May 20, 2011

We are in the process of redoing our web site to make it more friendly to use. All future updates will be done on the new site.

Go to www.usw5328.ca for the latest info. Sorry for any inconvenience.

We have finally begun vacation picks and we can see there are some problems in regards to the 12 hour schedule and the availability of prime time weeks, we are working with the company to resolve these issues. There is some question as to the furnace shut down...at this time it is planned to have both furnaces idled during the scheduled shutdowns so that the whole rotation is booked off.

The first of our vacation relief employees (12) began their orientation yesterday (May 4th) and we have a varied mix when it comes to age and manufacturing experience. We have what appear to be 20 year olds up to someone around 50 years of age. We wish them a successful stay here and hope they all get a chance at full time employment in the fall. Another group will be coming in next Wednesday.

We all want these fellows to be safe and we all have a job to do in helping them to stay that way. Proper training with no short cuts thrown in is the only way to go. We are counting on your help with this.

With all the people coming in it will allow us to not only take vacations but we are hoping it will allow for some training opportunities for our full time employees so that we can be prepared for any possible retirements prior to the next contract.

On May 2nd we held the first of two steward seminars for 5 of our shop stewards. This was to give them the tools they need to serve you in the mill and I want you to use them. I want these fellows to gain the experience in dealing with the management team here so that when there is a transition or us older guys leave we will have people capable of taking over. I am asking for your help. If you come to me with a problem I will be sending you to see a steward to help you, if the steward is unable to help then the Union will indeed take up your cause but as I said not before you see a shop steward. The 5 stewards that attended the school all have been given helmet safe stickers identifying them as a steward.

Below is my speech from the Health and Safety day at work. I did get an opportunity to visit Dofasco the day before to see what they do for their Health and Safety day and I was quite impressed with the array of booths and interactive displays, something we could use to enhance our day here.

"I would like to point out that today is not only the ArcelorMittal Health and Safety Day, it is also the National Day of Mourning, where we commemorate workers whose lives have been lost or injured in the workplace.

The numbers are staggering. In 2009, 939* workplace deaths were recorded in Canada - down from 1036 the previous year. But this still represents more than 2.57 deaths every single day.

In the seventeen year period from 1993 to 2009, 15,129* people lost their lives due to work-related causes (an average of 889 deaths per year).

The National Day of Mourning, held annually on April 28, was officially recognized by the federal government in 1991, eight years after the day of remembrance was launched by the Canadian Labour Congress.

The Day of Mourning has since spread to about 80 countries around the world and has been adopted by the AFL-CIO and the International Confederation of Free Trade. ArcelorMittal globally has also recognized this as their Health and Safety day.

The Canadian flag on Parliament Hill will fly at half-mast. Workers will light candles, don ribbons and black armbands and observe moments of silence. Businesses are asked to participate by declaring April 28 a Day of Mourning and to strive to prevent workplace deaths, illnesses and injuries.

Here at Hamilton East we have negotiated specific language to commemorate this day. It includes the lowering of the flag, a moments silence and any other form of recognition as mutually agreed to by the Health and Safety Co-chairs.

Our local union has trained two instructors to go into high schools to talk about health and safety to students starting their first jobs and to the co-op students going into a job placement. Brian Howe and Terry Willock do a great job and the reports back from the schools have been great.

We have seen many changes over the last number of years in all areas of our mill, and while I will not apologize for helping to keep this mill open to protect our jobs and our retiree’s pensions while so many others are closing around us including Stefil, our former sister plant in Quebec and Walker Wire in Ferndale, I will say I am impressed with the work our Health and Safety Committee has been doing.

And while we still have room for improvement, we are getting to where we need to be and we will get there. But they need your help as well…and its as simple as this…if a job is unsafe ….don’t do it…you have the right to refuse unsafe work and I will say this in front of senior management… no one is going to retaliate. And be your brother’s keeper. What someone is doing unsafely could affect you and your family. They may not even think they are doing anything wrong, so feel free to point it out to them, and don’t get upset if it is pointed out to you.

I have watched many of your children grow up over the years, I have met your grandchildren and I know your spouses from the many events we have held over my last 25 years of being involved. Let me assure you, they love you and need you…and they have entrusted us all to get you home safely each and every day.

It is my hope that the annual observance of the Day of Mourning and the ArcelorMittal Health and Safety Day will strengthen the resolve to establish safe conditions in our workplace for all. It is as much a day to remember the injured and the dead as it is a call to protect the living."

April 7, 2011

For you retirees: below is information regarding how you get information or have questions about your pension, group insurance. Effective May 2, 2011 all your files will be located in Montreal. If you have questions our Human Resources Department will no longer be your contact point. AM has hired a firm which deals solely on these types of issues. You will receive more timely responses to you inquiries than you currently do. The information below will be mailed to you directly on April 17th along with a supply of vision, health care forms. If you have any questions feel free to call me.

Nothing in your benefits package has changed.

March 25, 2011

This past Tuesday I had a one on one closed door meeting with Al to discuss some of the issues happening in the mill. There were a couple of items on the top of list of concerns with the first being the relationship between supervisors and the workers on the floor. This cannot continue the way its been going, nobody needs to dread coming to work and that goes for either side. We are not kids in school, we are all rational sound minded adults at this facility and should treat other as such.

The tooling issues were brought up, mainly the need for strapping guns. It is ridiculous for three Oil Temper lines to be sharing one gun or three or even two wire drawers doing the same. I was assured that there is no moratorium on purchasing strapping guns but he has asked that they be managed. If we have an inventory of 12 guns and can only find 8 in the mill and none out for repair then 4 are in tool boxes or hidden by someone or we have lost them. I told him to post a notice that a tool box check was going to be done and give people a chance to get them out if they are hidden, then redo the inventory and if we need to purchase some then purchase some. He agreed to do that.

I also brought up the coveralls and the reaction on the floor to not having a choice in which type of clothing we wear. The implementation of coveralls and the hard and fast approach that if we don't wear them then we can't work is not the right approach. The explanation is that we have piggy backed Dofasco's work wear lease and they can outfit everyone cheaper than they can outfit the 50 people they currently provide work wear for. He claims they are too far into the process to change it now and if there are issues with the coveralls for the guys then we can try to do something later but for now they have been ordered according to the sizes everyone tried on.

Vacations were also brought up and the need to get a better grip on the booking of them, people need to be able to make plans based on what our spouses are booking. Most of the  vacation problems stem from the budget, last year it was the budget was still being revised, this year its we didn't expect to be this busy when just a few months ago we had a good portion of the mill laid off. This will be an issue for negotiations next year.

At our meeting yesterday we were told that the OT and CHQ business remains strong but that events in Japan could jeopardize our CHQ business. The auto makers here in North America are having troubles getting parts from Japan and if they don't have parts they can't make cars and if they are not making cars then they are not ordering our wire, we will have to wait and see if there is any ripple affect.

Construction remains slow which is affecting our strand business. We are back up next week to 10 turns  to run some .500 then .600.

Yesterday they also ordered 600 carriers, which I also brought up to Al. It seems there is a carrier broker out there who is gathering up carriers from customers and trying to sell them back to the different wire mills, this is industry wide.

I have contacted the Ministry of Labour's Employment Service Branch regarding the 11 hour rule which seems to be giving us a headache again. This is the law and its up to both the Company and the worker to obey it, we have filed a policy grievance because some were allowed to work while others were not. It has to be the same rules for everyone.

On Wednesday ArcelorMittal announced the closure of its LaPlace mill in Harriman, Tennessee, details below.

March 14, 2011

"I LOVE IT!" The first of our permanent hires started today and he loves it...it's good to see him back and on a permanent basis. There will be a few more once they get their medicals done, so some good news.

The fittings last week for the UNIFORMS, (coveralls) didn't go so well as many of you have expressed your opinions on having to wear them as opposed to a shirt and pant. While we agree and like that we will no longer have to take our clothes home to be laundered and that the chemicals we work with will not contaminate our families, we do not agree with not having a choice on which type of clothing we wear. 

I will note that the uniforms they have ordered are lighter than the ones used now in the mill and are not the ones we tried on for sizing. But the fact remains that coveralls are sometimes awkward to put on, restrict movement, are baggier and hotter than a two piece outfit. Below is a comment from an electrical engineer regarding flame resistant uniforms and if you do a search you will see why an electrical engineer or mechanic might need this type of clothing. But a wire drawer? A tester? I Don't think so.

by cyberengineer on February 2nd, 2010

As an Adult (Electrical Engineer) our Electricians and Myself are required to
wear flame retardant clothes. The biggest problem is lack of moisture absorption.
We also have problems with body heat being properly dissipated. The clothes are "itchy".

If you wash most flame retardant clothes in water or dry in temperatures greater than 160 deg F you will break down the retardant. This breakdown obviously takes away the safety of the clothes.

Some cloths are treated with chemicals in my opinion they are are the most irritating to wear. Other fibers are designed to resist flame during the fiber manufacturing.

If you want to see cool adult flame resistant clothing see.

google arc flash uniform videos you will see why we need the adult versions.

Read more: Is flame resistant clothing safe for children? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1905734#ixzz1GbGUZ6gP

by cyberengineer on February 2nd, 2010

As an Adult (Electrical Engineer) our Electricians and Myself are required to
wear flame retardant clothes. The biggest problem is lack of moisture absorption.
We also have problems with body heat being properly dissipated. The clothes are "itchy".

If you wash most flame retardant clothes in water or dry in temperatures greater than 160 deg F you will break down the retardant. This breakdown obviously takes away the safety of the clothes.

Some cloths are treated with chemicals in my opinion they are are the most irritating to wear. Other fibers are designed to resist flame during the fiber manufacturing.

If you want to see cool adult flame resistant clothing see.

google arc flash uniform videos you will see why we need the adult versions.

Read more: Is flame resistant clothing safe for children? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1905734#ixzz1GbGUZ6gP

by cyberengineer on February 2nd, 2010

.As an Adult (Electrical Engineer) our Electricians and Myself are required to
wear flame retardant clothes. The biggest problem is lack of moisture absorption.
We also have problems with body heat being properly dissipated. The clothes are "itchy".

If you wash most flame retardant clothes in water or dry in temperatures greater than 160 deg F you will break down the retardant. This breakdown obviously takes away the safety of the clothes.

Some cloths are treated with chemicals in my opinion they are are the most irritating to wear. Other fibers are designed to resist flame during the fiber manufacturing.

If you want to see cool adult flame resistant clothing, google arc flash uniform videos you will see why we need the adult versions.

So while we will begrudge and in a few cases refuse, we will wear them because we have to as the company still signs the pay cheques.  However the language that they wanted into our Basic Agreement in 2005 (below) rings hollow.

In my opinion the money would be better spent on equipment to help us do our jobs, strapping guns, tractors that are not breaking down when you look at them, work on the cranes and rails at the cleaning line etc.

Enough said.

I found an interesting video on Sivaco, our main competitor, located  in Quebec, have a look. You will see many similarities and a few things not so similar. Click on the link to see it.

Sivaco High Carbon Marketing Video

On March 31st we will be heading to Queens Park in Toronto as there will be a rally in support of Anti-Scab legislation being voted on that day. If you are off please join us. Details will be posted in the plant. If you are not aware of what has been happening in Wisconsin where the Republicans are attacking the union movement stripping away collective bargaining rights of the Public Sector Unions, a movement that is moving state to state and is starting here now under the Ford regime in Toronto, have a look at the video, click on the link below:

Michael Moore in Wisconsin

March 7, 2011

Over that last number of months we have been experiencing many rod issues from our rod mill which have had a profound effect on our business. Martinizing in our 9254 material has created the need to temper this material which delays the promised dates to our valuable OT customers. Cracking and seams has resulted in further problems for our customers when they try to form our product into their final operation. Slivers on our pre-stressed rod has resulted in the shutdown of our strander/stabilizer and 61 frame for another two week period or beyond as we await another roll, which will have to be tested beforehand as well. The fact that we continue to have these problems is very troubling and makes one wonder if any of these issues are actually being addressed.

Many of you have expressed dismay that once again this year the vacation bookings are dragging far behind. The Union has filed a Policy grievance on this on your behalf. It is hoped that there will be some hiring within the next week or two and this will help speed things up. The bookings last year started on April 20th and we had hoped to be ahead of the game this year.

The Union has also filed a Policy grievance on the delay in posting job awardings, namely the VR jobs which were posted early this year.

There seems to be some confusion amongst a few people when it comes to preferences and shift rotation. We have been using the current format for over five years with no problems and I find it difficult to see why there would be any confusion. When the company first asked for the ability to move people within a job description the parties agreed that we would have assignments which we have. We looked at wire drawing closer than other jobs because the potential to be moved was greater. We gave each person a choice of three job centre's and the crew on which they wanted to be on. The idea was that if his first pick wasn't available then he moved to his second pick and so on. The idea of picking a crew was to keep people on a steady rotation so they could make plans with their family and not have to worry about what shift they might be working. This system has proven to work quite well with the exception of the most junior people in the description. Being junior you can expect to be moved around.

Others who might be affected are those who sign up for training opportunities, once you have a skill they are going to use it and for the first two years after receiving training you are at their mercy. TT stands for "temporary transfer" or "too talented".

In 1987 the continuous language was introduced and accepted by the members as a new way of life here. With the new language came protection for employees hired prior to April 1st 1987, they cannot be compelled to work the continuous schedules and if they do they would receive a one time $5,000.00 payment. Subsequently we voted for and accepted a 12 hour shift agreement and this has proven to be enjoyed by a great number of people. What is not enjoyed is bouncing back and forth from 8's and 12's, unfortunately those who negotiated the continuous language never took this into account and we really haven't had any issues with this over the years until last year. The Union would like to see the entire mill on 12's so that when a person is TT'd they can at least follow a shift pattern and we have forwarded to the company several versions of schedules over the last year which we think would work through out the mill. Just to be clear nothing has changed in the Basic Agreement since 1987 which allows the movement from 8's to 12's only those hired prior to April 1st 1987 have any protection from this.

Having said all this if you have any suggestions on how things might work better then bring them forward we are always open to new ideas especially if they improve how we do things.

Effective February 27th there was an increase of 0.07 cents on the COLA. COLA is now 0.68 cents. See the Wage Scale page for your personal rates.

