Sisters and Brothers,
Conditions in the plant, since our last meeting we have had:
3 New Hires
1 Electrician
1 Plumber
1 Test B
17 Recalls
1 Micro B
6 Micro C’s
6 Production Material C’s
4 Assembly C’s
8 TLO’s Assembly C in ECO
23 Open Reqs
5 – A’s
16 – B’s
2 – C’s
3 OSHA recordable injuries
1 Material C in Marlborough suffered a strain to their knee after sliding a box with their leg
1 Electrician in Andover suffered a strain to their knee after stepping down off a ladder.
1 Painter A in Andover suffered torn tendon in their foot due to an issue with their steel toes.
Local 1505 has had 24 recordable injuries year-to-date.
We have had quite a few staff changes since our last meeting, they are as follows:
Aaron Greene has been appointed 1st shift steward in ADC.
Richard Pillot has been appointed 3rd shift steward in ADC and Andover.
John Anderson has been appointed steward in Tewksbury.
Marcues Cordero has been appointed 1st shift Assistant Chief in Andover.
Lindsay Carter has been appointed 2nd shift Assistant Chief in Andover.
Rafael Rivera has been appointed 1st shift Assistant Chief in Andover while Melanie Rodriguez in out on maternity leave.
Open enrollment for benefits is October 16-27. Please do not ignore this. It is important that you review your options carefully. With the premium being based on your annual base wages, you may have been moved into a higher bracket due to the last general wage increase. Additionally, the deductible is going up $100 for the you only plans, and $200 for all other plans. The out-of-pocket max will remain the same. If you do nothing, your plan will stay the same as this year, but any money you contribute to your HSA will stop. If you want to continue to add money you have to fill out the form during open enrollment.
IAM Local 62A ratified a new contract with Collins-Aerospace in Connecticut this week. It is a 3-year contract with 3% wage increase each year of the contract. It also includes a tenure adjustment, $0.25 when you hit one year, $0.25 when you hit 3 years, and $0.50 when you hit 5 years. With this, 106 of their 177 members will receive an additional $1 raise on top of the 3% in the first year of the contract.
President Longtin, Chief Steward Phelps and I will be heading to the IBEW RXT Committee meeting next week. This committee includes all the IBEW Unions that represent RTX. The committee meets twice a year to discuss ongoing issues within RTX including contracts negotiations and benefits. I will keep you updated on what is going on with the other locals.
We are in the process of forming a few new committees that will meet once a month, they are as follows:
A communication committee: This will be to to discuss the age demographics of our membership and what the best way to share information quickly with everyone is. Social media seems to help, but there are so many platforms now we need to know which ones to be on.
A grievance committee: This will be to review all open grievances and give suggestions to the leadership. This committee will also review all closed grievances each month, file them away and write a report to show what the grievance was, and how it was settled. This report will go to the local’s leadership to review with all chief steward, stewards, and officers to ensure everyone is on the same page with what is happening and how to handle a situation if it arises in their area.
A woman’s committee: This will be to discuss issues that affect women in the workplace and come up with ways to handle them. For example, we are starting to see a lot of pregnant women in our membership. This committee can streamline the process of going out on maternity, help answer work related questions, and assist in making sure the work they are doing is safe for the baby.
A Metal Fab committee: This will be to discuss the ongoing changes in the department, the growing need to combine the sheet metal and machine shop classifications and be involved in what the new classifications job descriptions will be.
If you are interested in any of these committees’, please give your contact information to President Longtin at Kevin.Longtin@local1505IBEW.org
I want to thank Dave Johnson, the RENEW committee and everyone else that volunteered at the Unite for Bleeding Disorders Annual walk again this year in Canton MA. The RENEW committee has sent a team to help set up and tear down every year since 2019.
Our Annual Holiday party is scheduled for Saturday December 2nd, at the Bunting Club in Lowell, Massachusetts. Your steward will have tickets soon.
We are selling Breast Cancer T-shirts again this year will all proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. These shirts are available now on our online store.
In Solidarity,
John Bruno
IBEW, Local 1505, AFL-CIO
Business Manager
John.Bruno@local1505ibew.org
