LOCAL UNION 4974
P.O. BOX 414
ISHPEMING, MI. 49849
WEB SITE: WWW.LOCAL4974.ORG
E-MAIL: LOCAL4974@AOL.COM
PHONE: ISHPEMING OFFICE 906-486-6929 TILDEN MINE OFFICE 906-475-3524 FAX: 906-486-4091
Membership Update - February 27, 2009
Timeline of Events:
November 4th, 2008 First WARN notice issued projecting 351 hourly Employees will be going to layoff on or about January 10th, 2009.
January 5th, 2009 Second WARN notice issued projecting an additional 72 hourly Employees will be going to layoff on or about March 14th, 2009.
January 10th, 2009 Result of the first WARN notice, 339 Employees go to layoff.
January 21st, 2009 Union successfully negotiates an agreement with the company providing for an enhanced retirement option and voluntary layoffs with Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) pay. The positions vacated by these retirements would then be filled by promoting from within and/or permanently recalling employees from layoff. Those positions vacated by the individuals electing a voluntary layoff would be filled by recalling employees to these positions as temporary recalls. This agreement also provided for an additional 20 Plant Repairmen and Welders to be recalled on a 32 hour work week on a special projects crew and a structural steel crew.
February 6th, 2009 50 members elected to retire under the enhanced option and go to voluntary layoff with SUB pay until the date of their retirement.
February 6th, 2009 37 active employees elect the voluntary layoff option for 20 weeks and an additional 3 employees elected to take only the first 10 weeks.
February 8th, 2009 64 employees are recalled and/or transferred of to fill various permanent positions.
February 8th, 2009 53 employees are recalled to fill various temporary positions.
February 8th, 2009 20 additional maintenance Employees are recalled to fill the 32 hour work week crews.
February 23rd, 2009 12 additional Plant Repairmen and Welders are recalled to the 32 hour work week. This in turn promoted 12 Employees from these crews to a 40 hour work week.
March 14th, 2009 Current predictions are that the layoffs projected in the second WARN notice and slated to take affect on or after March 14th, 2009 will be substantially reduced from the initial estimate of 72 Employee. This is a direct result of the number of Employees electing the enhanced retirements and voluntary layoffs. Management is currently reviewing and determining final numbers.
April 19th, 2009 The second ten week period of voluntary layoffs provided by the January 21st agreement will begin. It is projected that the total number of Employees on voluntary layoff will rise to about 95 Employees for this period. This in turn will trigger another recall of employees to temporarily fill these positions. Management has not yet produced the final list of Employees eligible for this voluntary layoff.
Current Status of Recall:
The bullet points below list the seniority date of Employees remaining on involuntary layoff status, by group.
Group One Cut-off Line – September 26th, 2005.
This is directly tied to the most junior employee currently at work in a Group One Job.
Please refer to the listing of Group One jobs in the 2004 Basic Labor Agreement at page 306 to see these particular positions.
Currently there are approximately 164 General Laborers, 19 Maintenance Helpers, 20 Pellet Plant Utility people, whose seniority date is below this Group One Cut – off and remain on layoff.
Plant Repairman - Cut-off Line – September 17th, 2007.
Approximately 27 Repairmen below this date remain on layoff.
Welder – Cut-off Line - October 15th, 2007.
Approximately 4 Welders below this date on layoff.
Additional Recalls – Announced 2/27/09
An additional 50 Employees are being recalled for a period of five weeks to work the major repair scheduled to start March15th on Unit 4 of the Empire Mine. This group will consist of 25 Craft Employees and 25 General Laborers. Those Employees currently working on the 32 hour crews will work 40 hours per week for this five week period. This recall was negotiated by the USW Local 4950 contracting out committee. This could have further positive effects on the projections stated above for those slated for the March layoffs.
Status of Job Postings
There have been job postings at the Mines to fill permanent position vacated as a result of the retirements as well as positions opened by people advancing into these positions. Those members out on layoff although not eligible to post for jobs will be considered for all position not filled from within the workforce. The agreement of January 21st, 2009 stipulates that those members on layoff would be considered prior to hiring new Employees.