February 28, 2011

Congratulations to "C" Crew in the Oil Temper, they are the first winners of the 50/50 draw organized by the Social Committee. They split $319.00. A big thank you to all who bought tickets. This month the Committee is having a raffle for Stained Glass Items donated by Fred Dale, a Burlington Works retiree and our Santa Claus. The draw will take place at our monthly membership meeting on March 24th.

There is still no word on any new hires as the proposal has yet to reach the hands of the people who make these decisions. In the meantime voluntary overtime is being relied upon which is not a very good way to satisfy our customers. This coupled with the rod issues we have been facing is putting orders in jeopardy as our customers need their material. If we lose customers there will be no need for new hires as we won't have the work. It's really a catch 22 situation and a dangerous one for both the business and ourselves. I can't tell anyone to work or not work overtime and I won't pretend to, just read into this as you like.

February 18, 2011

Business continues to be strong for us in all areas and there is overtime available for almost anyone who wants to work it. Cleaning is a priority in that overtime mix though as we absolutely need it so that the downstream operations has material ahead of it for production. While overtime is not the best option for the business it is the only one available at the moment and after so many lay-offs this provides a good opportunity for many of us to catch up on bills and even put something away for vacations. The company has put in a proposal to head office to allow them to hire additional staff here and we are hopeful that the hiring process will begin soon.

We are in a good position going forward but we need this to be the year where we break out of the loss columns once and for all for us to remain part of the ArcelorMittal group. This will require a lot of us on both sides (hourly and salary/management). It means having the right tools for the job, the right scheduling and a return to some sense of decorum and respect between the front line worker and supervision.

We, over the last while have wasted too much energy on needless fighting, name calling and finger pointing. If this place goes down, we all go down. Unemployment doesn't discriminate when it comes to positions within a closed plant. I can introduce you to thousands of steelworkers who have learned this lesson.

Family Day is Monday and once again we don't qualify for that day off, you can thank Dalton McGuinty for that. When he enacted this legislation he sent a message to employers and Unions that our collective agreements were too rich. A document released by the Ministry of Labour answering frequently asked questions about family day says this: Unionized employees would be entitled to take family day off with holiday pay unless their collective agreement is more beneficial to them in relation to holidays than the ESA holiday provisions. In that case, the collective agreement holiday provisions, rather than the ESA holiday provisions would apply.

This has been grieved and arbitrated by many parties including our Brothers and Sisters at Lake Erie Works, unfortunately none have been won. Arbitrators have generally agreed that, where a collective agreement provides for more paid public holidays than those set out by employment standards legislation then the collective agreement benefit is greater than the benefit under the statute and statutory provisions do not therefore apply.

In my view this is punitive towards the collective bargaining process in general and we as workers should be saying to the government that a paid public holiday is just that...a paid public holiday for everyone. You can e-mail Dalton McGuinty and tell him so by clicking this link: Dalton.McGuinty@premier.gov.on.ca

February 7, 2011

This week sees the return of 6 members, good news indeed. We have the furnace repaired and the third OT line is almost ready to go.  Hopefully we will see everyone back next week. With any luck we may even see some hiring take place.

Vacations are still not ironed out and the outlook for a schedule that appeals to everyone is unlikely at this point.

Local 5328 had a good presence at the January 29th Hamilton Day of Action. I'd like to thank those who came out and braved the snow and cold as we joined over 10,000 demonstrators demanding changes to the Foreign Investment Act and to stop the attacks on pension plans which is happening across Canada. You can see some of the footage by clicking the link below.

Hamilton Day of Action

January 28, 2011

We suffered a bit of a set back this week when the Holcroft went down, they are going inside to assess the damage this morning to see what repairs need to be made. A couple of the furnace operators are taking a lay off while some are taking vacation time with the hope that it will be back in operation mid - week. I say a set back because we do have a good load for the furnaces and with that comes the need for support in draw, cleaning, etc. Which of course translates into extra man power.

It now looks as though the Holcroft will indeed be back in operation as of Wednesday.

The February 6th start up of the 3rd OT line as referenced below is now being pushed out to perhaps the 10th as we are awaiting a roll at Contrecoeur and as you know the rod has to be tested before we draw it.

There is a lot of concern with the material shipped to OMG and that we might lose their business. The fact is the problems we have with OMG are largely packaging issues. We drew the material on 55 frame which has a 32 inch block which results in a frowsy package with strands falling down when run on a turn table. We are now running 27 and 28 frames to produce the better package. We are not losing any business as a result of this, they have worked through whatever material that was sent to them but they are looking forward to a better package. The relationship between Hamilton East and OMG remains strong and we'll be ok.

We have some trials being run through our mill which will hopefully only add to our bottom line. I can't stress the need for us at whatever operation to hold back coils which are out of spec., if there is or appears to be a problem with a coil for what ever reason hold it. You will not ever get into trouble for holding a coil. These coils should never reach shipping.

The final numbers are in for 2010 and we had our best year since acquisition and although we still have a long way to go to, we are headed in the right direction. So give yourselves a pat on the back.

There is a North American Long Carbon sales gathering in Burlington Tuesday and Wednesday next week with some very important people to our business in attendance. You can count on seeing some of them in the mill.

We have asked that some further winterizing be done in the mill, namely the louvered windows above the OT lunch room and again at the Bell Furnaces where we have broken windows.

In discussions with the executive last night it was decided to strike up a Social Committee to do fundraising to help with costs associated with running different events throughout the year. A separate account will be created apart from the union's and there will be 50/50 draws periodically and raffles etc. The monies collected will go to events as directed by the committee. Please support them and get involved if you would like, the more the merrier.

January 24, 2011

Many of you noticed that our web site has been down for a bit, that tells me that at least you are checking it out, glad to hear it. The web hosting service we use was hacked and all their sites went down but we are now back up and they have new protections in place.

The second furnace started this week enabling a recall of twelve people which is good news and we hope the business for that unit is sustainable. There are many of you waiting to get back onto 12 hour shifts and that could happen in a couple of weeks but as we have seen nothing is for sure in this business.

The pan is being changed on #2 Oil Temper Line this week and repairs to the brick work will take place with the aim of starting up that line during the week of February 6th, hopefully this will get some more people back to work.

The rumours of us all getting uniforms has proven to be true. They will be a fire retardant coverall with reflective material sewn in. They are very similar to what I have pictured here.

We are awaiting the posting of the Vacation Relief postings which will get us hopefully on our way to getting the vacation bookings under way. There has been some discussion on what may take place this year in the terms of shutdowns and how we may see the vacation periods opened up but these are just exploratory no decisions have been made and this will be a topic of discussion at our monthly company/union meeting this Thursday. We are anxious to get the process started as are you I'm sure.

On Saturday we will be participating in the HAMILTON DAY OF ACTION along with other unions from across Ontario. We hope to see you out with us, after the demonstration you can join us back at the Union Hall for a sausage on the bun and a cold bevie.

January 10, 2011

The New Year has come and gone with little fanfare at Hamilton East. We have people on lay-off once again to start the year in what is becoming a regular event. The budget for 2011 remains strong in spite of this with a calling for 2 OT Lines, 2 Furnaces, Continuous at Cleaning and Bundle. This is welcome news after what was a relatively surprising 2010 which saw steady employment levels for us throughout most of the year only to fade in the last few months.

There was a tremendous outpouring  of support for the call to sponsor families this past Christmas and those of you who donated should be proud, you helped make Christmas a lot more special for three needy families. Again, thank you.

December 10, 2010

It appears that for some the year is going to end on a positive note as we have recalled all employees who were on lay-off with the exception of one person who has taken a leave. The recall will mean that the eleven who are coming back will receive the Pension Credit for December,  the December Stats and will have their benefits renewed for a further three months from the next lay-off.

The union will still pick up the costs of any of these members children who are attending the kid's party tomorrow as for the most part these members have still not received any monies from EI.

While the above is good news, I have to caution that while the order books for January look good it is unsure right now what the call will be. At present we have a number of people on pre-retirement vacation and regular vacation. But the fact that these fellows are able to get these last couple of weeks before the shutdown and the benefits that go with it, Christmas will be a little easier on them and for that we are grateful.  

Once again the here at Hamilton East we are going to sponsor 3 families in need at Christmas, these families have been chosen through St. Matthews House. The poverty numbers in Hamilton are staggering and we have a chance once again to make a difference. The Company will be accepting cash donations up until December 16th and they will match dollar for dollar any monies donated. Please give generously.

This past Tuesday myself, Micahel Green, Terry and John Babineau  helped prepare and serve lunch to over 160 people at Wesley Urban Ministries. We were there for about 2 1/2 hours and it was a lot of fun, the women working there knew what they were doing and put us to work right away and we didn't stop until the kitchen was cleaned and sanitized in preparation for the next day.

The people we served were largely homeless people and they were very appreciative that we were there to help and we had several good conversations with some of them. We all felt pretty good when we left. The most important thing that came from this experience? That we will probably go back a few more times. We invite any of you to join us. You won't regret coming out.

Local 1005 is still locked out with not much happening on that front but we continue to offer our support. Below is a letter of support to Rolf Gerstenberger from our Local and a letter to Prime Minister Harper from the Hamilton Area Council.

December 6, 2010

Rolf Gerstenberger

President

USW Local 1005

 Dear Brother,

 When I spoke at your picket line on the night they locked your gates I spoke of solidarity. I said that the Area Council and the members of Local 5328 stand with you and your members as they fight the good fight against US Steel.

This is a corporation which is not only a foreign multi-national but an employer which has treated your members with the utmost utter contempt. I remember meeting these people (and I use the term lightly) in Toronto during the CCAA talks. They have proven to be everything we thought they would be.

 As I speak to my members whether on the shop floor or at our membership meetings I stress that this is not just your fight. We too have a defined benefit pension plan and we will be at the negotiating table in two years.

 So your fight becomes that much more important on a personal level for my members and I thank you and your Local for taking a leadership role in this fight. My members recognize that leadership. This past Friday we had a plant gate collection and these members who’s numbers are always in decline with many on lay-off, collected $880.00 to add to the “pot” so that your members are able to have a better time of it at Christmas. My members were on strike on three different occasions between 1990 and 2000 so they know the hardships your members are facing in what will likely be a protracted Lock Out.

As always Local 5328 stands with you and your members and we will be at your picket line with you for as long as it takes. We offer any support we can give and we wish you strength of will and determination.

 In solidarity,

 Darren Green

President

USW Local 5328

December 6, 2010

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper

Prime Minister of Canada

Langevin Block, 80 Wellington Street

Ottawa, Ontario

K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister,

 I am writing on behalf of the Hamilton Steelworkers Area Council to express our displeasure at what is happening in our city at the present time. The current situation involving US Steel and USW Local 1005 is another example of the Canadian government standing idly by while a foreign multi-national company attacks a community under the guise of labour relations. It is a scene we have seen repeated time and time again. And yes sir, it is unacceptable.

 We have witnessed the same attacks at Vale-Inco in Sudbury, Port Colborne and the ongoing dispute at Voisey’s Bay, at US Steel Lake Erie Works and others. At Local 1005 it should be noted that they didn’t ask for a strike vote in fact they offered the company a status quo agreement. Yet US Steel says it is a labour relations dispute. I would argue that this is anything but a labour dispute.

 We need to recognize that this is an attack by a foreign company to serve its own interests in the United States and to have little or no concern as to the devastation this type of action causes to entire communities here in Canada.

 The actions being taken by this company amount to what is often referred to as “Nation Wrecking”.

 I have to ask you sir, how can a Canadian government of whatever political stripe sit by and allow this unconscionable behavior to happen? How can any Canadian government watch its steel industry die a slow death at the hands of a foreign company?

 The 6,000 members of the Hamilton Steelworkers Area Council are asking that you not only step in to stop this current situation at US Steel but to change the applicable laws on foreign investment to prevent similar actions in the future. We must welcome foreign investment into Canada that is agreed; we must say however that these foreign companies must adhere to rules put into place to protect workers and communities across this great country.

 Yours Truly,

 Darren Green

President

Hamilton Steelworkers Area Council

December 3, 2010

Next week we will have the Holcroft Furnace up and running but the third Oil Temper line will be coming down. This will result in recalls and lay-offs at the same time. Four will be recalled there but the loss of the OT and the fact that the 2nd furnace will be doing a temper run reduces the need for drawers and bundlers. The net result was 10 going out and 3 coming in for a loss of 7 jobs.

However we were able to work with the company to allow 4 more people to take some of their pre-retirement vacation until the end of the year. This will keep 4 of the 10 employed, hopefully until the shutdown. I'd like to thank the 4 gentlemen who decided they could help out by taking that time off. Kudos to you and those already on pre-retirement vacation. When I talk about some of the good things that we do here this is one of them and it couldn't happen if these people didn't come forward.

So thank you.

Don't forget the Children's Christmas party is on the 11th. We will be asking people to stay after they get their gifts to watch the reptile show. It promises to be good with approximately 14 animals available for us. Of course the clown and Santa will be here as well. It's always a good day and a lot of fun.

On December 16th we will have an abbreviated membership meeting to get the bills passed, then have a Social the rest of the evening. We hope to see you all there.

November 26, 2010

They say that no news is good news and so it goes this week. The schedule for next week calls for no changes really and no one laid off or recalled. The Oil Temper will remain up for another week and it is hoped that we will be able to get the second furnace up and running beyond that. We still have not received any rod for the strander but we are also hopeful of getting a roll completed and tested for us to be able to get 61 frame and the strander back up that week as well.

As we make our way through the transition of lay - offs and recalls, up crewing and down crewing I'd like to thank the membership for their patience as we make our way through the process. Only a few more weeks and we can all have a week to recharge. I for one am looking forward to it.

November 19, 2010

Fourteen out last week and 14 in this week, which is good news. The Oil Temper will start a third line on Sunday which helps greatly. However this shouldn't be seen as anything other than a short term response to customer needs. The furnace is finished its temper run and the carbon burnout is finished so it is going back to wire which will create the need for a few more in draw and one extra shift of cleaning.

Some of the bumps which took place last week have been reversed and for the most part people are where they should be on the schedule and preference list. Any mistakes which are not caught this week will be fixed up next week. The schedule will not change over the weekend.

