JULY 2008 LABOR’S VIEWS 

Service awards to members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America for the month of July were awarded to:

        Thomas Marchetti        55 years  (retired)

        William Costello         35 years

        Stephen Voronuk         30 years

Congratulations.

We recently had two of our members successfully complete the Union Community Activist Network Training Program.   They were: John Lamay on first shift and on second shift, William Newsom.  Training was provided in the areas of child care, drug abuse, health problems, family problems, alcoholism, and other issues that our members may be dealing with.  If you need their assistance, please use one of our Union counselors.  Members who have completed the course in the past are:  Steve Adams, Paul Brie, Maria Corazzelli, Don Kniss, Mike Rourke, Paul Vine, and Trisha Grimshaw. 

Overtime in our department was zeroed out at the beginning of this month.  Each year in the months of January and July, the overtime is zeroed out.   This provides everyone who has the same qualifications to have the same opportunity to be offered overtime.  Factors which affect your total hours include no-show hours and deviated hours.  For example, SRA work at the sub base and road jobs are considered deviated hours.  I have reviewed the overtime list, and I do not believe there are any discrepancies. 

Road job:  Some of our members have returned from the road work in Newport News, VA, and others have stepped up to take their places in VA.  There are some openings which need to be filled.  If you are interested in road work, let your supervisor know.  The job is scheduled to end on August 29, and there may be a possibility that some work will be extended until November 2008.   The road job list was updated and posted.  Please check the list, and make sure that you are on it.  If you have any questions, ask your area steward or me. 

Our department recently was assigned some work installing SHT tile on the 760 boat at the sub base.  This work was originally supposed to be done by IMIA, a non-union company that has a reputation for underbidding other companies to get the work.  We have questioned some of their work practices, and we believe that some of them violate procedures.   It is impossible for us to compete with them when we are held to a higher standard.  The Union originally believed that the 760 contract at the sub base was awarded to Portsmouth, and they were the ones who vended this job out to IMIA.  After some investigation,  we learned that, indeed, this WAS Electric Boat’s work, and THEY were the ones who hired IMIA to complete that work – not Portsmouth.   The Union has been encouraging its members to support road work because we believe that that will save jobs in Groton, and now we find out that, when the Company had the opportunity to keep us working in Groton, they chose to give the work to some other company.  Unbelievable!   After we addressed this with Management, they stopped IMIA from doing the job, and they gave the work back to us.  The Union had started to develop a relationship with the Company based on mutual trust, and it is disappointing to find out that we were deceived. 

EB PHARMACY:   As of May 27, 2008, four drop boxes for prescriptions have been placed in our shipyard.  They are in the Building 88 cafeteria, the Purchasing Building, the Yard Hospital, and the Building 221 Atrium.  Pick-ups and deliveries are made on Tuesday and Fridays.  If you drop off a prescription on Tuesday, it will be delivered on Friday, and if you drop one off on Friday, it will come in on the following Tuesday.  If you need to contact the pharmacy with questions, the telephone number is 1-888-578-3457 or email ebrx@chdmeridian.com.    The convenience of dropping off your prescription at work and later picking it up there is obvious.  I encourage everyone, however, to check the cost of this prescription service against the cost of purchasing your prescription through the mail or through your neighborhood pharmacy.  I have been informed of a couple of instances when the buyer paid more to use the shipyard service than he did from a neighborhood pharmacy.