Latest Updates - June 2005

Brothers and Sisters,

Just a quick update to let you know what is and has been happening over the last few weeks.

First, I'd like to congratulate Director Spikula, Brother Foisey and Brother Hawkins for the great work they did on the Ottawa Valley Railway contract. It has now been ratified by over 75% and it is a great deal with huge wage increases (10% the first year for Track Maintainers), unprecedented benefit increases and substantial work rule improvements.

Director Wilson and Assistant National Coordinator Tirelli are in Winnipeg along with Brother Hamm, negotiating the HBR and CTR contracts. This is done in a council of Unions protocol and this is the first meetings that they have had. I'll let you know more as it progresses.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I was in Toronto at Southern Ontario Service Area grievance resolution meetings for track and B&B. We addressed 32 grievances, withdrew 4 due to CROA awards subsequent to the grievance being submitted, 4 are in abeyance for two weeks while the company investigates them and 24 were resolved in favour of the grievor.

One of the resolved grievances was initiated in 1997 and had sat at Step 2 since 1998. There was no indication that anything had been done with this grievance since early 1999.

We resolved it fully to to the resolve requested in 1997 and as it is a grievance dealing with the awarding of a higher paid position, it appears to be worth more than $25,000.00 for the grievor, as well as seniority from 1997.

I had discussions today with Mike DeGiralomo, Assistant Vice President of Labour Relations, concerning the new greivance pre-step. he would like to see it utilized and believes that it could really assist in keeping the grievances at a manageable level. So do we, as it was a Union demand. Mr. DeGiralomo is going to insure that Engineering management remain receptive to this article and I would like to request that all of our membership request the grievance pre-step prior to initiating a grievance.

These pre-step meetings are held on company time, so you do not lose any wages. You are allowed (and I would strongly suggest that you have) Union representation with you and the company must have the meeting if you request it, though they cannot force you to have one if you don't want it. And remember, if the meeting does not resolve your issue, you can still submit a grievance and the 28 day clock does not begin until after the meeting. These pre-steps are a win/ win situation, and even if they do not reach a rsolve, at least the facts of the matter will be properly documented so that we ahve a better chance of winning the case in another forum.

Contracting out is still a major issue and I personally, have sent in three (3) contracting out grievances this week. I would like to thank Brothers Bill Brake and Clifford Saith of Toronto for providing the information needed for two of them. I would also like to thank all of you who sent in information on the pre-palting of ties and building of panels. I probably recieved 3 dozen e-mails on that issue alone. By getting involved and keeping the lines of communication open, we can win these issues.

We are planning a media event soon in connection with contracting out, especially when they are farming our work out of the country (the pre-plating of ties is being done by foreign workers in the United States and then they are shipped here ) while our jobs are cut and our members are on lay off.

Just because there have not been any permanent positions abolished since we became Teamsters last year, does not mean that we will be able to hold them off forever. We must be pro-active and even though there have been around 300 new hires this year, we must remember that most of these jobs are temporary and will be laid off in the winter. We must remain vigilant and keep the "contracting out" within the confines of that which is allowed by the collective agreement and absolutely no more than that. Let's show the company that even if they cannot be loyal to the employees that are loyal to them, we will be loyal to each other.

If you see any contractors on the property or hear of any plans to contract out our work, contact your Regional Director or my office immediately. Working together and unified we can, and will, win.

In July we are taking two (2) cases to CROA. One is in connection with the company denying Job Security Benefits to members holding temporary positions. Even though this issue has been fought in the past, it was settled without "Prejudice and Precedent" and so now it has reared its head again. I want to thank Brothers Keith Grandmaison and Gary Doherty for their help on this case, as well as the two dozen or so e-mails I recieved from members recounting when they recieved JS benefits in the past even though they did not hold a permanent position.

We are brigning Brother Doherty to CROA that month as a witness, and to help with the presentation of the case, as he has fought and won the issue in the past.

The other case deals with a 5 year old "failure to accomodate" issue for one of our members injured at work in Manitoba. I want to thank Directors Wilson and Brother MacDougal for their help in preparing the brief and we are bringing Brother MacDougal and the grievor to CROA, to assist as well.

There is no CROA in August, but we are lining up cases now for September and October (at least two a month, hopefully three).

I will be in BC next week to work on the Collective Agreement re write with Brothers Daniel and Kennedy and we are optimistic for getting the properly revised and clarified version out to you by September.

On a last note, the closed book exam and the level of instruction for D-cards is becoming a real issue. Not only are they affecting the positions that many of our members can hold, the company is also running into problems with qualified flagpeople fro the Wescap project. We are trying to deal with it on a number of fronts and are hoping we can reach a resolve to everyones satisfaction. Directors Helfenbein and Simcak are jointly working on this and if you have any comments or advice please contact them. I hope to have more info on this matter the next time that I write you.

Oh yeah, this weekend is lodge 205's family days in Lethbridge, Ab. If you are in the area and want to drop in, don't hesitate to contact "Big Ed" Gray at enmgray@telusplanet.net . I made a few of these parties while I was out West and I can assure you, it is a really great time with tremendous people.

Anyways, that's all for now, so take care and work safe.

In solidarity and friendship,

Bill Brehl
National Coordinator
TCRC MWED