Congratulations to Dusan Grmusa who is finished after his shift today. He has decided to retire a few weeks earlier than when he was slated to go. We wish him and his wife all the best as they embark on the second part of their life together.

Next week the company is holding its 1st ANNUAL HEALTH & WELLNESS FAIR every day from 2-4 pm. I would encourage everyone to partake in the activities taking place, I have seen the fair that is done at Dofasco and it is very worthwhile. You can learn about the EAP (Employee Assistance Program) get your flu shot, get healthy eating tips and more. And goodness knows there are a few of you who could benefit from having your blood pressure checked. (just kidding) But in all seriousness this is a good thing they are doing. There will also be information that you can take home to share with your family. We want everyone to be healthy and safe and an event like this promotes that and it has endless possibilities for growth.

November 15, 2010

This past week we had further bad news in the lay-off front with another 14 going out the door. The fact that again it is happening a month before Christmas makes it that much harder to take. While of little consolation to the laid off members it needs to be pointed out that we are not the only company facing another downturn in business.

We have an old friend here at the union hall instructing an arbitration course who works at the Ivaco Rod Mill in Hawkesbury Ont. They are running their rod mill for only two weeks this month and three weeks next month. They just do not have any orders coming in. 

As I wrote in the latest information update there are a number of tax measures slated to take place on January 1st in the United States and companies are emptying their warehouses of inventory to convert it to cash before these new taxes are imposed. Smart move for them, for us, not so much. However as we have seen in the past, empty warehouses need to be refilled at some point. With the Auto sector at the forefront of any type of economic recovery, there is a general feeling of optimism on the whole.

What is more worrisome to many is the policy of the Americans and now Stephen Harper when it comes to the US Dollar. Stevie, the ultimate free trader, continues to travel the world in search of further trade agreements which he says will be great for our country, yet he supports what is really an artificial low US dollar that helps American manufacturers export cheaper products to the rest of the world, saving American jobs. Canadian manufacturers cannot compete against this, so we have Canadian companies purchasing from US suppliers because their goods are cheaper. This is the premise of the US Steel shutdown. (ok that's my rant for today)

We will update the site later this week after we know the conditions for the following week. We hope to see you back to work soon. Below on the link is a video on the US Steel Lockout.

US Steel Lockout 2010 USW Local 1005

Click on the link below to see our recent demonstration in Brantford for ECP workers. You will see why we are always asking you to join us.

November 1, 2010

Just when you thought it was safe something comes along and smacks you in the head like a 2x4. Well not quite, but surprising just the same.

We have been doing very well here for the last year and have been able to avoid any lay-offs, and at recent meetings with the company we have been told that all looked well up until at least the American Thanksgiving. So it was greeted with shock at my first hearing that we would be shutting down a furnace and laying off once again. Three people went out the door last week. There will be further cut backs taking place as our business is rationalized to meet the needs with only one furnace running.

At our most recent Senior Committee meeting of Thursday October 28^th, the Company told us they are hopeful that this is a temporary situation and that it could be that our customers are adjusting their inventories as we near year end. They are unable to see beyond two weeks with possible customer orders for the furnace and that it will be evaluated week by week. The forecast for 2011 in general according to the company, is positive for the auto sector which we rely on so much. Oil Temper and Cold heading material is expected to be about what we have seen this year. The larger question is what will happen with the construction industry and how that impacts us.

Personally I have some different views on where the economy may be headed as a number of measures in the United States take effect on January 1^st. These include but are not limited to:  Federal, state and local tax rates are scheduled to rise quite sharply. President George W. Bush's tax cuts expire on that date, meaning that the highest federal personal income tax rate will go 39.6% from 35%, the highest federal dividend tax rate pops up to 39.6% from 15%, the capital gains tax rate to 20% from 15%, and the estate tax rate to 55% from zero. Lots of other changes will also occur as a result of the sunset provision in the Bush tax cuts. How all this plus the Tuesday’s election affects the American economy will undoubtedly have an affect here, but fingers are crossed.

The SUB fund does have money available as previously reported, we now have $28,000.00 and it will start paying $ 100.00 per week going forward. Again, we are hopeful that this will be temporary.

The budget for 2011 is being worked on by the company and the 2011 budget is no different than in previous years in that it takes several attempts to get it done as there is always reviews of the rationale behind each presentation; are we focusing on the right product lines, are the man power needs correct, do we need a shut down, are the forecasts on target etc. There are many factors at play as one can imagine when it comes to making what is hoped to be the correct call. What I can say is that the budget calls for only one week of shut down and that will be at Christmas.

United Way

The United Way of Burlington & Greater Hamilton seeks to enhance community life and build stronger, healthier and more vibrant communities by connecting community needs to community resources. Through an effective annual fundraising campaign, the United Way of Burlington & Greater Hamilton maximizes available financial resources to improve our communities’ quality of life.

Through the use of volunteers and volunteer fund review panels and responsible stewardship, United Way is able to raise and allocate funds to meet current and changing human care needs within Burlington and Greater Hamilton following three specific funding streams:  Poverty Prevention; Strengthening Neighbourhoods and Supporting Seniors.  Currently, funds raised through the United Way campaign directly support 137 programs and services delivered by 75 funded agencies in Burlington and Greater Hamilton.  All of this would not be possible without the support of over 6,000 volunteers who are actively engaged in the work of the United Way.

One of the agencies funded through the United Way is the MS Society, read the story below.

Multiple Sclerosis of Canada – Hamilton Chapter is one of the agencies funded through the United Way, read the story below.

By: April Buordolone

            Hamilton resident Linda was in her early twenties when she was first diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Now, over 20 years later, the unpredictable neurological disease has taken affect of Linda’s whole body. With help from Multiple Sclerosis of Canada’s Hamilton Chapter, Linda is successfully strengthening all aspects of her life.

            The Health and Wellness programs provided by MS Society of Canada offer various therapeutic activities, such as Yoga classes, support groups and educational sessions to those in the Hamilton area, suffering from Multiple Sclerosis.

“My daughter doesn’t know me any other way,” says Linda, who was diagnosed with the disease when her daughter was only one-year-old. Now 20, Linda says her daughter, “just rolls with the punches of me being sick.”

Beginning with the Hamilton Chapter in 1988, Linda still regularly attends Yoga classes, as well as support groups in both the Hamilton and Stoney Creek areas.

In addition to key, fundamental activities, the MS Society of Canada provides clients with vital funding when it comes to expensive necessities that result from having MS. Linda explains that her children adapted quickly from driving in a car with her, to riding in a scooter, to helping her push a wheelchair – all big ticket requirements the MS Society helped her to fund. “They always knew that mom was slower, that I couldn’t play soccer or other games with them,” she says. “They were good. They adapted, and changed when I had to change … sometimes it was hard, but we persisted.”

MS Society coordinator Amanda says, “Everything feels like a drop in the bucket because the cost of equipment, for our clients, is so high. That’s why United Way is very important to us here. We absolutely need all the funding we can get.”

At 47 years old, Linda currently resides in a long-term care facility that she moved into six years ago. Linda entered herself when she felt that the burden of her MS became too much for her family to care for. “The home care was too hard for my family. It was getting difficult to stay at home with them,” she says.

“I couldn’t keep living like that. What if I fell? I fell all the time … when the emergency came, they knew me by name.”

Each year the Local donates between one thousand and eleven hundred dollars to the United Way. The Company in turn has donated five thousand per year since the acquisition.

In addition we have partnered with the United Way in the back pack program for area school children whose families would not otherwise be able to afford.

Local 5328 have a long history with the United Way, myself, Scott Duvall and now Terry Willock have all served as members of the Board of Directors and Scott and Brian Howe have served as Loaned Labour Representatives during campaigns and they did us proud.

Today Bob Sutton the Director of Labour Services for the United Way will be in our plant to talk to you about their campaign this year. If you do not already give through payroll deductions, please consider it. If you do give already, Thank You, perhaps you could consider a couple of extra cents or dollars. It all counts, and you will be helping what could be a friend in your community.

If you do not live in Hamilton/Burlington your donation can be directed back to your home community. You can also choose which agency gets your donation if you desire.

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

October 15, 2010

There has been a lot of movement in the mill lately with the demands on the business changing almost daily. We remain strong on most of our product lines but the customer demands have us crewing different machinery. The good news from this is that we remain fully employed with no lay offs. We are training on several pieces of equipment which will allow us to be better prepared for the next vacation cycle. Having said that, we will always push for additional training.

Our "Green Hats" have not been hired as we might have expected as getting approval to add costs is always a challenge, but it is still hoped that we will see these fellows back before long. Vacations have been drying up and people are returning from sick leave which has reduced the manpower pressure somewhat but as we see equipment shut down to run other equipment I think it is still clear that we could use some more people here.

We had five people who were on lay-off working at Dofasco through our preferential hiring language. Two have been hired by Dofasco full time and we have the other three back with us and we'd like to welcome them back and say we are glad that our agreement enabled them to be employed while they would otherwise be laid off.

We have a municipal election taking place on the 25th and we would encourage everyone to not only get out and vote but to volunteer in a campaign. The candidates can always use help with putting up signs, delivering flyers or canvassing. Below is a list of candidates who answered questionnaire put together by the Hamilton Labour Council. These candidates are most likely to take on our issues and push them forward on our behalf. There are a few wards in the city where no one answered the survey so there is no endorsement for them.

Mayor: Fred Eisenberger

Ward 1 Brian McHattie

Ward 3 Bob Black

Ward 4 Sam Merulla

Ward 5 Jaswinder Bedi

Ward 7 Scott Duvall

Ward 8 Bruce Whitelaw

Ward 9 Geraldine McMullen

Ward 11 Brenda Johnson

Ward 13 Ron Tammer

I would like to thank all the members and retirees who showed up for Labour Day this year. As always when a function is put on it would be nicer if more people showed up, but with a twelve hour schedule, an earlier than usual Tiger Cat game and the weather the turn out was still decent. We received many compliments on the food and the toys for the kids were a great hit as well. Personally, it is one of my favourite days to celebrate.

We just completed a fundraiser for Dr J Edgar Davey School which was sponsored by the Local, the Company and the United Way. Once again you folks made us proud. We did raise as much for the back packs as we did two years ago. The Local donated $300.00 and the Company $2,500.00, and we ended up supporting eight inner city schools.

Terry and I delivered the back packs to three of these schools and the staff at each school could not thank us enough as they told us how much they are needed. The same gratitude was shown by the United Way so once again, Great Job!

 But why stop there? Dr J Edgar Davey School sits in what has been described as one of the poorest communities in all of Canada. The Company and Union will together approach the Principle of this school with the aim of adopting this school.

 What does that mean?

We could help with school fundraisers throughout the year; we could sponsor school fairs, or families identified by the school at Christmas time. The possibilities are endless.

 We hope we will have your support.

 The Company Golf Tournament takes place on the 18^th and the deadline for registration is this Friday the 10^th. There are not very many golfers registered at this time and the future of the event is in question. This is always an opportunity to stand down, have some fun and forget about work for at least one day, if you golf consider coming out and if you don’t golf, come out and beat up on a ball like I do, it feels good.

 We are two weeks away from the official end of the vacation period as designated by the Basic Agreement. I know that some of the summer relief employees have made a good impression and we hope to be seeing them at our facility beyond that date. Good luck to you all!

August27, 2010

August 2, 2010

Wow, summer is half over. Time fly's when you are having fun eh?

ITEM 42

 ISP ADVANCE PAYMENT

It seems that I was given the wrong information concerning this advance payment and some of you had that same info judging by the number of calls I received.

Under Stelco we received this payment directly on August 1st. That has not been the case since the acquisition by Mittal and the reason for that is ArcelorMittal has a different payroll system that is designed to make payments on a payroll date. Over the last several years we received this payment on the first pay following August 1st, and it has been a separate deposit. This year it was not done for whatever reason but the Company has found a way to have it deposited into our accounts on August 11th.

The business is still strong as we proceed through 2010, with strand finally picking up. This is an added bonus for us as it is a profitable line for us. Oil Temper and Cold Heading remain strong as well. Of course with this level of business we see again that people are being moved around quite a bit on a weekly basis. It only makes sense to concentrate on the most profitable products we produce. Where find ourselves in a quandary is when we move people on a daily basis from outside their job descriptions.

Recently we have had a number of people TT'd to another job which has resulted in the person being moved just going home. The most recent example of that was a couple of weeks ago when the cleaning line was shut down over the weekend and the people  moved to Bundling, with no cleaning line there is no need for a Rod & Bar Handler, so when moved this person went home losing two days pay at 12 hours each day. That's a lot of money money to lose.

There were two reasons for shutting the Line down: the mill was over stocked and there is always a push at the end of the month to get as many tons of finished goods into shipping as we can.

Having said that, this person has grieved the fact that he lost this money. An arbitrator will look at the above reasons and our contract language when deciding on whether the grievance has any merit.  The contract deals with TT's in several different sections of our Basic Agreement. See below.

5.11     (a)        When an employee reports for work after having been scheduled or notified to report and work within his job description is not available for at least four (4) hours, he shall receive four (4) hours pay, at the standard hourly rate of the job for which he was scheduled or notified to report, plus any out‑of‑line differential that may apply, subject, however, to the provisions of Paragraph (b) and 5.12 below.

(b)               If such employee is offered other work he shall perform such other work for a period of four (4) hours at the standard hourly rate of the job for which he was scheduled to report, plus any out‑of‑line differential that may apply or the rate of pay for such other work, whichever is higher.  Such employee will perform such other work for such further period of time as may be required by the Company and will be paid for such further work in accordance with the provisions of Clause 6.45.

(c)               Union officials called in to work from home for meetings and/or investigations shall be paid for the time spent at any such meeting or investigation or for four (4) hours whichever is greater at the straight time rate of his incumbent occupation.

5.12     An employee shall not be entitled to receive the four (4) hours pay as provided in 5.11 if:

            (a)        he has been notified by the Company not to report for work at least two (2) hours before his regular starting time.  An employee shall be deemed to have been so notified if the Company has given a message at the telephone number recorded by him in the Human Resources Department, or

            (b)        he has not so recorded any telephone number, or

            (c)        he refuses to perform other assigned work outside of his job description, or

            (d)        work is not available because of conditions beyond the control of the Company.

