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June 2006
Bedford, IN 47421
Phone# 279-1113
Home Page
www.iue-cwalocal84907.com
LOCAL IUE/CWA REPORTS
UNION MEETING
Our next regularly scheduled Union meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 7, 2006 at the U.A.W. Hall,
1411 “H” Street, Bedford, IN.
Meeting Times:
Night Shift: 1:00 am
(TUESDAY, after work)
Day Shift: 4:00 pm
Midnight shift may attend either of the above meetings.
IN MEMORIAM
Joy Lyons
Hire in Date : September 18, 1984
Date of Death : May 10, 2006
Last worked in Dept. 317 (CVV)
Another Sister has passed away and we want to remember her friends and family in our prayers at this time. Joy lived up to her name. She was a delight and will be missed.
From the desk of the President
As you all know, Government politics affect us all in every part of our lives. This year’s November elections are critical to all working families and we all need to educate ourselves on the politicians and their actions that either help or hurt us all.
In the past three years, Indiana Legislators have attempted to take away working families’ rights and push forward corporate agendas. Even though this year is not a Presidential
election year, we still have the opportunity and responsibility to vote for
our State Legislators. The Democratic Party in Indiana needs six seats in the
Senate and 15 seats in the House to regain control.
The Republican agenda in Indiana and elsewhere have and will continue to take away workers rights. Their agenda has caused working families income to drop for five consecutive years while, at the same time, the Corporations’ productivity grew year over year. In the 2004 elections Corporations outspent Labor 24 to 1 in election contributions. This helps to explain the Government’s corporate agenda. Here in Indiana, they have tried for three consecutive years to enact a so-called “Right to Work” law. In the last session four sympathetic Republican Congressmen helped the Democratic leaders defeat this anti-worker legislation.
There has also been legislation tabled that would address Paycheck Deception, which allows employers to charge employees to use their tools, protective clothing and should you lose or wash your paycheck, the companies would be able to charge you up to $45.00 to replace your lost or destroyed check. These are just a few of the changes waiting to be enacted. They will be passed, if we don’t vote for Legislators who are sympathetic to the working families.
Here in the 8th Congressional District, representative Hostettler has only a 25% lifetime voting record for Labor. Your vote can change this. I am not asking you to just vote on party lines, but I am asking that you consider our elected officials’ voting records and hold them accountable for their indifference to working families.
David P. Baker
President
IUE-CWA Local 907
Reminders….
Vice-President Phyllis Gassaway has asked that we remind the members that whenever you go to the Guard Shack to sign for an upgrade job to be sure that you have signed the correct job posting that you actually want to bid on. All job postings are on the same clipboard, so please pay close attention. Request that the room have lights turned on in order for you to view the sheets adequately.
Also, again, please call and verify that any medical leave papers faxed to the medical department have been received and are properly filled out. This is a very important step for you to do.
And finally, please bring your Explanation of Benefits (EOB) papers in with you when you are asking Donna or Phyllis to assist you with your insurance problems. It is critical that you have this information before they can effectively assist you with your issues.
Grievance Report
The grievance report for May is as follows:
2nd Step: Three were held in May. Currently there are between 5 and 10 grievances in 2nd Step. Eight grievances were resolved.
3rd Step: No 3rd Step grievance meetings were held in May. Currently there are approximately 25 grievances in 3rd Step.
3 ½ Step: One grievance meeting was held in May. Currently there are 4 grievances in 3 ½ Step. Four grievances have been resolved.
There is one grievance pending arbitration.
AFL-CIO news
Senate passes tax cut for millionaires
The U.S. Senate approved a $70 billion tax cut package – the centerpiece of which extends President Bush’s capital gains and corporate dividend tax cuts for the rich through 2010.
The 54-44 vote was mostly along party lines, with most Democrats lining up against the tax giveaway to the wealthy and most Republicans voting for it. The May 11 vote followed the House’s approval the day before.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeny said the tax bill is “a perfect example of the Republican leadership’s upside-down priorities while working families are struggling with skyrocketing health care costs, vanishing pensions and record gas prices.”
Sweeny added; “This latest gift to the rich will add to our ballooning national debt while providing little, if any, relief to working families who are still reeling from Bush’s cuts to vital federal programs.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said: “Bush’s tax plan offers next to nothing to average Americans while giving away the store to multi-millionaires. The tax reconciliation giveaway on capital gains and dividends will do much more for ExxonMobil board members than it will do for ExxonMobil customers. Their tax plan takes the country in the wrong direction.”
The top 1 percent of taxpayers will pocket an extra $82,000 a year, while the middle 20 percent will see just an extra $20 in tax savings, according to the Urban Institute-Brooking Tax Policy Center.
Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, dubbed the latest round of tax cuts “temporary assistance to the needy rich.” Take a look at what the author of The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer says about this new welfare program for the rich in a column on TomPaine.com
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says:
“Whether one looks at the conference agreement bill from the standpoint of fiscal responsibility, of budgetary, integrity, or of fairness, the agreement is seriously flawed…..(The Bill) will increase deficits, while further widening disparities between the most well-off households and Americans of more modest means.”
Earlier this year, to help pay for the tax cuts, Congress passed and Bush signed a $40 billion spending cut package that targeted education, health and child care and other vital programs for working families.
