Reminders
April 10, 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
New shirts are in!! We have 3 new shirts that are now available to order. Please return order forms to your shop stewards as soon as possible. The shirts will be $10 each.
All money is due at the time of placing your order. Please show your solidarity with UAW Local 1069 by purchasing a shirt.
Special thanks to the Communications Committee (Doug Williamson, Jon Troisi, Kieran Kelly, Joe Anthony, Jason Bonaquisti, Jim Rugh, Anthony Brysiak and Chris Ciampi) for their hard work with creating the shirts.
There will be a coaches meeting on Sunday, April 22, 2012 after the General Membership meeting for all those that signed up to coach in the UAW Local 1069 softball tournament.
The 3rd Annual Tom Blythe Memorial Bike Run and Silent Auction Raffle will be held on June 2, 2012 at Walt’s Red Rose Café. Proceeds will benefit John Kenny and a donation will be made to Taylor Hospital in Tom Blythe’s name. Cost is $20 for rider, $30 for rider and passenger. Please see the other side of this Chopper for more information.
April 15-30 is Shift Preference time. Don’t forget to put your slips in if interested in moving to another shift. Please see your managers, shop stewards or committeemen regarding new paper and online shift preference forms.
Just a reminder, that if you have any legal issues, we have legal services available to our membership. Please contact the hall at 610-876-6217 to set up an appointment.
Visit our new Facebook page at facebook.com/uaw1069 for pictures, events, monthly meeting reminders and all other information that has to do with our union.
The General Membership meeting will be held on
Sunday, April 22, 2012. We hope to see you there!
In Solidarity,
Christopher Owens, President
UAW Local 1069
Upcoming Events and Information
March 23, 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Tom Fricano Scholarship Forms for 2012 are now available at the hall and also on the UAW Region 9 website http://region9.uaw.org . The deadline for the application is July 16, 2012.
Don’t forget our monthly membership meeting this Sunday March 25th at 10AM at the Union Hall. We hope to see you there!
The Women’s Committee would like to invite all UAW Local 1069 members to attend our next meeting on Sunday, March 25th, following the general membership meeting.
We would love to hear your input on the upcoming events we are currently planning for this spring and summer. We have some great ideas and we know you do too, so let’s put them all together and come up with some fun events for us and our families.
At this time we have already purchased personal items to give to the women of an abuse shelter in Philadelphia for Mother’s Day. We are also looking to do more fun things with our own members and families starting with an Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday, April 1st at 2PM at the 1069 hall.
Again, your commitment and support will help our Women’s Committee “BLOOM”.
LET’S MAKE A DIFFERENCE TOGETHER!
In Solidarity,
Christopher Owens, President
UAW Local 1069
Stay United
February 24, 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I want to start off by saying thanks to our membership for standing together this week as we make our voices heard on the offload issue and the continued unfair treatment of our members. It is important that we do not keep quiet on this until we can be sure that the work will stay here and our issues are heard. Be assured that we will continue to fight this battle as one union together. The future is at stake for every member and we must Stand United.
I’m sure by now all of you have seen the Company’s response to our issues. If capacity is the only issue, then once again send our Local 1069 members down to Summit to do the work, the same way our members were sent to our Wilmington facility for years. And oh by the way, why aren’t we using Wilmington anymore? Is it because our company helped pay for the new Hanger at Summit Aviation?
Recently the company ran a list for Instrumentation. We have successfully had the company pull back the list and run it over again. Remember it is always our contention that seniority prevail. We will always fight vigilantly for these lists to be run, per our collective bargaining agreement. Thanks again for all your support!
Don’t forget that if you have any legal issues, we have legal services available to our membership. Please contact the hall at 610-876-6217 if you would like to make an appointment.
Reminder, our monthly membership meeting is this Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 10AM at the Union Hall.
UAW LOCAL 1069 STANDS UNITED!
In Solidarity,
Christopher Owens, President
UAW Local 1069
Time to Take a Stand
Keep Our Work Here
Brothers and Sisters,
Make no mistake about it; it is time for all of us to speak out (e-mail or call the company leadership). This company, after making commitments to us not to offload anymore of our work has reneged again. More ships going down to Summit Aviation for flight testing. Work from tooling being off loaded, small tool repair is out of here and we are being nickeled and dimed with outsourcing in V-22. When does it stop? If we don’t speak out now, it won’t! We need to fight vigorously against anymore offload of our work.