5.13          When, because of a breakdown or other emergency, an employee is called into work at times other than his regular turn, a minimum of four (4) hours pay at his standard hourly rate plus any out‑of‑line differential shall be paid.

Transfers

6.24          When an employee is transferred in lieu of layoff or permanently transferred for any other reason, he shall be paid the rate of the job to which he has been transferred except as provided in 6.31.

 6.25    An employee who is temporarily transferred from his regular job shall be paid the standard hourly rate of the job to which he has been transferred provided that if such standard hourly rate is less than the standard hourly rate of his regular job plus any out‑of‑line differential paid to him on his regular job, then he shall be paid the standard hourly rate of his regular job plus any out‑of‑line differential for the period of such temporary transfer.  The word "temporary" herein shall mean not more than ten (15) working days unless extended under the terms of Clause 7.13.

Transfers

7.12          An employee may be temporarily transferred from one (1) job description to another but no such transfer shall exceed a period of ten (10) working days, except by mutual agreement between the Company and the Union.  Where such trans­fers involve training opportunities, the Company will give consideration to the senior qualified employees available for transfer in the division.

So as shown above the Company has a pretty good case in being allowed to TT and to also offer alternate work to its employees. It now becomes a case of showing the arbitrator that this is a regular occurrence to a particular group of employees to see if this will sway him. We have to argue that because this happens regularly that they have violated Section 7.07 and that what is in fact happening is a short term lay-off and the person being moved is senior to people working on a job that he can perform yet he is being forced to go home. We will proceed with the grievance but as I have said here before, be careful what you ask for. Once the arbitrator rules, that's it.

July 9, 2010

We are now into it. Vacation time that is. With this, as we are seeing, comes a lot more movement of people to different jobs, the shutting down of some equipment to run others etc. Again we find ourselves short of people and short of skills. Overtime is abundant for those who want it and business is good.

We have come a long way since CCAA and we cannot lose focus of what got us to this position. That is trying to work together to do what is right for the business while at the same time trying to find a balance with the needs of the employees. Not everyone is happy about moving from their preferences. They chose to work their based on their seniority and have an expectation to continue to do so but one of the things we agreed to in 2005 was to give the company the flexibility it needs to satisfy our customer needs. Without our customers we are down, so for the short haul while we make our way through the vacation schedule we need to be patient. Remember that at this time last year almost half of our workforce was laid off. The inconvenience of moving to another job is a small price to pay in comparison.

That being said we cannot allow the system to be bastardized by making moves which turn peoples lives upside down. This happens when we push people from a 12 hour pattern to and 8 hour pattern continually. Plans get made then have to be cancelled with little consideration of the persons needs. Which is why the Union continues to push for a 12 hour pattern across the board. That way at least if someone is moved they can still stay on their shift pattern.

The company is reluctant to do this in wire drawing because they would need another driver for the fourth crew. Well if they cannot see the pile up of carriers at the end of the galv. line that needs to be dumped each and every day and not see the need for another driver then they have blinders on.

On top of all this movement of course is the stifling heat. I'll say it again you are all doing a great job at making us successful and to continue what you are doing you need to be healthy. So be very aware of yourself in this heat. Cool off when you need to cool off. Drink plenty of fluids. Squincher has been placed in each of the lunch rooms, use it. There are hard hat liners available, get one. Get plenty of rest at night because its a long day working in this crap.

If you are on vacation and want to know where you are working when you get back, add your name to those receiving the schedule from us. It only takes two seconds to add your name, send us an email at uswa5328@msn.com .

Join us in supporting locked-out Sears workers whose jobs are being taken by scabs

          What: Rally and Leafleting of Local Sears stores in Hamilton.

          When: 11 am - Wednesday July 14, 2010

          Where: Rally at Limeridge Mall then dispersal to area stores

          Organized by USW Local 9537 and the Hamilton Steelworkers Area Council

What’s This All About?

Despite a yearly profit of $250 million, Sears has refused to negotiate a fair contract with its 500 warehouse employees in Vaughan, Ontario.

In an attempt to gain unilateral control over employee compensation and working conditions, Sears has locked out its workers and is now using scabs to take their jobs.

We are telling Sears it must deal fairly with its workers, BY NOT SHOPPING AT SEARS while this lockout continues.

Join us on the 14^th to support USW Local 9537 members.

For more information, contact Darren Green 905-719-4412.        

June 21, 2010

Russ Jardine has been moved to Macasa Lodge and seems to have a much better outlook. I'm sure he'd appreciate any visitors. Macasa is at 701 Upper Sherman and he is in room E203.

June 14, 2009

As we get closer to the shutdown, which will be a welcome respite for us all I'm sure, I want to address the strong feelings in the mill which I have been hearing.

There is still a group of employees who are upset with vacations and lieu days and as I have pointed out before its a fact that for most of us these are the best picks we've had in years.

Once we get a negative written answer on the lieu days we will Section 49 it so that it is heard in 21 days after that, we will spend the money on this as that is what you have asked but be mindful that the arbitrators decision will be the final say for ever and a day. As I have said to many of you many times...be careful what you ask for. The issue with the lieu days is that they are making us take 4 hours vacation on top of the 8 hour stat which we moved. We are not allowed to book our vacations at 4  hours so neither should they.

I understand the issue of the blocks and it makes no sense to have a vacation block eliminated because someone booked a lieu day. Having said that, once the vacations are booked and finalized we should be able to book our lieu days where we want them according to the single day rules, that being 3 off at a time. And this time should not matter if it's in prime time or not.

I want to say that you are all doing a great job. We are breaking production records in almost every area of our mill. Your work has not gone unnoticed even if the company doesn't say it out loud often enough. We have come a long way since the 2005 purchase date. While there are always ups and downs with any business the fact is we are still here, and the fact that we are is a testament to your hard work.

In Toronto, Tony, myself and Scott thought we'd be coming back to negotiate a closure agreement. We thought we were finished. You have made the necessary changes to keep us going. Today we are at our busiest since that time. We have hired 17 full time and 16 vacation relief employees and I'm sure that we will be keeping some of the Item 16's as full time employees.

Others outside of our walls have taken notice and are often quite complimentary to us when they speak of our facility and our workers. This all bodes well for our future.

Having said that, we will not always be in agreement with what the local management group does here. But we at least are able to talk to one another to find the right way. One of the problems under Stelwire was that both sides became so entrenched in their positions that there was no way out and so the talks just broke off. So as long as you are talking things can get accomplished.

So you ask why are we still getting pounded when we are doing such a good job? The level of reporting that goes on with this company is unbelievable. From Chicago down to the shift supervisor there is a daily pressure to reduce costs. The more you produce the lower the cost and the more profit they make. When we lose so much money each month there is a lot of people who have to make the case each month that we are indeed of value to the wire group. And we are, but the questions get asked.

It's the approach that bothers me and from what I am hearing it's what has everyone upset. We are all adults here, supervisors should not have to hover over us and be threatening in any manner. If what I am hearing from you is true then something is getting lost in the translation somewhere because this is the old approach and it just results in a push back and things go from bad to worse. At the same time supervisors don't need to be yelled at on the reverse. We are all in this together.

In trying to be a voice of reason I think we all need to take a deep breath and consider what is at stake here.

 Cooperation - noun

1. an act or instance of working or acting together for a common purpose or benefit; joint action

2. more or less active assistance from a person, organization, etc.: We sought the cooperation of various civic leaders.

3. willingness to cooperate

4. Economics . the combination of persons for purposes of production, purchase, or distribution for their joint benefit: producers' cooperation; consumers' cooperation.

5. Sociology . activity shared for mutual benefit.

Cooperation as defined above is not a one way concept. It takes two parties to have cooperation, other wise its a sham. It is the common purpose we should all define. I see it as making our facility the cornerstone or the back bone of the ArcelorMittal Wire Division. The benefit of that is we will continue to have good paying jobs for our hourly, salary and management people, we get to retire with a good pension and benefits. I think we are on our way to seeing this but we cannot let personalities derail the important work we have done already.

The up ender in bundling continues to be a concern for some. This is not going away. This equipment is here to stay. It will be moved back from its current location so as to give the drivers and bundler a little more room. If you think there is anything that can be done to improve this operation bring it up.

We have been after the Company to move the dumping station to a better location which will be done I am assured. The proposed area is along side the lead pans across from the old 18 and 19 frames. This will hopefully make the traffic flow a lot better in the current area which at times seems like the 401. The issue beyond moving it is how we get the carriers dumped. The Burlington guys have a unique way of dumping their carriers and it is a lot more efficient than what we currently do but it's a question of safety.

38 frame now has a welder that works quite well and they are looking to attach the portable straightener to a fixed position. They recently bought in the manufacturer of this machine and he has made some recommendations that are now being followed up on. These changes will make it a lot easier on the operators and improve the efficiency of the machine.

On Wednesday and Thursday there will be a couple of tours through the mill again. On Wednesday we have people from St. Patrick's here to get a first hand look at our housekeeping and operation. On Thursday we have some very senior people from Brazil, Dofasco and the States coming to look at the PPO process here. This will be another important tour with high expectations that this one along with all the previous visits will continue to bring us value as a facility.

Once again, good job to you all.

June 3, 2010

There have been several happenings in the last while you should be aware of on the grievance front. There has been a group grievance filed in relation to the booking of vacations and lieu days as well as a policy grievance. There were two policy grievances filed in regards to the summer vacation relief hires (I will speak to this later). There is also a CWS grievance regarding the Pusher Furnace, they are were receiving job class 12, they are now receiving job class 14, the outstanding issue on this is retro active pay. I want to be clear, if you feel that you have been wronged you have the right to file a grievance.  This is a fundamental right enshrined in the Basic Agreement.

The grievance procedure takes time, there is no getting around that but to help expedite the hearings and resolutions of grievances  the Company and Union will be discussing them each month going forward.

We are slated to go to mediation and then perhaps arbitration on three grievances at present. There will be more in the near future as there are issues which need to be dealt with once and for all. We will keep you updated.

There are also three WSIB appeals being processed, again this is a long drawn out process that gets held up at the WSIB level. The Local has joined the District 6 WSIB program which we pay for. This gives us access to the brightest minds in WSIB from across the District, they will help with appeals, offer advice and lobby on our behalf. In addition Geoff Oberfrank and Ed Bratetitch are now on our Local WSIB Committee. They will be educated to handle the initial appeals etc. and we will team them up with people from the District at the appeal level.

The rules for vacations and lieu days continue to be changed as we go forward as most of you know. Rest assured that this has been grieved. Now the one thing that has been good this year is that for the first time in many many years the members have been able to book two weeks together on their first pick so that they have that time with their families and most of these weeks are being utilized during the summer months. Also this year the shutdowns have less of an effect on burning up hours for those on 12's because they have not forced these people to book vacation days when there is a stat. Again this is the first time in years for that. So the people need less hours applied against them.

A much larger topic of conversation in the mill is the hiring of the Item 16 people. When the company first approached your committee and told us that they would be employees of Adecco, we said no way. We told them that anyone who works doing bargaining unit work belong to us. They have given us a letter stating that these employees are entitled to everything that Item 16 employees are entitled to under the Basic Agreement. We have filed two separate grievances on this issue. Below is an e-mail sent to the International Union:

From: USW Local 5328 <uswa5328@msn.com>
To: Mason, Robert
Sent: Tue Jun 01 16:02:09 2010
Subject: FW: Adecco Vacation Relief Employees

Hey Rob, the company has hired 16 summer people. We have in our agreement Item 16 which provides them an avenue to hire for the summer.

The problem is they are actually employees of Adecco, a hiring firm. The firm is paid $1000.00 per employee hired.

The employees are entitled to all aspects of our collective agreement and if kept on after the summer they become members of the union and employees of ArcelorMittal. The recruiting firm is not receiving any moneys from the employees. They are receiving full wages as specified in Item 16 and are getting stats, overtime rates and down turn rates. Education , SUB, Humanity Fund contributions are calculated for their hours worked and they are paying Union Dues to us.

I have met with the employees as Union President and have invited them to our membership meetings and told them as far as I am concerned they are my members regardless of who is paying them, if they have any problems we are here to help them.

Attached is a letter they sent me after I raised objections, I have since asked for a more detailed letter which is forthcoming.

My question is can this be agreed to? I'm not aware of any union shops that hire employees who are paid from another employer, have you heard of this practice in unionized shops or do you have any locals who do this?

I have filed policy grievances on this. Looking for some input from the International.

Thanks

Darren Green|President
USW Local 5328
1031 Barton Street East
Hamilton, ON L8L 3E3
P: 905-719-4412|F: 905-545-3506
web: usw5328.com

The legal department of the Steelworkers is looking to see if this is even legal, in my opinion it is not. If that turns out to be true then the company will have to hire them directly or let them go. I am hoping they would not cut off their nose to spite their face.

In discussions with the Company on this, the issue of training became a hot topic. In the end the Company has agreed that they would post for training opportunities before training the new people. But with the skills issue (not having enough) it will take time before some who are awarded the training opportunities are released for training. Under no circumstances will an Item 16 employee be hired full time to a job while a senior employee who has been awarded a training opportunity is laid off. This will not happen.

The SUB Fund is rebuilding and currently sits at $17, 500.00, it takes awhile to get this thing back up again as it is rebuilt by the company contributing .10 cents an hour.

Currently the business is doing well. We have seen overtime on several centre's in addition to the overtime available for vacation coverage. We still do not have enough people working here in my opinion. And its going to be a long hot summer so be sure to work safely and enjoy the time with your families.

May 20, 2010

We have been inundated with complaints over vacation bookings again this year as we finally started our picks. There are two areas of concern as I see it, one being the booking of 8's and 12's together and the other is the three weeks of primetime max. I'll address both and by doing so I am not justifying the why, just stating it.

We have in most areas of the mill a severe lack of skills; Processing, Rod&Bar, Strand and Oil Temper are all areas which require training. Regardless of who is at fault for this,  it is a fact. So where we have two schedules in the description they are booking together because we cannot replace more than one at a time. I was able to get the test room separated but couldn't get the others done, again its a skills issue. If all these jobs were on 12's the issue would go away.

