Welcome to UAW Local 686 Unit #1

Shop Chairman’s Report


Temporary Employees- The Shop Committee has filed a policy grievance on behalf of all our temporary employees on 4/19/12 at second step grievance meeting. Here is a list of the following issues;

• Unfair Treatment- We have documented cases where we believe Local Management has not been treating temporary employees fairly. Local Management believes because you are temporary, they can treat you any way they chose to without living up to our agreements. We do have agreements for our temporary employees that once you receive 90 days, you are applicable to the local agreement provisions such as Overtime selection and Job movement.

• Unwarranted discipline or discharge- We have documented cases where we believe Local Management has unfairly given discipline or discharged employees.

• Violations of Temporary MOU- Local management has notified us that any employees hired after 1/23/12 will NOT be applicable to the MOU which means you will get no vacation time and you are not applicable to the Local Agreement. Our agreement clearly states after an employee has worked 90 days, they will become applicable to the Local Agreement. To sum this up, Local management has notified us the employees hired after 1/23/12 will have no rights and will be subject to discipline or discharge at management discretion.

• Newly Hired Employees- I have received many questions and concerns from our newly hired employees about their contractual entitlements. The entitlements were determined at a National Level and were not determined Locally. Here is a summary of the concerns;

When you became permanent, the Nationals Parties made an agreement that you would have to start you 90 days over again. That would mean you would not be considered a seniority employee until you reach 90 days. All the time you put in as a temporary employee does not count.

You will not be granted holidays, vacation, profit sharing, performance bonus lump sum, or quality bonus until you reach 90 days. Since you are now permanent, you are not applicable to the temporary employee MOU. During the benefit orientation we had a few weeks ago, we handed out charts that went into great detail on your entitlements. Copies are still available in the benefit office or UAW offices.

Contractual Break Schedules- It has been reported to me that departments are working through there breaks to get their build done early. Please remember that the National Agreement allows for 40 minutes worth of breaks for an 8 hour shift. There is absolutely no reason why someone should be working through their breaks to get done early. There are no rated jobs and there are no benefits of working through your breaks. Please contact your committeeman if you have any concerns!

3% Performance Bonus Grievance Update- There is still no resolution to the grievance filed in May 2011 regarding the payment of our 3% performance bonus. I know many of our members are frustrated about this issue and I fully understand that. The grievance has been appealed to the International UAW and has not been settled. As I get updates, I will inform the membership ASAP.

Performance Bonus Lump Sum for 2011 National Agreement- The first Performance Bonus Lump Sum of $1000 will be paid the week ending June 10, 2012 which means it will be in your paycheck June 15th. You must be a seniority employee ( have 90 days) by May 15th 2012 in order to be considered eligible.


Cafeteria update- The cafeteria is expected to be up and running in a few weeks. The cafeteria will be serving breakfast and lunch.

Insite Newsletter- We will be re-creating our Insite Newsletter this month. We used these newsletters in the past to have joint communications to the employees at the Site. This will be a joint program and will be used for such updates as scrap reviews, team concept updates, benefit updates, and community involvement. The UAW editor will be Christine Musielak. She can be reached at ext 2320 and her email is chrsitine.musielak@gmch.com. If you have something you would like us to consider printing, please contact her. We will plan on having bi-weekly issues.










In Solidarity,


Todd McNall
Shop Chairman
Toddmc9136@aol.com

On Thursday April 5th, 2012, the Shop Committee was able to reach an agreement with management to convert an additional 11 employees from temporary to permanent status. The seniority date for the effected employees will be April 16th, 2012. Since ratification of our Local Agreement, the Shop Committee has been able to negotiate an additional 40 members to be converted to permanent status. This will bring our total number of employee’s converted to permanent status to 60 since February 13th, 2012.



This month’s union meeting has been rescheduled to April 22nd, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. All are encouraged to attend.

April 3rd, 2012

Flowback Update- I have been notified that all flowback opportunities for Chevy Tonawanda that were accepted April 30th, May 14th , and May 21st have all been cancelled. Tonawanda is having a shift of volume to another GM facility that has cancelled these moves. There are no dates set for the next round of flowbacks to be called. I advise you that if you want to flowback to Tonawanda, make sure your application is in the system. In the last few weeks, the number of people Tonawanda has been asking for has changed so much its impossible to get a handle on the real needs and when the next call will be. Management will be notifying the affected employees this week. The move on April 9th is still happening. We have 20 people from our Site that have accepted the flowback. I want to wish the best of luck to our members leaving.