Article written by Mike Hall, posted on the afl-cio NOW web site.
http://blog.aflcio.org/?p=674
The Indiana Worker’s Compensation Act
The law governing Indiana’s worker’s compensation cases is known as the Indiana Worker’s Compensation Act (also simply referred to as the “Act”). If you hear someone refer to the Act as a “no fault” system, this just means that questions about the employer’s fault or whether the employee was negligent do not matter in Indiana. Instead, Indiana employers have agreed to accept automatic liability for work-related injuries, as long as the employee suffers personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment. In exchange, employees are limited to the worker’s compensation benefits provided by the Act. Benefits generally include medical services and supplies, compensation for temporary disability and compensation for permanent impairment. There is no recovery for pain and suffering.
Worker’s compensation benefits are administered either by the employer’s worker’s compensation insurance carrier or through the employer, if the employer is self-insured. By law, the employer must choose one of these two options. In the end, most employers contract with a separate insurance carrier. And if a worker’s compensation insurance carrier does administer the benefits, an insurance adjuster is usually assigned to administer the work injury claim.
The Worker’s Compensation Board of Indiana
The Worker’s Compensation Board of Indiana (also referred to as “the Board” is the government agency that presides over Indiana worker’s compensation cases. They approve all worker’s compensation settlement agreements before settlement funds will be distributed, even if the parties were able to settle without having a formal hearing.
The Board includes six (6) Single Hearing Members/Judges who preside over worker’s compensation disputes between employers and employees which are not resolved outside of the court. There are also a number of administrative staff persons who carry out the day-to day operations and responsibilities of the Board, including Ombudsmen who serve as liaisons between the injured worker and the employer or worker’s compensation insurance carrier. When a Request for Assistance (Form 45442) (Appendix K) is filed with the Board, an Ombudsman will investigate the complaint. Ombudsmen make an effort to help both parties resolve their disputes without the need for a formal hearing.
Most worker’s compensation claims are indeed settled without a hearing. However, if issues arise between the employee and employer or its worker’s compensation insurance carrier and an agreement cannot be reached, then either party has the right to take the case before the Board. To do so, an Application for Adjustment of Claim (form 29109) (Appendix B) must be filed within two (2) years from the date of the employee’s injury or the last date he or she received disability pay.
Hearings in worker’s Compensation cases are informal with no jury. The Judge listens to both sides and shortly thereafter, issues a decision on the matter. If one of the parties is not happy with the Judge’s decision, he or she can file for a Full Board review within thirty (30) days of the Judge’s decision. From there, a disputed case would go to the Indiana Court of Appeals and lastly, the Indiana Supreme Court.
Delphi too broke to pay workers- but Execs get $98 million in bonuses
Top bosses at Delphi Corp. claim the company is so broke it can’t afford to pay a fair wage to union workers who make the company successful-but it does have enough money to give management $98 million in bonuses this year.
Kevin Butler, Delphi’s vice president for human relations, told a federal bankruptcy judge May 10 the bonuses likely will go to managers and salaried workers because the company is exceeding its financial projections.
Under a long-standing Delphi bonus plan, 450 Delphi executives are expected to split $38 million, which works out to an average $84,444 each. Some 14,000 salaried employees would share $60 million, or an average of $4,286 per worker. Delphi’s last offer to its 33,000 hourly employees would cut their wages from $28 an hour to $16.50 an hour by September 2007.
“It’s grossly unfair to be increasing the compensation of salaried and management while making this drastic attempt to cut the pay of hourly workers,” says Thomas Kennedy, an attorney for IUE-CWA. IUE-CWA and the UAW represent some 33,000 Delphi workers. The news of the bonuses reinforces the fact that the nation’s largest auto parts supplier is using the bankruptcy process to impose deep wage and benefit cuts the workers had already rejected during contract talks, union leaders say. Like many other companies in recent months, Delphi declared bankruptcy to renege on its collective bargaining contracts and to cut costs by squeezing pay and pensions.
The Detroit News “Auto Insider” columnist Daniel Howes puts it this way:
“Even if many of Delphi’s salaried workers and most of its executives are underpaid compared with competitors (they are) and even if they have performed well through trying times (they have), the bad optics of cutting hourly jobs and granting salaried bonuses are devastating and practically impossible to defend.”
Although Delphi executives claim the cuts are necessary to remain competitive, they refuse to give union leaders the financial records that would prove their argument. Fifty-five members of the House and 25 Senators recently wrote to Delphi CEO Robert “Steve” Miller, asking him to provide complete and current financial information to workers, retirees and communities and to explain why the company’s proposed wage and benefit cuts are necessary.
Delphi filed for bankruptcy in October and immediately began calling for concessions but failed to reach an agreement with the unions. The company’s last offer in late March also included a $50,000 bonus for accepting the concessions – if Delphi’s former owner, General Motors Corp. (GM), agrees to put up the money for the bonuses. As of yet, GM had not agreed to do that, union leaders say.
The IUE-CWA members have given their leaders authorization to call a strike if necessary, and UAW members are voting on authorization. A strike could shut down Delphi and impact production at GM, Delphi’s largest customer.
Meanwhile, Delphi continues to show its anti-union stripes. The company is advertising for replacement workers across the country to work for $10 -$14 per hour, half of what union workers make, in the event of a strike.
Article by James Parks, posted on the afl-cio NOW web site.
http://blog.aflcio.org/?p=677