As for the three week maximum, this was the same rule as last year and there were no complaints. Unfortunately any vacation beyond the three weeks has to be booked in October, November and December, because we started so late their was no opportunity for booking in April or May. The logic of the three weeks is to avoid a spike in people off when we are at our busiest. The company has in the past tightened up the vacation period so that all vacations are booked in prime time but this hurts the other groups of employees who like to hunt or fish etc. in October, November.

Now the one thing that has been good this year is that for the first time in many many years the members have been able to book two weeks together on their first pick so that they have that time with their families and most of these weeks are being utilized during the summer months. Also this year the shutdowns have less of an effect on burning up hours for those on 12's because they have not forced these people to book vacation days when there is a stat. Again this is the first time in years for that. So the people need less hours applied against them.

As problems arise with the bookings we will continue to attempt to reach a resolution with the company on them.

Another item of good news is that there are and will be more training opportunities posted. Also for the first time I can remember we actually made over one hundred thousand dollars last month, could have been more if we had a better grip on the carrier situation I'm sure.

Just a reminder that the Rick Woods Tournament is fast approaching, if you haven't registered it might be a good idea to get on with it.

May 7, 2010

On April 28th the company held its annual Health and Safety day. We heard several speakers from different organizations and the work that they do and there is an opportunity to do some good for both the Canadian Red Cross and Threads of Life. These opportunities give the members of Local 5328 as well as the salary and management workers a chance to show once again that we care about what happens not only in our own communities but the global community as well. I hope that we all follow through in the Steps campaign and are open to taking training through the Red Cross which will also be of use in your own household.

We had a very important tour through our plant that day with Mr. Vancat coming through the mill. The reports back from management are nothing but positive. I'd like to thank Tony Ciaramella and Joe Castiglione for their help with Vancat, he was impressed by the knowledge of the operation of these two. I also had a brief meeting with him and he spoke positively of the facility and its workers. He did say however that we have to reduce the cost of producing our steel.

As a result of this meeting the union has been assured by him that we will start attending the monthly review meetings and I will be holding them to this. If there is any hesitation I will call him myself.

We are in the process of hiring vacation relief employees and they will begin to arrive shortly. The strand unit and 61 frame will be starting up next week finally and if we had more bodies we would be crewing it up further.

The 3rd OT line is coming down again as we are getting jammed for space again. There has been a great deal of confusion regarding the floater on the OT line and movement of bodies. When we up crew any equipment in the mill it's because we have additional work and even if it's just temporary we have to do what we can to make sure the job gets done.

 Now an argument can be made that there is movement in the description so people should be able to move based on their seniority and job preferences when there is an up crew even when the up crew is temporary as the job has now changed for a few individuals. I recognize that the number of wires a floater has to deal with as a result of running 3 lines. However, lets be clear that if we had more qualified people available there would be a three man crew on that line.

We are working with the company to get training done not only for vacation relief but for the ongoing business. People who apply for these training opportunities though should be aware that the company is spending a great deal on this training and you will be the guy who is tagged to go there for the next 24 months. The OT in my opinion is a young persons job. Trying to avoid a lay-off is one thing but putting yourself in harms way to do it is not a wise decision.

April 16, 2010

We are moving ahead despite the Canadian dollar reaching par with the US. Business for the furnaces is good and will hopefully allow us to have both running beyond just a couple of weeks or a month. The OT business is such that there is a distinct possibility that we could again start the third line.

There is a small trial of .600 rod this weekend for Strand material but we are still not seeing any positive signs in the strand market as we are being challenged by offshore strand shipments from China. I encourage each and every one of you to click on the "Contact your MP's" tab and send an e-mail to your representative and let them know how angry you are that this is being allowed to happen. You will find below a letter sent to the Prime Minister from myself on your behalf but we all need to do this.

We are recalling three people next week, which again provides optimism for us and a posting has gone up for vacation relief hiring's. While our agreement allows for summer relief from the last week in June to the last week in September, the company is allowed to bring them in early for training. So if you know someone who has their grade 12 and wants a summer job have them apply.

The company has just informed me that they are in receipt of a benefits booklet which will be mailed out to members and retirees once it has been proof read.

On April 28th the company will be participating in the ArcelorMittal Global Health and Safety Day. April 28th is also the International Day of Mourning. Once again there will be events taking place at our plant which warrant your participation. Also on that day Vancat will be visiting and taking part in these events. I don't think I have to say out loud how important this visit will be for us here. If there are any major decisions to be made within the wire group this is the fellow who will make them so we need to make sure the place is clean and we present a positive outlook.

  LOCAL 5328

         1031 Barton Street E., Hamilton, On L8L 3E3

               Ph: (905) 719-4412 e-mail: uswa5328@msn.com

                               Web: usw5328.com

April 16, 2010

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper P.C., M.P.

Prime Minister
of Canada
Langevin Block
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing as a representative of 180 workers and 360 retirees at ArcelorMittal Canada, Hamilton East. I would like to express our disappointment with the current actions or lack of by the Federal Government when it comes to dealing with offshore dumping of steel.

Of specific concern to my membership and indeed the retirees who depend on us to continue their pension and benefit payments is the lack of action regarding PC Strand.

The United States has had the foresight to stop the dumping by China into their country by imposing tariffs, thereby protecting good paying American jobs. And rightly so.

The result of course is that the boats carrying this material have headed north to Canada. Our company is a leader in the industry and has a very solid reputation in both Canada and the United States yet our strand line and accompanying machines are sitting idle.

We have laid off and recalled people to other jobs as a result of this, further lay-offs are imminent. If this line was running our company would be in a position to hire off the street and I’m sure sir that you are aware of the economic condition facing the Hamilton area.

Your government continues to refer to us as free traders, yet plant after plant continues to close. The direction you are taking us is turning Canada into a service country where families have to work two and sometimes three jobs to make ends meet.

It is bad enough that we are selling off our resources to foreign governments please do not sell off our people.

We at Local 5328 are asking that you do the right thing by stopping these Chinese producers from dumping their strand products into Canada.

Sincerely,

Darren Green

President

USW Local 5328

Cc: David Christopherson

Wayne Fraser

April 9, 2010

A bit of good news for us as we are up crewing the second furnace, resulting in the recall of a good portion of our laid off members. The cold heading material seems to be helping us out as other areas remain flat.

Your Committee held a meeting with the Company regarding vacations on April 8th and we believe we have a good basis on which to move forward. There will be a posting outlining the rules and then booking will begin hopefully next week.

Our phone number will change effective April 19, 2010. It will be 905-719-4412, sorry for the inconvenience.

On May 1st there will be a demonstration here in Hamilton. The demonstration is being called by Local 1005. A letter of support from Local 5328 is below.

              LOCAL 5328

                     UNITED STEELWORKERS -DISTRICT 6

                                       1031 Barton Street E., Hamilton, On L8L 3E3

                     Ph: (905) 549-4412                                                   Fax: (905) 545-3506

March 31, 2010

We have been witness to the dismantling of the manufacturing base in Canada as a result of greed, opportunism, indifference and the fiscal policies of the Canadian government.

Here in the Hamilton we have watched as workers at the once proud Stelco were thrown into the disarray of CCAA. Threats permeated the day. Bond holders, speculators and others who have never even visited the Hamilton area, put the livelihoods of thousands of families at risk. These workers have still not recovered; they continue to be threatened by outside forces.

 Communities throughout Canada have seen plant after plant shutdown, pensions robbed. The elimination of good paying jobs and replacing them with an inadequate employment insurance program and a soaring welfare rate has crippled local governments.

 Let’s be perfectly clear here. The federal governments’ insistence that we are free traders, and that we are open for business, has led to many foreign companies entering Canada for one reason and one reason alone.

 They want the order books. Once they have them they are free to leave behind bricks and mortar and devastated families to pick up the pieces. The fiscal policy of the federal government is to keep the dollar near or at par. This invites more of the same.

 We need only to look at last years attack on Auto Workers. How do you fight for what you fairly negotiated when your own government is forcing you to make concessions?

 This is indeed Nation Wrecking and we at Local 5328 applaud the efforts of Local 1005 in its efforts at bringing the labour movement and our communities together to stand up for the families across Canada who are being attacked each and every day with no support from their elected officials.

 We can stand back and raise our hands in frustration or we can take to the streets to say to the federal and provincial governments and the corporations which place little value on Canadian families that Enough is Enough!

 Please join us on May 1^st as we try to put a halt to the devastation and infestation of corporate greed and political indifference in Canada.

 In solidarity,

 Darren Green

President

USW Local 5328

March 29, 2010

Just when we thought it was safe to think beyond the troubles of the economic downturn last year, this past week brought a jolting realization that we are not out of the woods just yet.

On Thursday morning the Union was notified that we would be laying off twelve people. This truly was a shock as only the week prior I was discussing the hiring of vacation relief employees. The explanation we received from management for the lay off is as follows:

The forecast beyond the next couple of weeks is not clear except for our cold heading material which is said to be good until the end of June. Strand continues to be an anomaly, with little stimulus spending being spent on large projects which could use this material. In fact, many of our customers are laying off or are working part weeks.

The up crew of the Oil Temper lines was  to address certain customer needs and they have been met. Our true load is for just two lines.

We remain up crewed in bundling and on the #2 cleaning line for now and some temper material from the rod mill have us up crewing the bells for a couple of weeks which saved a further three people.

Your Committee had an initial vacation meeting with the Company on Thursday in an effort to get the bookings going but further meetings will have to be held as we try to make the vacation bookings as equitable as we can for everyone.

Local 5328 was represented at recent demonstrations in support of locked out/striking workers at Lake Erie Works and at  Vale/Inco in Sudbury. We also attended a rally for Siemens workers who recently found out that their plant will be shut down next year.

March 12, 2010

Despite the fact that we have an increased load thanks to the Accument material coming through our mill we do not have enough work to maintain the two furnaces. As you are aware we had a big rush on this material at the beginning trying to get everything we could out the door to supply them. The load will be a little more balanced going forward which they will be run through the one furnace without upsetting the production of other materials.

There is a possibility of number one Cleaning Line going to a straight day 12 hour rotation in the next couple of weeks. This seems to be a trend. The test room did the same this week.

Health and Safety is always a concern for us here and our Committee is doing a good job of getting things done.  But just like the Union they need your support to be successful. When and if you are approached by a member of that Committee and they point out that you are doing something unsafe, there is no need to be defensive with them. You should thank them, they are taking care of you and making sure that your family gets you back from work safely. The people on this Committee volunteer their time to make sure we are all returned home safely and to keep people working on our behalf we need to treat them with respect.

I wish I could take you all to some of the workplaces I have visited just so you could see how good we actually have it here. Below is a link to a film which shows what goes on in other parts of the world. Take the time to view it, it's a powerful statement. 

WHERE SHIPS AND WORKERS GO TO DIE

We have the Solidarity Picket at Lake Erie Works this Sunday and it would be nice if some of you could make it.

March 5, 2010

As many of you have noticed there is a change in the crewing next week as strand is not going as strong as expected. However Oil Temper material is in a much stronger position which has us up crewing the third OT line. This is not expected to be a long term proposition and we could find that in a couple of weeks we have to down crew again. As OT material is a good money maker for the company, this is still a positive event. It also reinforces the need for the new take up blocks for number three OT line.

I have spoken to the company this week regarding their hiring needs and they will be in a position to hire summer relief under Item 16. Under the terms of the BA they can bring in these people "beginning the first Sunday in June to the week beginning the third Sunday in September unless mutually agreed between the parties.  Persons hired for vacation relief may be required for training prior to the first Sunday in June provided there are no employees on layoff."

The hiring process will be the same as the last two hiring's we had. The same criteria will apply, that being the person must have grade 12 and there will be testing. I'd like to point out that we protested this once again. There will be a letter posted on the board which will also be posted here notifying us that hiring will take place. If you have a family member or know someone looking for work have them put your name on their resume before they fax or e-mail it to the hiring agency. They will be tested by the agency and those who previously applied can re-apply.

We still have some employees in school who will be finished on April 15th, we hope to see these people returning to work immediately following this date.

Vacations have still not been ironed out and your Committee remains waiting for a vacation scheduling meeting with the Company.

February 26, 2010

Solidarity Rally for USW 8782 @ Lake Erie site on Sunday March 14th - 1-4 pm.  We are hoping to get some buses on the road. All help is welcome! Let's show US Steel that we stand shoulder to shoulder in support our Sisters and Brothers who are locked out !!!!!

February 25, 2010

Today we will be having our monthly membership meeting and in light of the weather I thought I'd put an update on what we might be dealing with today.

We will also be having a grievance meeting to discuss grievances for the following people; Bratetich, Knechtel, Douglas, McKay, Wolski, and a group grievance regarding vacations.

We have a number of post secondary high school scholarships available and these will be added to our web site tomorrow under a new page, we will also deal with the Joe Crugnale scholarship at our meeting. This information will also be posted at work.

We will be asking the membership to endorse our joining the District 6 WSIB project where we can get help with WSIB appeals. The cost of this is .50 cents per member or about 80 dollars a month. This is membership dues money working for the members in the best way.

There will also be updates by the H&S Committee and reports on our finances. The Presidents report will  include information previously displayed here on the web site.

A number of people are asking so I want to let every one know that Terry is doing well, he has been attending meetings with us and we look forward to having him back to work soon.

February 18, 2010

The Company will be sending out letters today to recall anyone who does not have a leave of absence letter. These people have 10 days to report or they lose their recall rights. I know that some are working elsewhere or are in school but the Company needs more people and they need to get on with hiring if these brothers decide not to come back.

ArcelorMittal has announced that they are making another capital expenditure at Hamilton East. This cap -ex project will be the extension of #3 OT line. Four new individual take up reels will be installed so that we can produce larger diameter wires at the OT. This will open us up to a whole new market and bodes well for us.

It should be noted that the company has in recent years spent a great deal of money here at our facility. This project however is the strongest signal yet from Chicago that they believe we are going in the right direction. Having said that,  this project comes with cautionary words from above.

Those in charge in Chicago say they are taking a leap of faith that we can make this work and if we can show that this investment of almost half a million dollars proves profitable then we may expect further investments of this type. However if we do not work to make it as profitable as it can be then we will most likely not see further investments when we are asking for them.