GM hiring Policy- GM has now issued a policy when hiring temporary employees to permanent employees. We have had an issue recently with some of the hiring practices here. However, other plants have had the same problems and now GM has an official hiring policy. The policy is NOT retroactive. It will be used moving forward. Here is some of the info;
• Conversion of temps to permanent will be completed on a “first in, first hired” basis. In the case of same date of hire, GMIN will be used in ascending order. Corporate Labor will provide a list of temps to be given job offers to DDI( testing agency). When converted to permanent status, new corporate, benefit, and plant seniority dates will apply which means your 90 days restarts all over again.

This will now stop the issue of the hiring practices in our plant.

Team Leaders- We are very close to having team leaders in all production departments. We are currently working through a way to put team leaders on in the rest of the plant where team leaders do not exist or we need more. We are hoping to have this done in the next few weeks. We are still in discussions with Skilled Trades Team leaders and should be moving forward around the same timeframe. The SWE training is still happening and is anticipated to run throughout the year. The entire site will be going through the training.

We have a holiday on Friday April 6th. On behalf of myself and Shop Committee, We want to wish everyone a Happy and safe Easter!










In Solidarity,

With the help of the International UAW and UAW Region 9, the list of names that we submitted to the corporation has been reviewed and the issue has been resolved in our favor. If you are one of the employees that were told your flow back application was invalid and submitted your name to the Shop Committee, please contact your UAW representative to check your status.

We have been informed there is a possibility that due to unforeseen circumstances, some of the GM Tonawanda Powertrain moves could be postponed/cancelled. The reason why this is happening has not been communicated to us. Since October 2011, the number of people being called and the start dates have been continuously changing. If the moves are postponed/cancelled, this will also delay more of our current temporary employees being converted to permanent. We will report any updates as we get information.




We have been informed by local management they are taking the position that the newly hired employees will have to put in a 90 day probationary period. The Shop Committee is in contact with the National parties for resolution. Until this is resolved, The Shop Committee is strongly recommending that the effected employees be extremely careful until they have reached 90 days and become seniority employees. Please be patient as we work through this issue.

There will be a benefit orientation for the newly hired employees on Tuesday March 27th in the building 7 cafeteria. The times will be as follows:

5:45 a.m.
6:45 a.m.
1:45 p.m.
2:45 p.m.
3:45 p.m.

During these meetings, we will be going into great details on your benefit package. We strongly encourage all newly hired employees to attend. This meeting will also be open to all employees but the basis of this meeting will be to discuss benefits for new hires.

The Shop Committee is happy to announce an additional 19 temporary employees have been hired as permanent employees. This will bring the total to 49 since our local agreement was ratified.




The following is an update on flow backs to Tonawanda from Lockport;
• April 9th- 20 people have accepted
• May 14th- 10 people have accepted
• May 21st- 13 offers pending

The issue regarding flow back eligibility for members that have applied from Dec 1. 2004 –
Oct 1 2007 is now at the highest level of the Union. We are in the process of submitting the final list of names of people that have come forward to get resolution on this issue. The Shop Committee has been in contact with the International UAW on a daily basis regarding this issue. We understand this is a major issue and we will keep the affected people informed as we get more information.






The following will be used to determine vacation eligibility requirements in accordance with the 2011 GM National Agreement;

• If your Dept is working FULL- All of you vacation time is now available to be scheduled
• If your Dept is working PARTIAL- Management has designated the number of employees working in each classification during the Summer Shutdown period. Management will release all hours of vacation for the number of employees designated to work in each classification on a seniority basis within the department.
• If your Dept is NOT working- Management will hold 72 hours vacation for all employees in that dept.

As you may already know, the Tonawanda Engine Plant has started accepting flow backs from our plant. We have been told that Tonawanda anticipates calling more people for flow backs in the near future. Unfortunately we do not have any solid information on when this will happen or how many people they will be taking.

