International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
7418 6th Street, Burnaby, B.C. V3N 3L6   Tel: (604) 522-3991 Fax: (604) 522-7844

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This new contract contains No Concessions.

Finally, the Company has renewed its commitment to attempt to maintain a no-layoff policy over the life of this agreement. While this is certainly not a guarantee of job security, the Company over the past contract made a similar commitment, did not lay off any permanent employees, and managed to keep everyone working. In our view, the Company’s intent to make reasonable efforts toward maintaining full employment during the term of this contract is an invaluable contribution in and of itself.

In view of the many sweeping changes that have been recently announced regarding the trucking industry in general (especially the Volvo and Komatsu announcements), and how these changes may impact DDABC, we feel this is an excellent settlement. On this basis, your Machinists-Teamsters joint bargaining committee is unanimously  recommending this agreement for ratification by the membership at Detroit Diesel Allison. We thank you for your ongoing support, and look forward to discussing it with you.

On behalf of your Machinists-Teamsters Bargaining Committee:
 

Stan Pickthall                   Mike Levinson
Bob Garrity                      Derek Bell
Ron Abrahams
Wayne Thage

(The atached is an open letter to all Finning Union members)

November 28, 2000

Finning Ltd.
Shop Stewards
All BC and Alberta Branches

Attention: All Bargaining Unit Members

Sisters and Brothers:

On October 19th, your Union Reps in B.C. and Alberta sent out a letter advising that Finning had told us about their plans to become involved in a business tentatively called The Cat Rental Store. They would be attempting with this business to compete with United Rentals, Hertz rentals, and Certified Rentals. At that time, we told Finning that we intended that any such business must be included as part of the overall Collective Agreements under which our members in both Provinces work. Finning said they would get back to us.

On Thursday last week, Finning advised us that they intend to proceed into this rental business with up to eight stores within the next year - four in each Province. They reiterated their plans for The Cat Rental Store, and also advised that it is their intent that this business should be run as a strictly non-Union enterprise. For obvious reasons, the Union strenuously objected to any such notion. We told Finning that it was our view that the Rentals business would cut into the existing work that is performed by our Union members, and that we were not prepared to stand by and allow them to carve away jobs without a fight.

Finning states that the Cat equipment in such stores would only comprise about 10% of the overall product lines carried by these stores and, in any event, they were only talking about 120HP machines and down. Basically, this is Building Construction Product (BCP) and Compact Construction Product (CCP). Indeed, Finning claims there will be an increase in the amount of work done by Finning employees in dealer prep and warranty work on the machines sold into the Rentals business. We asked them to assure us there would be no impact on our members working in our existing Finning Rental Divisions, and they would not provide any such assurance.

Your Union committee told the Company that our members are tired of Finning trying to side-step our Collective Agreements. Our members are tired of downsizing, they are tired of Branch closures, and they are sick and tired of Finning rhetoric that says they are the Company’s most valuable asset while at the same time the Company tries to do the job without them. We told them that we have had enough of meetings where they feed us the same tired lines about partnership and cooperation, then come out with an agenda that threatens the livelihood of our members, and attempts to put them out of a job.

We told Finning if this was the way they intended to proceed, then we will take them on. In our view, they have declared war on their own employees, by telling them that they wanted to do business in Canada without them.

Finning then proceeded to table a second letter that outlined their demands for what The Cat Rentals Store business must look like if it were to be a Union shop. Basically, they propose a separate Certification and a separate Collective Agreement in each Province (we had proposed that the stores should be represented under our present Contracts, with Letters of Understanding to modify specific terms and conditions where necessary). The terms and conditions they are seeking include: major concessions to rates of pay (pay structure flexibility and performance-based merit increases), stats and vacations concessions, a grievance dispute resolution process that comes to a conclusion before an internal board of co-workers, layoff based upon performance rather than seniority, and several other goodies. Finally, they told us that this was not a negotiating position, but a firm proposal. Their final offer.

Frankly, their proposal looks like an employer’s ideal agreement: do whatever you want, with the endorsement of the Union. We told them we would get back to them, and left for a quick Union caucus. It didn’t take long.

So our answer, Finning, in case you happen to be reading this (and we know you are), is unequivocally “No”. The Machinists Union is not prepared to sign off on an agreement that sets Labour Relations back fifty years. We are not prepared to sell our members jobs off on a document such as the one you tabled, and we are not prepared to sell down the river our potential members who will be working in your proposed Cat Rental Stores. For forty years, we have had a good working relationship with this Company; but it seems now that this Company no longer wishes to maintain that relationship.

So we are going to be fighting the Company at every step as they begin to open their rental stores, and we are going to be seeking your support. We will stand in their way in every way legally possible, including a common employer challenge at our respective Labour Relations Boards. We remain open to negotiations with the Company on this matter, but there must be a genuine interest in resolving the problem. Tabling a unilateral document as their final position on the matter just doesn’t cut it.

We are asking all of our members in both Provinces for their Rock Solid support in these struggles, and we look forward to meeting these challenges head on with all of you solidly behind us. We thank you in advance for this support.

On another note, in B.C., the Machinists Union is today filing a successorship application seeking to have Weldco Beales declared as the successor employer to Finning’s Branch 42 Manufacturing Division (the Fab Shop), which closed down October 4th. This arises after we discovered that Weldco is building cabs, buckets, and other Finning products formerly built by our members in the Fab Shop.

When it was closed down, the Union was told that Weldco was the successful bidder on purchasing the manufacturing business, and were told that the product was to be built in Alberta. When we asked Finning recently about what Weldco is building in Langley, we were advised that Finning knew nothing about this. We will let you know how this all turns out when we have more news.