I know the heat is on at the OT lines regarding the proper number of wires, temps and speeds etc., but a lot of this heat is being directed from outside our facility. OT is our most profitable product and they want every bit of return they can get on it. As has been said before, we have come a long way from the Stelwire days and if we want to continue to improve things for our members and retirees we have to work together to make this place run. The "heat" being applied at the OT is also being applied to Production Planning and Sales. Those in charge are taking whatever action is necessary to put us in the forefront of the wire industry. This is all we ever asked.

I attended a meeting with the Red Cross and the Company on Tuesday to discuss what we as a membership and a workplace could do to be of assistance to the people Haiti. Heard some sad stories but the bottom line is they want to rebuild it better than it was prior to the earthquake and for that to happen it will take months before they figure out the best way to do this. Once they have an idea what is needed they will contact us.

In the meantime we are looking at a local domestic partnership with the Red Cross where our members could be trained in emergency preparedness and be trained as emergency response people in our communities or communities across Ontario if there is ever a natural or man made disaster. More information is to follow on this.

 For a Red Cross update on Haiti click on this link to read or watch the video:

Red Cross Haiti "One Month On"

January 29, 2010

We met with the Company yesterday and received a further business update from them and again all is looking strong through to the end of the 1st quarter. We mentioned that in our opinion we would be in a position where we are going to have to hire in order to fulfill our needs, especially when it comes to vacation time.

There are five members who still have not received tractor training at work. This will happen on February 11th at Dofasco. Going forward I expect this training will be part of the new employee indoctrination.

We have a meeting on February 3rd with the Company and the Red Cross to see if there is anything we can provide to the Haiti Relief program. It was suggested by one of our members that we send a truck load of nails etc. there. We will find out from the Red Cross what the needs will be long term and go from there.

At the Union Hall we have two staff reps on sick leave including Tony. Rob Mason will be trying to get things done here but it could prove overwhelming for him as time goes on. We have a casual staff coming to assist Rob but it will take some time to become acquainted with the different locals.

 I have offered Rob our assistance in the weeks ahead. This does not mean a staff position or anything. It simply means we are here to help when needed. To be sure, if there is a need by another local which needs help, we will be more than willing to work with them.

That's what Unionism is all about.

January 27, 2010

Pittsburgh has announced that Wayne Fraser has been confirmed as the winner in the election for Director of District 6. (see story below).

Local 5328 would like to congratulate Brother Fraser on his victory and we look forward to working with him over the next number of years as we move our Union forward to meet the demands being thrust upon us by foreign ownership and governments which seem to care very little about the working people here in Canada.

We would also like to say that there is little time for divisiveness within our union, we are all in this together and we need to be working hand in hand, side by side in solidarity as we stand behind our re-elected Director.

At present Tony DePaulo remains our local staff representative. We'd like to thank him for the work he has done and continues to do on behalf of our Local. We wish him well as he recovers at home on sick leave.

January 21, 2010

I was called to a meeting yesterday and brought Brian Howe along as we had no Chief Stewards in the plant. The purpose of the meeting was to give us an update on the furnace load.

We are losing about half of our tonnage from a customer due to problems they have been unable to resolve at the Rolling mill. This has nothing to do with our quality or deliveries. As the material is used by one of the major auto makers they cannot continue trying to work through it.

While this is not good news, we have secured 6100 tons of clean, heat treat and bundle material which should help replace the loss. We will however notice that the load on the furnace will change a bit as this material starts to arrive. It will be banked in the shed until ready to ship. This material is destined to the US and it's good to know we are breaking ground there.

In addition this customer will likely be increasing its wire load at our mill. Again, another plus for us.

It has become obvious once again that through retirements, quits and sickness we need to train on the furnace. As it stands at the present time we are flush with the crewing call with no one available for vacation relief. To that end, G. Oberfrank, who was awarded a previous opportunity will start training there and a posting will go up today for 2 more.

In looking at other areas it seems we are ok with skills on the Cleaning lines, Oil Temper lines and Bundling. Where we may have a problem and it will be monitored, is the Rod & Bar Handler and the Strander/Stabilizer, as well I think driving may become an issue.

It looks like they have two extra people next week so they are going to commission the new up ender for the phos lube work. Some who have seen it set up in the mechanical area figure it will work quite well. This is being done to help not only with the production but for making the operation more safe, it's amazing to me that we don't have more injuries with the way we presently load lube.

Brett and Tony have mentioned Vacation Relief postings to the company and they (Company) approached me where I raised some issues which will have to be discussed next week with the Chief Stewards.

In closing, despite my opening remarks above, we are still doing quite well. We have another 500 tons of OT wire slated to replace stock depletions as well as make orders. I am hopeful that we can keep everyone working and that we may even have to hire in the near future.

January 13, 2010

Welcome to 2010, it promises to be a good year. All reports from the markets, the auto makers and financial analysts have our economy pointed in the right direction.

We here at Hamilton East are no different. The mill is filled with activity, people are working hard and it feels good to walk through the mill to see people in a much better mood. Dofasco, the other ArcelorMittal plant in Hamilton has announced it will be hiring as they get their operations back to near pre-recession levels, so again all looks good.

There were job postings which saw wire drawers going to tractor and other jobs so people now have an opportunity to change there preferences if they like. You should see the supervisor or D. Ward to do this.

We still have a number of people on the sick list and we hope to see them back to work soon. We are all rooting for a quick return of "The Lawyer" Terry Willock as well.

Keep up the good work, it will lead to only better things for us all.

December 18, 2009

This past year has been difficult. At one point we had half of our membership laid off, we were left with 60 operating and 20 maintenance employees. The thought was that the majority of our members would be laid off until this coming spring.

We worked with the Company on our new preferential hiring agreement with Dofasco and while not everyone who wanted a job there got one, we have 8 members who were hired to a 6 month contract. One has just been hired full time and the rest offered extensions to their contracts. We have argued that they hire all full time but unfortunately we bargain with the wrong facility. But at the same time it kept some of our members off the street.

With the help of the Steelworkers Adjustment Centre we were able to have some of our members enter into schooling to upgrade their skills, thereby extending their EI benefits. The costs of the course were also covered by the government. This took a further 5 people off the street.

 Then business turned around. We recalled all but two members who were available and these two are working elsewhere. While business in the last two months has slowed down and the Company could have laid people off, we have been able to work with them to avoid lay-offs.

This last year has seen us harnessed with a new computer system which continues to cause havoc but there have been improvements, production planning continues to be a pain in the ass and in my opinion it has been the members who have made this place run.

 I just want to say that our members have given me many reasons to be proud to represent them; our production in every area except wire drawing has increased despite the SAP and planning issues.  When called upon to help the community our members have been there, the Company recently asked me about doing a campaign to sponsor a family in need but they were worried that they were also asking for donations for Food Share at their brunch, I said make it two different events our members will respond and they did, the company collected over 1200 dollars from employees which they will match, so we will be sponsoring two families. Good job!

 Our Children’s Christmas Party were successful one again because of  our volunteers Steve Birlingham, Terry Willock, Mike Hnatjuk from the Union and Irene Boutlier and Neil Boden from the Company again good job. The Company also contributed $1500 to our party.

The Rick Wood’s golf tournament raised six thousand dollars for Food Share, ArcelorMittal Hamilton East sponsored the luch for this tournament and the Company’s golf tournament was well attended and the Union sponsored the longest drive and closest to the pin for the first time.

But lately there have been distractions which have seemed to derail these positive activities in some members minds. There have been crack downs on early quits, coffee breaks, machine speeds and safety issues.

I just want to assure you that as a Union we are arguing on your behalf.   We have another what? four days? Then we are out of here for a week or so, time to take a deep breath.

Early quits and coffee breaks have to be looked at with a little common sense, especially on the day shift. Machine speeds will continue to be a focus as the Company tries to get more in order to reduce our costs, but machine speeds are just one component of our facility, we need carriers, better planning and coordination as well. 

But I do want to address the safety issues directly. The Union and its Health and Safety Committee for years have been arguing that the Company has avoided its responsibility under the act when it comes to personal protective equipment, the over loading of tractors and the like. They are acting not only on our complaints, but they are trying to prove that our plant is superior over the other facilities within ArcelorMittal Canada. We ALL want our members to work safely and to go home at the end of the day in the same condition they were in when they came to work.

The 2010 budget is looking good for us. There is a promise of at least 85,000 tons coming through our mill. We will have a new wire drawing frame in place after the shut down. They continue to spend money on this facility, the future looks good.

When we start up in the new year, we will see #2 cleaning line, bundling, and both furnaces on continuous operations. The rod and bar handler will have a straight day continuous schedule and an eight hour rotation.

I’d like to say to the membership that we continue to work on your behalf, and to the retirees, we are working to make sure your pensions continue.

 On behalf of the Executive and Committeemen I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

December 10, 2009

There has been a great response to the sponsoring of a family this Christmas and we may actually be able to sponsor two families. Thank you!

The Company has asked that we remind active employees about the brunch on the 20th, deadline for registration is Monday.

Some good news to end the year: There is a posting for the Pusher Furnace posted this afternoon, we have the business to run the Holcroft on 15 turns. While there will be some movement amongst the 8's and 12's this helps us avoid lay-offs again next week. The anticipation is that in the new year the Holcroft will be able to go to continuous operations.

Number 1 Oil Temper line will be down for the rest of this year and the extra people will be used to vacuum hoist rails etc., some OT operators have been trained on the man-lift, so those with the necessary skills will be doing this work. The down time will also afford us the opportunity to reduce our inventory levels somewhat.

I've been told that we are are doing a good job in a lot of areas in regards to production and we are not far away from returning to profitability. Again....Good job!

December 3, 2009

The Company with the help of our members, are going to sponsor a family this Christmas. They are looking for cash donations from employees and all collected will be matched by ArcelorMittal. This is a good program and I hope that we can all donate something, this will be a tough Christmas for a lot of families here in Southern Ontario and we can make a difference.

The Local is also asking that members and retirees bring a non-perishable food item or unwrapped toy to the Social. The Women's Committee of the Area Council will deliver these items to different shelters in Hamilton.

Don't forget our Children's Christmas party is the 13th, if you have not yet registered see the info on the Christmas Party page and click contact us.

The Golden Horseshoe Credit Union has donated $500.00 to us to help those who are still laid off. We will be approaching grocery stores to try and turn the five hundred into more. Members will be contacted by phone regarding this. We thank the management of the Credit Union for their thoughtfulness.

And staying on the positive, we have no lay-offs next week as the Company has found work for those in the mill. This means a lot to those junior employees and to us. It shows that by working together instead of fighting each other at every turn, we can sew good returns for all of us.

I have had nothing but good comments from management and others regarding the efforts being put forth to have the mill cleaned. The mill looks great and this will be a real bonus for us, as those visiting our mill, whether they be customers or senior Executives from ArcelorMittal, have great sway into the future of our mill. GOOD JOB!

November 30, 2009

I'd like to express my thanks on behalf of my family to the membership and management for the kind words and warm thoughts as we dealt with the passing of my father this past week. Much appreciated.

I'd also like to thank those who voted in last week's International Elections. The official results from Pittsburgh have yet to be announced so we do not know who was elected as Director of District 6, the winner will take office in February of 2010. Good luck to both candidates, either of who will have the full support of Local 5328.

With only a few weeks left before the Christmas shutdown we are in a precarious position in regards to lay-offs, once again we have extra people in the mill this week who have been placed on utility work. It is our hope that we can do some training over the next two weeks to keep everyone employed but we are not sure yet as the Company has changed their scheduling meetings to Wednesday so they can have a better grip on what will be needed the following week. So as it stands we continue to go week by week regarding the man power situation.

We will be holding our Social on December 17th this year and we hope to see you all here, it is always nice to see the retirees and catch up with people we haven't seen for a while.

November 18, 2009

The Local has been without internet service at the office due to work being done by Cogeco so I have been unable to update the page. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I'd like to thank the membership for their donations to workers at ECP Brantford who have been on strike since August 2008. We collected $460.00 which is a good amount considering the size of our workforce now. The Brothers who were at our plant collecting were very grateful.

The Company has been putting together their budget for 2010 and after the fifth revision business looks promising for next year and the sales team continues to knock on doors in an effort to create volume in our plant. The Company has started a few capital expenditures in the mill, they have started replacing the lights in the Hot House and have begun permanent roof repair work on the east side of the mill.

The vacations are drying up now and that is going to result in possible lay-offs again. I'd like to point out to those who are back at work but do not have their 1040 hours for vacation that you are still entitled to vacation time. It will be paid at a reduced rate but it still pays between $12 and $15 per hour which is better than EI. So it may be a good idea to use up what you are entitled to rather than being laid off.

October 22, 2009

As we inch closer and closer to Christmas we also inch closer to the slow time for our business. We have had a good run the last few months and it's hoped that a good number of people have necessary number of hours to re-qualify for Employment Insurance incase there is lay-offs.

Next week we will have a surplus of people and their could be initial lay-offs, however we also have a number of people who have as many as 130 hours left of vacation to book. These people will be canvassed to try and avoid this from happening and to get this time used, as the vacation time has to be taken, there will be no buy-outs of vacation while we have members laid off!

I want to give an update on Ray, he is doing much better than at first thought. He is at the General Hospital now and he is located in the rehab unit at the rear of the hospital (the new section). Ray is in good spirits and has been walking in his physiotherapy sessions and he has learned to boot around in the wheel chair quite proficiently.

He also said thank you to every one for the card which was signed by most people at work. We wish him luck and hope to see him back at work soon.

October 9, 2009

We continue to roll along with a good volume load in the mill and are at present doing some further cross training in wire drawing to prepare ourselves for the future. In wire drawing the preference lists are almost finished and I want to emphasize that we are going back to shift rotation as being the priority for how we move people within the description. We have had too many instances of people being moved by others to get to a better job for a particular week. When we first started this three years ago it was agreed that this is how it would work and with the lack of volume and employees we got away from that. People need to be able to make plans in the future so we need to get this back under control.

We are still having problems with our scheduling of the mill and I had a meeting with the person in charge of this area to lay out the problems as I see them as expressed to me by you.  Starting next week the people who do the scheduling will be in the mill daily to follow up on problems associated with the demands, schedules and priority lists. I hope this helps us.

