We arrived at the Washington Hilton June 19, 2009.We arrived just at the end of the multi skilled seminar.We didn't know this was going to be going on the 19th.We will did meet with Jim Ledford a staff representative for the conference Board.We were able to get a lot of information for Ron Labarr to get our skilled trades program moving forward.Then we registered for the conference.We then went on a field trip with a bunch of our union brothers to the mall.The walk to the mall was to see the Washington Monument and the veteran’s wall.This was about 15 mile long .They were trying to kill us.
June 20, 2009
Division conference kicked off at the Washington Hilton.Very poor attendance compared to the past years.Mainly due to economy and expense for the smaller unions that just could not afford to attend.They started off with an introduction of staff.We were welcomed to the ninth annual IUE-CWA division conference by Tony Hayes.Joe Lewis gave the trustee Report. There are 71 regular delegates, 13 alternate delegates and 14 guests.Carmen DePoalo gave the division conference rules.Jim Clark was up next with a very long speech about major legislative bills involving employee free choice act, employee health care and climate change.Many updates from last year.Discuss the move from DC to Dayton as their new headquarters.This helped reduce costs for the IUE-CWA.Discuss the dues structure that IUE-CWA is now fully converted to.The local now gets 60% in international gets 40% of the dues.
There was a tremendous effort of the IUE-CWA in regards to the employee free choice act.We lead all the CWA divisions on card sign up.Went on to discuss all the political action involvement by the union for the national elections last year.They discussed the CWA reaching out to start the retirees club.He went on to discuss Delphi bankruptcy.They also talked about the worldwide recession.He then discussed the blue-green kits. Very long discussion on the blue-green jobs.He started a green job steering committee.We will be taking trips on Monday and Tuesday on the blue-green jobs initiative.He then went on to discuss lean and high-performance manufacturing initiatives as tools in the fight in Jobs going to China.Then when on the talk about strategic industry fund as a tool to provide resources to more locals across the country.He then discussed skills certification for laid-off workers.They are part of the manufacturing standards Council.This is a nationally recognized certification that could bring manufacturing jobs in the IUE.July we will have a second diversity conference in Memphis, Tennessee.Also coming up will be an intensive program on organizing.Strategic industry fund money will be used to support this effort.Sign up for the CWA convention starts tomorrow.He would like to see more locals get computerized and increase communication inside the IUE-CWA.He went on to discuss how GM is now filing bankruptcy and handed the discussion over to Joe Giffey.We have a long document on this in our handouts that we will copy and put on the website.Huge issue on GM retirees.Loss of health care and benefits promised to them at retirement time.
Vice President Biden will be meeting with us on Wednesday its security concern and service people all over the hotel.
Rich Chapman will be retiring at the end of the year.
Jim Clark expressed his gratitude to everyone for all their hard work and effort in the fight with everything going on in the IUE.This is when he mentions our local was putting up a fight.
Sara Letoureau gave a very long PowerPoint presentation about the blue-green alliance and the change to work together to keep jobs in place in the US.You can see her presentation at www.bluegreenalliance.org.Please check it out is very interesting.
John Lewis read a financial report.
Bob Santamoor did the COPE awards. Then we watched videos of the new commercials coming up on the employee free choice act.We then met with the union privilege representatives discussed many options that our members are going through with their hardships.They have many programs to help with this.We sat through a lean panel done by Jerry Carney and Mark Steward.They told many stories on how to lean help their business.Mark was from Phoenix products.Jerry was from Louisville, Kentucky and told some stories about lean helping them save jobs and now creating 400 new jobs.
Peter Mitchell went over the rule changes for the division conference.We have a lot of handouts on the rule changes marked up.All changes passed unanimously.They then read a memorandum on many of our departed union officers.
He then attended a reception at the national’s ballpark which included a free dinner. This game was a 12 inning game and was almost as bad as the Yankees and the only difference was the nationals won.We had many discussions with many of our union brothers and sisters over our situation in Waterford.
Day two June 21, 2009.
We attended a mobilizing for power workshop trying to get a better handle on mobilizing our workforce for any up-and-coming issues and for next year's contract.Got a bunch of great ideas and information on how to do a better job with this.We then attended another workshop on legal clinics for our situation.This was with Peter Mitchell we had a one-on-one with them on the latest developments in Waterford.
We then went out and register for the CWA convention.We meet with some vendors and collected brochures for some of our members.We also looked over a new database called MUMS.This will be a very powerful tool for local.This will consolidate our grievances, dues and members data in one electronic program.We were very impressed with this new software from the union and are looking to move into a more long-term fix of documentation and record keeping.We signed up for a 60 day free trial and see how it is for us.This evening we attended a district 1 meeting hosted by Chris Sheldon.There was a very large attendance at this meeting.We reviewed many upcoming topics of the convention and items that we need to vote on this week.There were many awards handed out to various locals in District 1.
This is it for today stay tuned for further updates.