If you have any comments or questions about this letter, please contact one of the undersigned Representatives. Thanks again for your support.

Stay Rock Solid! On behalf of your IAM Committee,

Brian Brown
Directing Business Representative
District 250

Bob MacKinnon
Directing Business Representative
Local 99

Neil Rudiger
Executive Council Member
Local 99

Stan Pickthall
Business Representative
District 250

Convention 2000 Opens Business

Sept. 9, 2000 - San Francisco --  Delegates from six Local Lodges represented by District 250 are in attendance at this week's Grand Lodge Convention in San Francisco. With a total of 13 delegates out of Northwest District 250, we have a good balanced representation. About half of these delegates are attending their first convention. (See District 250 Convention Page.)

   After several months of heavy rumours, including a couple of days in June and July when Company shares halted trading due to the rumours flying around, Western Star Trucks has officially announced an agreement to sell the Company to Freightliner. Freightliner, operated out of offices in Portland, Oregon, is a subsidiary of Daimler-Chrysler, and leads the heavy-duty truck manufacturing industry with over 30% of the market.

   The deal to purchase Western Star is to be finalized this fall, following legal compliance with Federal (Canadian, U.S., and Australian) regulations and a vote at the general shareholders meeting in September.

   But work will continue as usual for Union members at the Kelowna-based manufacturing plant. Indeed, Union Representatives have been advised that Freightliner intends to increase capacity as soon as possible. With three hundred Union members presently on layoff, this comes as very good news indeed. However, the Company has no immediate plans for recall of laid of employees; with the present truck manufacturing market being very soft, more class eight truck sales are needed before the employment picture will improve in Kelowna.

   As an aside, it is interesting to note that during the present slowdown in North American truck sales, Freightliner has not laid off any of their 21,000 employees. By contrast, all of their competitors, including Kenworth, Mack, and Western Star have downsized their work forces.

   Business Reps Gary Blanke and Stan Pickthall met with Human Resources representatives of Western Star and Freightliner on July 20th, to discuss Freightliner’s plans for the Western Star plant. The primary question was what the future held for our members; Freightliner Human Resources Director Scott Evitt said that the Company plans on staying in Kelowna, and to expand production. This is good news for IAM members at Western Star, and for the many support companies working in the greater Kelowna community.

   Evitt stated their plans very simply: “Freightliner is buying Western Star so that we can make money – Western Star is a quality product that has a lot of customer loyalty behind it. That means we can sell trucks, which is good for the Company, and good for the employees.”

   Evitt advised that Freightliner plans to increase capacity at the Kelowna plant and that the Company ultimately hopes to operate the production line on two shifts (at present the production line only runs on day shift). However, Evitt also said that plans to expand to a new plant in Winfield are on hold at this time. As many of you will recall, the Provincial government invested $60 million in Western Star shares last year, in exchange for which Western Star agreed to invest in a new facility in the Kelowna area. However, under the proposed deal, the Provincial governments shares will be purchased by Freightliner, with the government earning $25 million on their investment.

   The announcement of Freightliner’s purchase, made on July 19th, ended speculation that had been going on since early June that Freightliner and Western Star were in negotiations over a pending sale. The offer by Freightliner will see the Company sold at $42 per share for a total purchase price of $670 million.

   The Union looks forward to working with the new Company, and hopes to see new growth as a result of the pending sale.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 20, 2000

Union members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers employed by Canadian Tire in Nanaimo served their employer with 72 hour notice of intent to commence Strike Action, and are now in a legal position to conduct a strike. The notice, served April 12th, followed five months of bargaining meetings that have failed to garner an agreement.

The 15 employees represented by the Machinists Union are employed in Canadian Tire’s Automotive Service Centre, and work primarily as automotive technicians, installers, and service advisors. The Union was certified to represent them in October 1999, and has been bargaining with Canadian Tire for a fair Collective Agreement since November.

The employees conducted a secret ballot strike vote on March 2, 2000 – this vote gained 100% support of the Union’s membership. Since then, the Union entered into mediation with the employer, and had several meetings at the Labour Relations Board, chaired by mediator Debbie Cameron. When the employer refused to move forward on a number of key Union proposals, Union negotiator Al Cyr served the Strike Notice.

Says Cyr: “We have several key proposals that the employer has refused to negotiate over. These include seniority recall rights, management rights, technological change, and reinstatement of Health and Welfare benefits that were removed from the employees prior to the Union’s involvement with this group.”

Cyr adds that one of the main problems in this negotiation has been the employer’s unwillingness to come to the bargaining table and negotiate with his employees. The Company’s negotiator does not have authority to make a decision, and very few decisions have been made at the bargaining table. Cyr suspects that Canadian Tire corporate is pulling the strings. As a result, the employees are becoming frustrated with the amount of stalling that has gone on.

“The employees are merely exercising their legal rights to join and form a Union within the workplace. It is time for Canadian Tire’s corporate office in Ontario to recognize this and allow the local people to bargain their own agreement.” Says Cyr.

Strike action is not planned at this time, and the employees hope they do not have to inconvenience their customers. However, unless an agreement can be reached soon, they may have little other choice. If job action becomes necessary, we look forward to the full support of the community in bringing the situation to a quick resolution.

Says Cyr: “I learned this afternoon (April 20) that a further meeting with mediator Debbie Cameron is scheduled for Tuesday morning. If the Company will come to the table and negotiate a fair collective agreement for their employees, then strike will not become necessary.”

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Contact:

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Northwest District 250
Attention: Al Cyr

Tel: (604) 522-3991
Fax: (604) 522-7844
Cell: (604) 308-1036