Current Status of Shift and Area:
The Local Unions are still waiting for Management to produce the applicable Shift and Area forms for the Classifications and Groups that are affected under our current agreement. While we have not been officially notified by Management of their intent, we suspect they intend to eliminate many of the “Areas” that have typically been defined by the parties at the Tilden Mine. If this happens it will be a violation of the established Local Working Condition and the intent of the negotiated Shift and Area Agreement. The Local Union will file grievances relating to what would be a unilateral change by Management.
Current Status of Vacation Scheduling:
As of today no meetings have been scheduled on 2009 vacation allotments in the various departments. While all employees are able to sign for vacation at any time during the first three months of the year, members are reminded they should notify their department scheduler (in most cases Julie Mathews) seven days in advance for Weekly and Daily vacations in order to eliminate any issue of timeliness on their request.
Unfortunately in most departments accurate vacation liabilities will not be available until individual assignments from the Shift and Area moves take place. Also, the Local Unions have yet to receive official written notification from Management that they intend to have a two week Vacation Shutdown starting the last week of June 2009.
Lean Management – Salaried to Hourly Headcount
The ratio of hourly - vs. - salary employees has been contractually agreed to in Appendix DD: Corporate Guarantee, Section D: Lean Management, Page 283 of the 2004 BLA. This language was renewed unchanged in the 2008 round of negotiations.
The Local Unions made several requests of Management regarding their plan to deal with what we believe is an unrealistic ratio of Hourly to Salaried employees based on the ratios outlined in the BLA. After receiving no response to our request the Local Unions filed a range wide grievance relating to the requests for information on headcount. Management responded to this grievance by informing the Locals it believed the subject was outside the authority of the Local Unions and would refuse to process the grievance. Based on this the Locals have referred the issue to the Chairman of Iron Ore Bargaining for processing of the issue. We have since been notified that USW International Vice-President, Tom Conway and Cliffs Natural Resources, Head of Human Resources, William Brake will be addressing this issue for the parties involved.
Disputes regarding this provision are addressed in Section F: General Provisions, Page 285.
Fourth Quarter 2008 Profit Sharing
The profit sharing payout for the fourth (4th) quarter of 2008 will be distributed within fifteen (15) days following the date of public release of Cliff’s annual audited financial statement. The annual audited financial statement (SEC Filing - Cliff’s 10-K form) is normally completed and released sometime in late February or early March, although it was as late as the end of May in 2007. The news release of February 25, 2009 stating the “Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. Forth-Quarter and Full-Year 2008 Results” is an un-audited financial statement. Management has projected the audited 10-K form to be out soon. Until this audited version is released, we most likely will not know anything accurate as to the profit sharing payout for the fourth (4th) quarter of 2008. Although the numbers released in the un-audited report would indicate some amount of payment should be expected.
Cost Performance Bonus Payout – Makeup
The makeup payment for the cost performance bonus plan has been processed and mailed. This is a true up to the plan minimum of $0.36 per hour for the first nine months of 2008. Do not mistakenly think this is the new profit sharing plan. This plan was replaced by our new profit sharing plan in the 2008 round of negotiation.
Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB)
While the Local Union regrets that information initially provided on the rate of sub pay was not accurate and may have caused confusion or anger at the leadership and negotiators of the agreements. We need to keep in perspective that a significant increase in the amount of this weekly benefit did occur. The SUB pay received by this membership while on unemployment is paid from a fund of money that has been deferred from our wage and benefit package to assist those on layoff in difficult times such as these.
We ask that all members be aware that this is not a gratuity to our negotiated wage and benefit package; it is part of our negotiated wage and benefit package. Do not mistakenly think this is any kind of governmental or company gratuity. The United Steelworkers and the Local Unions negotiated these SUB funds into labor agreements years ago while many who are now receiving the benefit were nothing but a gleam in their father’s eye.
Notice of certain benefits unemployed workers may be eligible for under the economic stimulus package
Extra $25.00 per week in Unemployment Benefits.
Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) an additional 33 weeks of unemployment.
Partial suspension of federal income tax, the first $2400.00 in unemployment benefits for tax year 2009 will not be subject to federal taxes.
For All Updates and More Go To: WWW.Local4974.org