PRESIDENT ARTURO FRIAS323-236-0577artfrias@uwua.net SEC-TREASURER NANCY LOGAN323-717-5526nancylogan@uwua132.org BUSINESS AGENT MILTON DAVIS323-314-4631miltondavis@uwua132.org REGION OFFICERSClick Here for Listing! ********Oppose Corporate GREED!Click Here: www.stopthesocalgasripoff.net
To All Shop Stewards and Activists: All-Union Shop Stewards Meeting on January 8th to prepare for Strike Action
As a result of the Company’s continued time wasting and other unfair tactics at the bargaining table, increasing numbers of members have been demanding to know why we are not shutting the Company down. We now feel we have no choice. The Company’s most recent “Last, Best and Final” offer continues in the same line as previous Company rip-off proposals aimed at undermining our wages, our pensions, our post-retirement medical, our sick-time and the strength, unity and power of our union. While we are not yet willing to telegraph to the Company the exact date of any strike action, we are putting all the pieces into place right now, including doing the internal organizing that is necessary to bring out 5,000 members in two unions and seven locals. Recently at Alhambra base, a lead organizer announced that we are planning a strike and the base erupted in applause and desk pounding!
That is why we are bringing all stewards together on January 8 th . We want to hear views from all shop stewards and activists (regardless of Union/Local), of how best to organize the upcoming strike and the follow-up that will be necessary.
The meeting will be held at 1 pm until no later than 4 pm at the Whittier Radisson, 7230 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier CA, 90602. We will pay mileage if you carpool and parking is free.
You became a shop steward to help the membership and help protect them when the Company attacks us and our families. That is exactly the situation today. The Company wants to drastically cut in one attempt what took us decades to win. Your members need you now more than ever. I look forward to seeing each and every one of you on January 8 th . Stay together, stay strong. We can only lose if we quit, and I don’t believe any of our stewards or activists are quitters.
This (Great You-Tube) documents one of 5 actions taken by Union workers of So Cal Gas. This Gas Co Tower action was hit hard by rain which hampered turn out but we hung in there, UWUA Local 132 President Art Frias * State Senator Kevin DeLeon * City Councilman Richard Alarcon * Maria Elena Durazo * Carl Wood * Kim Farwell joined us And spoke (99%) against Corporate Greed
I wanted to congratulate all those who have ignored the insulting and demeaning efforts of the Company to brow beat our members into accepting their takeaway bonanza.First, you came out on a Sunday and voted in numbers never seen before to authorize a strike.Then you voted down the Company’s outrageous “Last Best and Final” package by more than 6 to 1.And now, as you have seen in the United Action, members in Redlands HQ, San Luis Obispo, Monterey Park HQ, San Pedro, Murrieta, 182nd St., San Dimas HQ, Palm Desert and a host of other locations across the system are “stickering-up” and taking it to the streets with picket signs and banners.
The Company is trying desperately to take money away from us both now and in the future, and undermine the Union we and those who went before have built to protect us.In their latest act of desperation, despite allowing us to wear uniforms in the course of our everyday lives, and despite a past practice of picketing in uniform during other periods without a contract, the Company is desperate to stop the picketing by threatening members for wearing their uniforms while picketing or even trying to prevent some of us wearing stickers at all.They want to put their hands in our pockets and now they want to undress us.
We believe they are trying to enforce a discriminatory uniform policy which only applies to you if you are doing concerted activity with other members; but we are sure we have met our legal obligation by covering up their logos with jackets or t-shirts over the uniform. It is critical that you keep doing what you are doing and even do more of it.
Remember, we are escalating for an Action Day on December 15, next Thursday!We will be blocking the streets around the Tower, coming together in Anaheim, Visalia and other locations.
After the many captive audience meetings the Company had with you to try and sell you their anti-Union package. You have spoken with a loud “VOICE” against their Corporate Greed. Negotiations resume on Friday November 18th.
This week we held twenty-one Union informational meetings throughout the company. The Joint Steering Committee (JSC) has traveled to you to discuss the many takeaways that are still on the Company’s “Last, Best and Final” offer.
The Joint Steering Committee has heard your voices and has taken note of your resounding opposition to what the Company is offering in their “Last, Best and Final” package. The Union encourages you to take the time to vote and to put a big, fat “NO” on the ballot.
The Company continues to tell the Joint Steering Committee that they have heard from you and that you like their “Last, Best and Final” package. We need you to voice your response with a clear “NO” on the ballot.
The Company is conducting meetings with you on Company time—publicizing their propaganda and trying to convince you that what they have on the table is beneficial for you and your families.They claim that they don’t understand why the Union will not agree to their “Last, Best and Final” package. The Union continues to hear from you, that the Company representatives doing these presentations are uneducated on their own proposals. They are unable to answer questions and they are there, basically, reading a script given to them by their higher-ups.
The ballots were mailed to you October 27, 2011, and we encourage you to vote and mail your ballot right away. Only those ballots that are at the post office at pick-up time on November 14, 2011 will be counted. The Joint Steering Committee will be counting the ballots on November 14, 2011. We will keep you informed of the outcome. Call your Union if you have not received your ballot by Tuesday November 1, 2011. Your Union thanks you for the support and patience you have given.
Several questions have come out about the Company’s most recent bulletin which tries to show that the Cash Balance plan will give you as much money as the regular pension plan after 35 years.It’s a lie.The Company is basing it on a false assumption that the Treasury Bill interest rate on which the Cash Balance is based, will average 5% over your career.The actual interest rate over the last 30 years has been 2.9%, so the money you would get is hundreds of thousands less.
Consider that V assignment management people refuse to become regular management because they would have to take the Cash Balance plan and they know better.They refused.So should we.
In addition, it is particularly a bad deal for part time employees because instead of getting credit at retirement time for full years when they were part time and worked more than 1000 hours, they will only get a percentage of what they actually earned during those part time years. That is worth a lot less.
Don’t be fooled by Company propaganda.Vote this Turkey down!
Here's our working family agenda: Anyone who wants to work should have a job with a living wage. Workers are proud of their work and should have the chance to do it right. All workers and our families should be able to live in dignity with health care and retirement security. Every worker should enjoy the freedom to form a union and bargain collectively. Workers want to contribute to, and share in, building a world-class economy
Cervical Cancer Screenings For Union Women
The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)
has launched Cervical Cancer Prevention Works,
labor’s own cervical cancer awareness project aimed at empowering union
women to be aware of how to prevent this deadly disease. January is
Cervical Cancer month, and union members are encouraged to get informed
and get screened for cervical cancer.
Negotiations Update 2011-12-20
The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)
has launched Cervical Cancer Prevention Works,
labor’s own cervical cancer awareness project aimed at empowering union
women to be aware of how to prevent this deadly disease. January is
Cervical Cancer month, and union members are encouraged to get informed
and get screened for cervical cancer.