Your Shop Committee has been informed by the National Employee Placement Center (NEPC) that flow back applications filed prior to December 1st, 2005 are invalid. In accordance with the 2003 UAW/Delphi National Agreement which states “To minimize congestion in the transfer system, all applications will now be purged on an annual basis, with workers being notified in writing prior to the purging”, these applications were purged. Employees must have had an active flow back application in the system between December 1st, 2005 and October 1st, 2007 in order to be eligible for a transfer to another GM facility.

If you have any concerns about your eligibility log on to uawgmjas.org and sign in with your GMID and password. You can see the date you applied for a transfer when you click the view and print applications tab. Please print your applications and bring them in if you have any questions as we need that information in order to assist you. If you do not know your GMID and/or password call the help desk at 1-888-337-2400 for assistance. You will need to have your GMIN when you call the help desk in order to receive this information.

Your Shop Committee has asked for additional information from the National Employee Placement Center, and will communicate our findings with the membership as soon as it becomes available. Please see your Committeeman or contact Kelly Sears at 439-2606 if you need further assistance.



Today General Motors has announced that the profit sharing amount for 2011 will be $7,000.00. This will be paid on March 2nd, 2011

Management has informed us they are anticipating flow backs to Chevy Tonawanda Powertrain in the near future. Starting next week, mgmt will be surveying people who have in the system for powertrain if they plan on accepting the offer. This is strictly a survey and your answer is not a binding answer. Management is doing this so they can prepare what jobs to backfill and to properly train your replacement if you accept the flowback.



We previously were given incorrect information by the National Parties regarding flowback opportunities. The following is the correction communication:

For purposes of flowbacks, if you are offered a flowback and your seniority date is before 10/18/99, you will have One (1) opportunity to accept an area hire (Tonawanda) and 3 opportunities to accept an extended area hire. If you are offered Tonawanda and you reject the offer, you will NEVER be offered again!!!
For purposes of flowbacks, if you are offered a flowback and your seniority date is after 10/18/99, you will have One (1) opportunity to accept an area hire (Tonawanda) and One (1) opportunity to accept an extended area hire. If you are offered Tonawanda and you reject the offer, you will NEVER be offered again!!!



If you are surveyed by management and have any questions, please contact any member of the Shop Committee or Kelly Sears at ext. 2606 with any questions. It is very important you are fully informed on the flowback agreements.

In response to the feedback we have received from the membership, UAW Local 686 will be conducting a second ratification vote on the proposed tentative agreement with the following changes:

• Demand G-15- Foreign car parking lot demand has been withdrawn and is no longer a part of the tentative agreement.

• Demand P-13- Shift Preference for Production Employees has been withdrawn and is no longer a part of the tentative agreement.
The remaining provisions of the proposed agreement remain intact with the above being the only changes.

There will be contract rollout sessions in the bldg 7 cafeteria on Tuesday February 7th at the following times;

6:45 a.m
1:00 p.m
2:45 p.m
3:45 p.m

The contract vote will be IN PLANT ONLY on Wednesday February 8th. The times will be;

Building 7 cafeteria and Building 8 EDS
5:00 a.m. – 2:00 a.m.

The alternates will be covering the floor on Monday and Tuesday. The committeeman will be working in their respective districts to answer any questions on the agreement.

A copy of the tentative agreement is now available on our website online at www.uawlocal686.com for you to download and review.

After our Union meeting on Sunday and meeting with General Motor's management yesturday, we have begun the process to get approval to re-vote on our tentative agreement.

The feedback we have received at the union meeting Sunday and from the shop floor is that there is a great deal of confusion between Local and National Issues.

It is critical for our membership to understand the difference between National and Local Issues if we are successful in getting a re-vote. It has been very clear that without ratification of this agreement, our site will not be in a position to successfully bid and win future programs.

Here is a summary of the identified issues;

National Issues-The following issues were either ratified with the National Agreement and the provisions are already in effect or the issues cannot be settled locally;

* Hiring of Temporary Employees
* Future Work Commitments
* Summer Shutdown (holding vacation hours for shutdown)
* Reduced Break Schedule
* 93% on Scorecard-Job Rotation
* 3% Performance Bonus Grievance

Local Issues-

* Shift Preference

If any of you have any questions, please contact your union representative with your concerns. It is important for our membership to get the correct information and avoid confusion and misinterpretation of this tentative agreement on the floor.

We will keep you informed as we work through this process.