke not giving us enough Steam. Theses issues should be taken care of soon bringing the Kilowatt Hour output backup close to capacity. Granite City has had its second month in the black with March being better than February. I know there’s not a great amount of detail here and that is intended. I just want to summarize the meeting here but if you have further questions fell free to ask. I feel better about verbally sharing information about plant operations than putting them in writing.
Training
At our monthly training committee meeting this month we discussed the learners and 2008 bargaining issues. We will have a new group of 30 learners starting in May (15 MTM’s and 15 MTE’s). These new learners will have will have an improved training structure. These improvements came about through bargaining and we’re in the process of implementing them. One of which is improving the structure of the On the Job (OJT) training. The incoming group of Learners starting in May will have tasks to complete after their week in school to identify if the Learner understood the classroom training they just completed. Also the new learners will rotate to a different area after each class is completed. Also at bargaining US Steel agreed to build a training center here at Granite City to be used for all production and maintenance training. At this time US Steel hasn’t set aside enough money for the training center. We need to have 2 good quarters to put Money aside for new Training center. Since we’re in the process of bringing on a new group of learners that means that we’ll also be restarting the burning and welding training at the Omaha-training center. Presently there isn’t a burning and welding instructor. We have agreed to use the same process as we did for the planners/inspectors to fill that vacancy. In case you don’t remember this is a process where a bid is posted and a committee of the Union and Company interviews those who bid on the posted position to a see if they have the ability to perform the work. The bid is awarded to the senior employee with ability to perform the work (as long as ability is relatively equal). Watch for the bid if you’re interested. Another Local 68 issue is the Systems Repair test. For all those who don’t know this is the test you must pass to get the labor grade 5 and also be eligible to bid into the Control Specialist group. This is only given to qualified MTE’s. So learners won’t be able to take this test till they’re fully qualified. The issue we had here was the hands on test weren’t available at Granite City because Granite didn’t have the test apparatus. US Steel wanted to send our members to Gary for the test but getting employees up there and back was a logistics nightmare. So now in interim before we get our Training center, the test is going to be given at Ranken Technical College. Presently we have 5 members who have passed the written part of the Systems Repair test and will be offered the hands on part at Ranken on April 17th.
Grievance and Arbitration
I’m sure with all the talk in the plant your aware that the Local 68 grievance for members recalled after a layoff of greater than 90 days and given a hair follicle test for drugs and alcohol will be arbitrated April 6. The Company’s position is that they are not restricted from using a hair test as part of the return to work physical. The Unions position is that hair testing is restricted to Last Chance agreements and Urine tests are used as part of the return to work physicals after lay-offs greater than 90 days. As part of the remedy the Union has asked that all employees on LCA’s have their discipline removed along with their LCA’s. I can’t say how long it’ll take to get an answer but I’m guessing around 3 months.
We had a 2nd step meeting in March. We discussed the preferencing grievances a discipline for an absence and a vacation allotment issue (not vacation scheduling). I believe the preferencing grievances will be resolved with US Steel returning those who they moved to the Cold Strip back to their preferences. Their original position was that the preferencing only applied to the original slotting at the beginning of the year. They now agree that an employee’s preference applies all year. We didn’t have a 3rd step grievance meeting in March. There’s a number of discipline grievances stacking up which will be heard at the next 3rd step meeting. If not resolved then they go to the Mini arbitration process. Presently we have a member who is discharged and not retained at work on justice and dignity. I’m not going to go into any detail here since I have US Steel folks that read this. I will say the discharge involves a Steel-making electrical manager who has had many problems. If you haven’t had problems with him you probably haven’t worked for him.
MBFML Overtime
We’ve been discussing the overtime associated with the Contracting out MOU (the Maintenance Base Force Manning Level, MBFML for short) the last couple of months. This is work that pertains to day-to-day repair work not large new construction jobs. This agreement is suppose to reduce the contractors in the plant (which isn’t an issue here at Granite City) and bring more of the work back to the bargaining unit. With the MBFML agreement in force US Steel has the right to use contractors without first giving us notice and discussing the use of bargaining unit employees to do the work. Through our meetings we have ended up with three major disagreements.
The first issue was with overtime canvassing. Local 68 ended up with a deal breaker that we couldn’t get around. US Steel wants you to commit to 8, 16 or 20 hours for the operating areas (the Electric shop would be offered either 8 or 16 hours) two Thursdays (9 days) before the schedule week. After you turn in your slip indicating the overtime hours you’ll commit to, then they will give you a choice of the days and shifts that are available to choose from. From there we would use our overtime agreement and you would select your day/shift preference. Of course the rub is if you commit to work then realize that you need to be off on the days and shifts that US Steel has available for you to work you’ll get an absences if you don’t work and if your absence is unexcused then you’ll get discipline. In case you hadn’t noticed our new Labor Relations manager swings her hammer as often as she can. I indicated for me to sign on to this canvassing agreement it needs to allow you the option of indicating the days that you could work. Lets face it, we argue with US Steel over absences like snow days and sick days all the time (absentee issues). These types of Absences shouldn’t be an issue. Signing a canvassing agreement that makes you commit to shifts and days that US Steel specifies will only cause more grievances over absences. The way I see it, if I did sign the agreement the way they want it, hardy anybody would sign up for the MBFML overtime. Instead those who wanted to work overtime would just sign up for the overtime as indicated on the needs overtime sheet the Thursday before the schedule week. That way you would avoid getting in trouble and get an unexcused absence when you have a family event or you have to take your son or daughter to college.
Another big disagreement with the MBFML overtime is the Electric shop overtime (8 or 16 hours). This part of the agreement was meant to bring shops work being shipped outside the plant back to the bargaining unit. The Union believes these 16 hours of work that is offered is shops work as described in appendix B2. US Steel believes it’s work that they have available, whether it is in the shop or in the operating areas. In other words they don’t have an obligation to bring shops work back to the shops.
The last issue is the availability of the MBFML overtime. US Steel believes the MBFML overtime will only be offered if work is available. The Union believes that US Steel has to offer you the MBFML overtime every week unless you’re on vacation. One of the Gary Locals will arbitrate this issue May 11th.
Don’t forget the Union meeting this Wednesday.
In Solidarity,
Jeff Evans