The mechanical area is in a position where we have many people in the mechanical technicians job without the skills they need to do the job as a whole. We are looking for a more structured way to proceed with cross training in this division. While I think we can get there, I recognize that there will be some pains when it comes to scheduling the area in such away that we have the appropriate coverage needed to keep the facility running up to speed. Short term pain for long term gain so to speak. I also recognize that it will be years if ever before the skill level is such that everyone will be exactly as skilled as the other but once complete we will be able to schedule people in line with preferred shifts and assignments, as it should be.

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving weekend with the family and I hope it is a good one for you as it is the last long weekend for some time.

September 23, 2009

What a turn around! It was only months ago where we had almost half of our membership laid off and the general thinking was that there would be no recalls until next spring, certainly not this year. Yet mere weeks after the visit by Heralton Fernandez we have volume coming through our mill.

Two Oil Temper lines, two furnaces and both cleaning lines running and the extra capacity in draw have resulted in us now only having twenty people laid off. We are now recalling the "Green Hats".

Some of these people are in school taking advantage of government funding for training, unless we run out of people to return to work these people can request a leave of absence if they get recalled. However if they are needed at some point they could have that leave cancelled. The company has no intention of hiring new people.

I'd like to congratulate Matthew Cowlin, son of a Burlington Works retiree and Seana Gardner - Fader, daughter of Gord Sigvalison and Victoria fader on winning the Joe Cruganale Secondary School Scholarships. They will be presented with a cheque for $500.00 at our September membership meeting. Their essays can be found on our scholarship page.

 August 17, 2009

This past Thursday we had a plant tour which went exceptionally well and Heralton Fernandez was very happy with what he saw. He said it looked even better than the last time he came through. This bodes well for our plant. He said the only thing missing was volume and more employees.

On the volume part of it we are seeing an increase in orders for strand and cold heading wire which we hope will lead to an up crew on the Strander/Stabilizer and bundling and that we can leave the furnace on continuous operations. This is not written in stone and will continue to be looked at on a weekly basis.

The good news from the tour continues in that those in charge of our mills have approved several Cap-Ex projects which will put some investment into our plant.

Roof repairs: ArcelorMittal will spend $200,000.00 per year over the next five years to return the roof to acceptable condition as to make sure it is structurally sound and that all leaks have been eliminated.

Air compressors: The current compressors we have are in the old Boiler House and at one time they were shared with the Rod Mill. As you know we have had many issues when it comes to these compressors. The company is going forward with a project to have these old and very big compressors removed and replace them with new "on demand" types of compressors.

Hot House lighting project: As with the rest of the mill, the lights in the hot house will be replaced as part of the ongoing program to reduce our energy costs. The new system will allow for the lights to be off until a tractor enters, the lights will come on and stay on until a period of 10 minutes after the tractor leaves.

PCB removal project: We have a number of transformer/capacitors and other electrical components which still have PCB's attached to them. These will all be removed to bring us to code.

There are also a number of requests still on the table from the local management which are being considered including Oil Temper line improvements and a new straighten and cut machine, these items will be addressed at a future date, but the above projects bode well for our facility and our members jobs.

If we continue to do the things we need to do to make our facility look good in terms of housekeeping and production our facility should be here for the long term. Good job!

July 30, 2009

We were able to get  the operations back into full swing yesterday after what was a trying time for everyone and the city is working to make sure this doesn't happen again.

We have another four wire drawers coming back next week and another straighten and cut operator. I have to point out that we shouldn't get our hopes up too much as we have 13 on vacation this week and 14 next week. These vacations will dry up soon and we will be back to reality. However for those who do return albeit for just a week or two it does extend full coverage of benefits for three more months and gets that pension credit and Stat. payment.

I will be on vacation Friday July 31st. I hope you all have a "SUN FILLED" long weekend.

July 28, 2009

The rain storm that we had on Sunday has affected our operations and has resulted in the cancellation of some operations. The Cleaning Line and Oil Temper have been down since Sunday evening. Wire drawing has used up what stock there was in the mill as has bundling. Today only the furnace operators and two shippers and the testers are in the plant.

The problem stems from a flooding of the Water Treatment Plant on Woodward Avenue. Their Bump pump, which directs lake water to our operation was completely submerged and had to be removed by crane and rebuilt. This morning they are working on reinstalling it (it's a big job) then hooking up the electrics and testing it.

The hope is that if nothing goes wrong we will be back in operation this afternoon.

July 23, 2009

On May 28, 2009 a notice was sent to the Company from Contrecoeur but was not passed on to the Local. The letter is below and explains the COLA adjustment and accounts for the discrepancy people have been seeing on their pay stubs. COLA is now 0.05 cents per straight time hours worked.

The #1 Oil Temper line will be down crewed once again as we have satisfied sales demands to fill holes in our stocking program for this material. This will result in eight people being laid off at the end of this week. We will be recalling one wire drawer and two furnace operators to cover vacations.

July 16, 2009

The Company has taken to increasing its inventories throughout the mill to enable the sales staff a greater flexibility when it comes to servicing our customers. This has resulted in some recalls of laid  off employees, we are happy for that.

The junior person in wire drawing is now Tom Lewis and the junior Oil Temper Operator is Goran Komeljenovic. I hope this helps you see where you stand as you await word of a recall.

Congratulations to the eight laid off employees who have been hired to what is now a six month term at Dofasco. Those who were hired are amongst our most junior employees and the likelihood of being recalled within that period is very slim. However while the Union is happy some work was done on the Dofasco front, we are very disappointed that another 10 didn't make it and I'll temper my comments on this until a later date but I want it to be known that our objections have been made to the Company on this.

Just as a reminder, the Adjustment Centre here can help you upgrade your skills. There is computer training classes, you can work to get your grade twelve equivalency through GED. They will also help you put together a resume. This is all free so take advantage of this while you are off.

July 6,2009

There is a delay at Great West Life in getting the necessary work done to affect the reinstatement of benefits. You are covered if you received the letter below, hopefully the pharmacies will be in the know at any time. In the meantime if you can afford it you can pay up front and submit the claim and you will be reimbursed.

The following letter was sent out to eligible employees today, note that dental is not covered. If there is a dental emergency contact us and we will try to get you into the Steelworker dentist ASAP.

June 11, 2009

May 29, 2009

Please note that our membership meeting for June will be held on Wednesday June 17th because of the Drive to Work campaign.

We are getting ready for another week of outage at the mill and will return on June 8th. At that time the Oil Temper will restart continuous operations bringing three operators back to work. We will also be calling back one wire drawer. The Strander/Stabilizer is going down to five turns for a week as is 61 frame but we are up crewing a few frames to ten turns.

As a general update I will let you know what we heard from the Company yesterday at our monthly meeting: The news this last week has been better than it has for a while, in the markets durable goods are up, construction of new homes is increasing, as is the resale housing market in the US. The majority of economists believe we have hit rock bottom and are ready to go back up the hill.

In the US trade actions have led to sanctions against China for dumping Strand. While they will probably just send their boats to Canada we have a good presence here for what little strand business there is in Canada. Now, with the Buy American policies put in place in the United States we will only be able to participate in Federal projects when it comes to US stimulus spending. We will be blocked from individual State projects but we should still do ok.

We were told that the housekeeping throughout the mill is leaving a great impression on Company Officials and Customers alike as they tour our facility. We were asked to pass on their thanks for keeping it in such good condition as this will only lead to increased activity at Hamilton East.

Below are the President's Notes from our recent newsletter which has been mailed to the laid off people, I put these comments here for our retirees.

President's Notes from the Local News: May 2009

It’s been seven months since our first round of lay–offs and while no one would have anticipated the cuts here would go so deep, we continue to struggle as we are coming into what is traditionally our busy season. The question for us is how busy will we be?

Chrysler has declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in the US and with General Motors expected to miss their next debt payment on June 1^st, it looks like they will follow suit. Either of them going down is bad enough but with both going down it does not bode well for the Auto Parts sector, many of whom are our customers.

We have already seen a one week outage of the Surface/Holcroft furnaces. The demand for cold heading wire is very soft and there are no big increases expected with this particular product line.

Anyone who has been near the Oil Temper stock area knows that we are over run with inventory, in fact we are now storing this material in the annealing rows and on trailers outside. Thus the decision to cut back to fifteen turns. There was talk of taking the unit down for a week or so but they didn’t want to turn away any customers calling for orders on sizes we don’t have in stock, this was a week ago. Since then they have announced a one week outage along with the June 1^st shutdown. If we have another outage we will be looking for the senior guys to get their bumps to another job.

 A good part of this product line is automotive driven as well so we are at their mercy right now. The hope is that we will reduce the inventories which frees up cash for the company and we will be able to get back to full out sooner rather than later.

 The Strander/Satbilzer started back up on May 11^th after we started shipping a good number of packs from our inventory.  With this up crew we were able to add two wire drawers and three operators on this unit. It’s a start and all signs point to at least a moderate increase in the construction market which is needed for us to be able to sell strand.

The Committee of Local 5328 participated in a conference call in April with the National and the District Directors of the Steelworkers as well as Local Unions from workplaces across Canada including Contrecour. The call in itself was troubling; story after story from the locals told of massive lay-offs, rotating shutdowns and closures of facilities due to the downturn in the markets combined with the increased dumping of steel by countries such as China, Russia, Brazil, and India. There seems to be no relief on the horizon for the industry as the auto and construction sectors continue to struggle.

 This call is not lost on this committee. We understand what is happening out there beyond the walls of Hamilton East. You can say that we get it.

We recognize the need to be lean during these tough times, we recognize the need to reduce costs, and we recognize that we also have an opportunity here to overtake weaker competitors in the wire industry.  We recognize the fact that we need to work together more than ever to bring this business as close to profit as we can so that the owners will want to keep us afloat until the recovery takes place.

Since Mittal purchased Stelwire in 2006 the Union has adopted a policy of cooperation rather than confrontation. At the negotiating table with Mittal in 2005 the Union made commitments to the Company which we feel we have lived up to.

We have combined jobs, reducing the number of job descriptions from fifty four to fourteen. As a result we have the flexibility the Company was looking for. We went from hundreds of grievances to a number which can be counted on both hands.

Whenever the Company has had a problem with processes or communicating an issue with the employees/members we have offered our help, successfully in most cases. At the recent set of negotiations the committee recognized the needs of the company going forward and responded accordingly in a prudent and consciences way for the sake of both the Company and our members.

As stated above, we get it.

What we don’t get is how someone who has not drawn wire for a number of years on machinery they were never used to running in the first place can be expected to produce the same as those who have been at it for most of their working time here without interruption.

What we don’t get is how we can still be having the same carrier issues that we have been having for 3 years.

What we don’t get is how we can say we need SAP to do something different (Rod & Bar and Cleaning Lines) after spending millions on the system and are told it can’t be done rather than insisting it must be done.

What we don’t get is how this is acceptable.

What we cannot understand is that if we have problems with the same people over and over when it comes to the rules in the plant, why we paint every one with the same brush rather than dealing with those individuals.

I do not want to minimize the need for us to be a productive facility regardless of how busy we are. At a time when ArcelorMittal, US Steel, Severstal and others are shutting down plants, temporary or otherwise we have to stand above the rest.

But this is not on just the member’s backs. Management has to do the things it needs to do to facilitate the operation. In other words, and I’ll say it again…we all have to do our jobs the way they should be done.

Stelwire/ArcelorMittal Hamilton East has provided a decent living for us and our families and a decent retirement with benefits to our pensioners. This workforce is getting older and there is no doubt about that, many of us are dreaming of the day when we too can move on.

I still truly believe that if Mr. Mittal wants to be in the wire business here in North America, we can be the focal point for a company with far reaching capabilities. The flag ship if you will.

We had a mill tour with Heralton Fernandes, the newly appointed COO for North American Long Products. The tour itself could not have been any better. The place was clean, people were busy at work, safety equipment, including seatbelts, were being used. He was very impressed and said so out loud to our local management team. In my opinion this is a testament to the workers we have at our facility in showing pride of workmanship.

We have a workforce that is knowledgeable and hard working, which has adapted for the most part to the changes which have taken place since acquisition and it’s a work force which in times of need goes beyond what is required in our daily jobs. This needs to be recognized by all.

This brings me to a point I do not want to miss. We have members who have gone out of their way to keep people in the plant by taking pre-retirement vacation time. We have one member who took a weeks vacation so that a laid off member could get recalled in order to get confirmation that he was working to get mortgage approval. Personally I’d like to say thank you.

We also had the Laid – Off Workers Night which was supported by most of you here, you have no idea how good this made those members feel. Good Job!

I would like to thank everyone who put their name forward for a position on the Local Union Executive. It’s never an easy thing to step forward and face an election. I have been there many times and I have lost many times, I know the mindset that accompanies that. Congratulations to Terry Willock for his election to Vice–President. I’d like to thank both Terry and Brett for running what I thought was a very clean election; it speaks volumes to the character of both. I also want to thank Tony Ciaramella for his work as Vice-President.

In closing I’d like to wish you all a great and safe summer. I hope you can join us for our social after the June meeting.

To those of you still laid off, we hope to see you all back soon…hang in there and remember we haven’t forgotten about you.

 May 15, 2009

The Company announced this week that the Oil Temper lines would be going down for next week in an effort to reduce the stock levels we currently have in our mill. With this is a cut back in the draw area. The net result is 13 people being laid off again.

May 11, 2009

This week has brought about a few changes in the mill with the Oil Temper Lines going to fifteen turns and the up crewing of the Strander/Stabilizer. These events and a few vacations have resulted in the recall of eight members.

Last week we had a mill tour with Heralton Fernandes, the newly appointed CEO for North American Long Products. The tour itself could not have been any better. The place was clean, people were busy at work, safety equipment, including seatbelts were being used. He was very impressed and sais so out loud to our local management team. In my opinion this is a testament to the workers we have at our facility in showing pride of workmanship and it should be duly noted by management.

Also last week the Company announced another one week shut down during the first week of June. This week has to be covered by vacation...there will be no leaves of absences. This brings the total shut down picture to three weeks this year. The Union tried to have the latest shutdown moved beside the July shutdown so we could have two weeks together but the customer base is such that we cannot afford to shut down for two weeks in a row and still service them. I am being told that this shutdown was a corporate decision to help us reduce our inventories and as such the shippers will be working that week.

