September 2009 Labors’ Views 

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

            William Bennett 30 years

            Emery Young              30 years

            Fred Fitzpatrick            35 years

Congratulations! 

As of August 2, 2009, smoking on EB property was prohibited except during our lunch breaks.  The transition seemed to go well…..better than I expected.  I hope that the same transition happens on Sept. 12 when smoking will be prohibited on company property. 

At this month’s union meeting, we will be picking a By-law committee to address any by-law changes.   If anyone is interested, please attend the Sept. 10 Union meeting in order to be chosen for the committee. 

We will be polling for the NSSF jobs at the sub base.   The positions will be chosen by seniority by shifts.  If anyone is interested, you’ll need to inform your area steward or boss.  

The Company recently held an  informational meeting to discuss the aspects of the new insurance policy with stewards and union officials.  Our local Union officials and most of our stewards were unable to attend because that was the same day as our Executive board meeting and our Union meeting.  I was informed by those who attended that they had a concern  about the fact the Company scheduled an hour for the meetings for employees, and that would probably not be enough time since the meeting which they attended ran an hour and a half.  Some people expressed to me that some of the information was rushed, and they didn’t have the opportunity to ask questions.  I am hoping that the Company takes this into consideration and allows more time for these meetings.  It is very important that all of us have all of the information we need about this new insurance.  The wrong decision can be very costly for our membership.  Sessions which spouses can attend are supposed to be scheduled, but I have not been informed of those dates or times yet. 

Road work:   Last month there was a request from Newport News for 29 carpenters to support staging work.  A  polling was done, and we had a total of 42 carpenters who were willing to go.  Fourteen of those carpenters were not staging qualified.   What would happen in the past is that if there was enough time to train these people for that work, they would get trained, and they would be allowed to go.  This time, the Company decided that they had enough carpenters to support that work who were already trained.  For that reason, they declined to train those fourteen carpenters.  The Company claimed that there was no money left in the budget for training.  Then, we were informed by Newport News that they only needed ten carpenters instead of twenty-nine.   The end result was that only two carpenters who wanted to go and weren’t qualified were skipped over.  What happens now is….anyone who said “yes” to go but wasn’t qualified will stay at the top of the list.  In addition, any carpenter who said “no” to support this work and was not qualified for stage building will also be left at the top of the list.  The only ones who will be rotated at the end of the list will be carpenters who are staging qualified who said “no.”   Confusing, huh?  Any questions, please call me. 

The Local has ordered more Tee shirts.  This time we ordered blue.  If you are interested in purchasing one for $14, please let your steward or me know. 

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