I personally find it insulting to our membership that, because of poor performance by vendors, we continue to be blamed for scheduling and workmanship issues. Our members are now repairing their own tools because the small tool repair vendor can’t. How can they bid on work they either can’t do or deliver on time? It is absolutely mind boggling that these vendors can perform so poorly and continue to do our work. Year after year, we make cost and schedule in spite of these obstacles. Where is their so-called commitment to cost, quality and schedule? Ask them who is going to do our flight test work at Summit. Is the integrity of the ship at risk?
In addition, you also need to question what is going on when you have senior managers going out on to the floor and falsely accusing our members of trivial BS, such as swearing, being in the bathroom to long etc. They have gone so far as to tell our members not to talk to each other. What the Hell is this, grade school? I say no! We are the real Men and Woman of UAW Local 1069 and we expect and demand to be treated with dignity and respect.
Enough is Enough and we must Stand Together and voice our displeasure. Show them we can not be bought with out of seniority pay letters, doughnuts, pretzels, mugs, Phillies tickets, t-shirts etc. Management will tell you not to call the Union, to call them instead. Don’t Bite! This is their way of trying to divide our Union. Always call your Local 1069 Stewards and Committeemen.
I say to the Company, it is time for you to make a commitment to UAW Local 1069 and the Delaware Valley region. Keep our work here and begin to bring back work from vendors who have proven they can not perform. We have all seen the recent demise of Conoco and Sunoco. Let’s grow this region through tough times together; it is yours, and our, responsibility.
We can only fight these battles United. Our retired Local 1069 members sacrificed and fought for us and now we need to do the same for our future. To quote my good friend JP, “ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL”. At the end of the day we are, and must continue to be, the proudest Local membership in the country. Always have each other’s back and remember at UAW Local 1069 “WE TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN”. Thanks for all your support.
In Solidarity,
Christopher Owens, President
UAW Local 1069
KEEP OUR WORK HERE!
Brothers and Sisters,
Recently, the Company has come to your leadership to, reveal plans to offload more of our work. Following their “commitment” to this Local last year that they would not offload any more Flight Test work, they announced that they will be sending the 2 Canadian CH-47 Chinooks down to Summit Aviation for flight testing.
For those of you not familiar with the situation, Summit is a non-union aircraft company in Delaware that has been on the receiving end of Boeing’s offloaded work over many years. Boeing moved 6 Netherlands (RNLAF) CH-47 Chinooks that were to be flight tested here down to Summit for flight testing. Company management alleged that they were at “full capacity” at our Ridley Park Flight Test, thus the need for the move. Now, this year, they are once more at “full capacity”, necessitating moving more Flight Test work, the 2 Canadian CH-47s, to Summit.
In order to fulfill our membership’s commitment to provide the world’s best, and safest, rotorcraft, your leadership offered to have Local 1069 Flight Test personnel make a Field Trip to Summit to complete their work. We are all familiar with the practice of sending our mechanics and technicians to remote sites to provide the same level of performance as found at our plant. Unfortunately, Company management commented “that they could not spare anyone (Flight Test personnel)” to go to Summit. I raised the question of how in the hell do we bring personnel down from 79 to 67 heads in Flight Test at a rate of 3 ships a month, and then expect to get 5 ships a month out in 2012? The answer was right in front of the Company’s face; Impossible! It seems that they didn’t forecast their manpower needs very well for 2012. We’re taking that excuse at face value, but there is no way we can confirm that as the case. This scenario may have been their plan all along.
With that thought in mind, your leadership, and our membership, has to wonder about the Company’s future plans for Flight Test at this facility. We are fighting at every opportunity to stop every single instance of offloading by the company, but this situation is especially troubling. If we lose more Flight Test work, there will be less for our World Class mechanics to do. As they move on or retire, will the Company replace those members? Will their knowledge be lost? Once that knowledge is lost, Flight Test work could never be performed here again.
The Boeing Company has been a mainstay in this area for many years. Through those years, the Company has received many different types of inducements to keep this plant open and prospering. National, State, County, and local government officials, as well as the leadership and membership of UAW Local 1069, all contributed their pledges to support this site. With those incentives allowing our plant to prosper, the Company has a commitment, if not a duty, to keep this plant open and grow the work here in Delaware County.
Read the Company’s own announcements. This plant, and the membership of our Local, has been the backbone of the Chinook program for 50 years. We can’t have it whittled down to nothing by callous Company planning. We need to Stand United in the face of these repeated attempts to take our work away!
In Solidarity,
Christopher Owens, President
UAW Local 1069