April 22, 2009

We will be recalling five people next week and these people have been contacted. All will be put into wire drawing which will see a few machines going to 2 shifts. It's our hope these people will be back for some time and not just an in and out type of recall.

I have been informed that the swearing in of Officers doesn't take place until the May membership meeting, that's when the new Officers take over. Sorry if this has caused any confusion.

On April 28th ArcelorMittal will be holding its Health and Safety Day events at work and will participate in the Unions Day of Mourning ceremonies at City Hall by renting a van and bringing a few salary people and a number of hourly employees to the commemoration.

Laid off members are welcome to come to the plant to take part in activities at work. You will not be paid but are welcome to come in if you are available.

The Local would like to see some of the laid off workers at the monument as we remember workers killed and injured on the job, info below.

April 16,2009

ELECTION RESULTS  FOR VICE - PRESIDENT

BRETT LEWIS   37

TERRY WILLOCK 64

SPOILED BALLOTS 2

TOTAL VOTE 103

April 15, 2009

Well on a brighter note we are starting the furnaces up Sunday night bringing back 5 people and we also have two Brothers taking their pre-retirement vacation which will bring back at least one person.

We have seen some new orders come in over the last few days for Strand and Oil Temper material and we are shipping some secondary material into the market. While this doesn't directly add people to our mill it helps in avoiding further lay-offs.

The Company has extended the benefit of the EAP (Employee Assistance Program) for a period of 6 months from today.

"When you are speaking to the union remind them that employees can come for personal counseling or credit counseling or both.  At times like this they may need the credit counseling more than the personal counseling."

April 3,2009

The news doesn't get any better this week as we lay-off another nine people effective today. This brings the total number of people laid off to 78 with 87 remaining in the plant. However, the fact that we are still operating is in itself good news, as long as we are able to wait out this downturn we will be ready when the bubble breaks. Below is an article I read last night regarding the economy, it also provides a bit of good news on the economy.

The company is also restructuring their salary ranks and have so far reduced their numbers by four as they try to control costs and move closer to a profit.

As noted below we are having an election for Vice-President. I would encourage all our laid off people to come down to the plant and support your candidate.

Congratulations to those who were acclaimed during our recent nomination meeting. It is also great to see a couple of new faces come aboard. I'm awaiting the results from VP election but I'd say we have a very solid Executive for another three years.

Apr 2, 7:04 AM (ET)

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ

HONG KONG (AP) - World stock markets soared Thursday, with Hong Kong's benchmark vaulting more than 7 percent, as stronger-than-expected U.S. economic figures boosted confidence the world's largest economy is on the mend.

Huge gains in Asia and a strong open in Europe followed an overnight surge on Wall Street and extended last month's rebound in world equity markets amid tentative signs of stabilization in the hard-hit global economy and banking industry. It came as Group of 20 leaders met in London for a summit that aims to hammer out policies to combat the economic slump and reform the global financial system.

Nearly every sector in Asia charged higher, with carmakers like Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) rallying on U.S. auto figures that were less dismal than feared. Exporters such as Sony Corp. (SNE) were lifted by the weakening yen.

Investors were encouraged after U.S. car sales jumped by nearly 25 percent last month from February, beating the typical rise and underpinning hopes of a turnaround in the American auto market - critical for Asia's giant auto companies.

 

(AP) Graphic shows percentage change for major marketplaces. Full Image

A rebound in pending U.S. home sales in February from a record low, as well as improving manufacturing activity, added to a growing belief the most severe global downturn in decades may be moving close to a bottom.

Still, the upbeat evidence distracted investors from more sobering news the U.S. private sector continued to shed hundreds of thousands of jobs last month - a worrisome sign as investors brace for Friday's report on nationwide job cuts. Meanwhile, there were signs of widening divisions between major nations at the G-20 meeting.

With the economic crisis still far from over, analysts warned of more painful market volatility as the recession unfolds.

"We're starting to see some initial signs of green shoots. The question is whether or not this is a sound foundation for stability in the economy," said Song Seng Wun, head of research at CIMB-GK in Singapore. "It's still hard to tell."

In early European trade, Britain's FTSE 100 jumped 2.9 percent, Germany's DAX gained 3.2 percent and France's CAC was up 3.1 percent. Stock futures pointed to more gains on Wall Street. Dow futures were up 132 points, or 1.7 percent, to 7,850 and S&P 500 futures gained 14.8, or 1.8 percent, to 824.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average jumped 367.87 points, or 4.4 percent, to 8,719.78, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng led the region's gains, soaring 1,002.43 points, or 7.4 percent, to 14,521.97. South Korea's Kospi added 3.5 percent to 1,276.97.

Elsewhere, benchmarks in Australia and Taiwan gained about 3 percent. Singapore jumped 5.3 percent and India's Sensex climbed 4.9 percent.

Auto companies turned in a strong performance, with Toyota up 5.5 percent and Nissan Motor Co. vaulting 14 percent. Banks roared ahead as well. Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. gained 8.9 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. rose 7.4 percent.

Sentiment got a lift from overnight gains on Wall Street, where investors were stretched out a four-week rally that's taken the market off its lowest levels in 12 years.

The Dow rose 152.68, or 2 percent, to 7,761.60, and broader market indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13.21, or 1.7 percent, to 811.08.

Oil crept above $49 a barrel in Asia as investors weighed glimmers of hope in the U.S. economy against concerns that global demand remains weak. Benchmark crude for May delivery rose 98 cents to $49.37 a barrel. The contract fell $1.27 on Wednesday to settle at $48.39.

In currencies, the dollar rose to 99.25 yen from 98.42 yen, and the euro gained to $1.3261 from $1.3245.
 

ELECTION NOTICE

There will be an election for the

Office of

Vice-President

Candidates: Brett Lewis and Terry Willock

 Date: April 15, 2009

Location: Punch Clock Area

ArcelorMittal Hamilton East

Time: 6:00 am - 7:15 am

2:00 pm - 3:15 pm

6:00 pm – 7:15 pm

On March 21st we will be holding our "Laid Off Workers Night" at the Steelhall, a social evening to raise funds for our laid off members. We will host a barbecue, there will be door prizes, raffles and cards. 6pm -12 am...A donation of $10 for entry is appreciated, laid off workers free.

Also on March 21st there will be a rally at the Hamilton Convention Centre, see the poster below for details. We'd like to see all laid off members, retirees and workers come out as we make the presence of Local 5328 known. Its time for us to say Enough is Enough!

Laid Off Workers Night

RAFFLE

For a USW Local 5328

                                              Mountain Leather Jacke

                           To be drawn at the Laid Off Workers Night

                                      Tickets …a donation of $5.00

Wow!

When I heard the news Tuesday evening it was like someone kicked me in the stomach. This is truly sad day for the City of Hamilton.

 The announced closing of Hamilton and Lake Erie Works, although temporary sends a message of doom to the already devastated manufacturing hub here in Southern Ontario.  I’m not sure how much more we can take.

 But this I do know. It’s time for the federal government to get off its collective rear end and offer communities such as ours more than a stimulus package that will do very little to bring this downward spiral to a close.

 Its time they increased Employment Insurance benefit rates so that families do not lose their homes. It is time to extend benefits to laid - off workers for longer than the five weeks they have offered. Thousands of families will be forced onto the welfare rolls here in Hamilton within months and tens of thousands across this country will be in the same bout.

 It is time for Canadians to wake up and take a stand. Enough is Enough!

 Local 1005 and Local 8782 are two of the great unions which have always been here for our community. Coming from a former Stelco sister plant, I have had the great pleasure of working with the leaders of both Locals.  I can say this, the membership of these locals will be well served by their Union in what will be a difficult time going forward. And these workplaces will be back.

 As for our place, we continue to plug along as we hold our own. We have a number of trials coming through the mill and hopefully they result in increased orders. There are a few wire mills in Canada and the USA which are in trouble and could fold. Sadly, these closures will help us as well.

Vacations are almost ready to go and hopefully we will begin booking shortly.

February 5, 2009

The Company has agreed to the Union's request regarding extended benefits. Those members who are not entitled to sub pay will have their Group Insurance benefits extended by two months.

Retirees have recently received a letter from the Steelworkers in Quebec which was in French. Please disregard this letter. It is an invitation to a dinner for Lawrence Mc Brearty.

January 28, 2009

Today we will be recalling three more wire drawers to start this afternoon. Further to that we will  be recalling four more to start next Monday (Feb. 2nd). Also eight OT operators will be recalled for Sunday Night (Feb 1st) to restart the other OT line.

While this is good news I have to caution about getting too excited. I don't want anyone thinking we are out of the woods yet. We are still facing many uncertainties when it comes to the economy. But you are correct in saying this is a good sign for the business.

We have asked the Company to extend group insurance benefits to the first two groups of laid off employees. These folks do not qualify for the SUB pay and have or are close to exhausting their coverage. I will post here when I have an answer.

Your Committee met with the Company on January 22nd to discuss business conditions, vacations and other items. Below are some of the topics we discussed and what is happening with them.

Vacations:

•  The Vacation Relief postings will be up by the end of this week
•  The planned shutdowns will be for the weeks of June 28th and December 20th. The Union suggested a partial shutdown so as to be producing for our customers.
•  Once V/R's are awarded we will meet again to go over the rules etc., then canvassing can begin.

CWS:

•  Once again we are waiting on Montreal to get this mess sorted out but the HR Director is pushing to get the process started.

Profit Sharing:

•  We will form a separate group to deal with the commitment made at negotiations to start looking at different scenarios with the help of our Research Department. Preliminary meeting will be held in the next couple of weeks.

Mechanical:

•  We had a good strong discussion on the trades and the cross-training or lack of. It took a while but the Company now understands the Union position and the Division Head will work with the Mechanical Chief Steward to put something in place so as to expedite the training.

January 20, 2009

With Obama being sworn in today as President it brings great hope to everyone and I wanted to see what an a posting with good news would be like, so here goes.
 
We will be recalling 3 people next week. They will be posted to the wire drawing job and used in bundling to cover whoever moves to the cleaning line. One guy will draw wire.
 
The #1 cleaning line operator and stocker will be posted for 1 shift. We have additional orders coming in for wire so that's good.
 
We are also starting to receive rod for the OT this week which will continue, once it is all tested and in front of the frames for drawing the plan is to start up the other OT line, this could result in 8 OT operators and 3 more wire drawers coming back possibly mid week.

The company also has a contingent of people coming from Quebec on the 21st to deal with the SAP issues we continue to have. They have been directed to solve the problems.

The Company has announced yet more lay-offs. Another 15 will be laid off with their last day worked being Friday.

 There will be a reconfiguration of jobs and bumping to take place over the next week. This will take some time but we have the commitment of the company that they will expedite this process as quickly as possible.

The Union had been willing up to this point to go with temporary transfers where a lay-off was not being considered but that has not happened because of the business conditions we face.

It seems that while we have been able to escape the effect of the economic downturn to a point, we too are now facing the reality of the situation.

The previous lay-off as reported at our December membership meeting was hoped to be short lived due to the ability to get rod from the rod mill and steelmaking which were shut down for a number of weeks. Sadly, even if we had that rod in the yard we would still be facing further lay-offs.

 The Union has requested more frequent meetings with your Committee and regular updates on the SUB funding so as to keep you updated. We have also asked that the names and phone numbers of laid off employees be given to Dofasco as per negotiations this past summer.

 Due to the amount of lay-offs and cut backs there are going to be situations where we will be working on jobs that we haven’t worked on for a long period of time. Please work safely. Take your time and ask questions or get help if needed.

 With what little customer base we have left we have to be careful and make sure our customers needs are being met by producing a quality product.

 We have weathered many storms in the past. By working and pulling together we will weather this storm as well. 

 We will try to keep you updated as much as possible but we have to point out that the best time for an accurate update is at the membership meeting which is held on the fourth Thursday of the month.

Welcome to 2009, what  this year holds in store for us is anyone's guess as we navigate our way through the economic climate that has been causing havoc throughout the world.

The Rod Mill is up and running after being shut down for a lengthy period. This will give us the much needed material for our lines to run and Georgetown is trying to get us our pre-stressed material. SAP seems to be running a bit smoother with less down time because of the bugs but there is still work to do on it obviously.

Obama takes over on January 20th at which time he will release his economic stimulus plan which should be of assistance to the many customers we have. The Conservative government here in Canada will follow suit on January 27th. So we are somewhat hopeful going forward.

I have given the names and phone numbers of our laid off people to the Steelworker Adjustment Center and those members can expect a call to see if there is anything the Center can do to help employee or offer skills to them.

We hope to see you all back to work soon. Don't forget that every 4rth Thursday is our membership meeting ...come out and get the latest info on what is happening in the plant.

The work sharing proposition has fallen through. The problem is that the people laid off are ineligible to participate in the program and as it takes six weeks to get approval for the plan anyone else laid off within the six week period would not be eligible either. This is truly unfortunate.

Today we were called to a meeting to discuss the crewing post shut down. The news was not good. The Company announced that due to business conditions a further twenty five people would be laid off effective the week of January 4rth, 2009. This will bring us to a total of 41 people laid off which is a much deeper cut than any one had ever anticipated.

With the automotive industry cutting back and announcements of plant closures by the Big Three we are at the mercy of the markets. Many of our customers service these plants which in turn hurts us.

There is also an issue with getting Rod from Montreal because of shutdowns at the Rod Mill and Steelmaking.

We do however remain confident that the second quarter promises to be much better for us as things start to turn around.

This week your Committee met with the Company and an EI representative to discuss the possibility of a WORK SHARING agreement. This would be a three way agreement between the Union, Company and E I, which could be cancelled at any time by any one of the parties. Typically it works when a Company is struggling and there are many lay-offs. The employees would work 4 days a week and E I would pay 55% of the maximum benefit for the fifth day. So there is a cost to each of us...the idea is to share the pain throughout the workforce while avoiding the lay-offs.

While the Rep. was able to answer most of our questions there are many unanswered questions and your Committee is not prepared at this time to move forward with anything until those questions are answered. If we are satisfied in the near future with the answers to these questions we will come to you the membership for your direction. If we are not satisfied with the answers then we will not be proceeding at all.

Don't forget that at after the December membership meeting we will hold our annual Social, we hope to see you all there.

The headlines in today's Spectator says it all: "175 being laid off at US Steel, Dofasco shutting down operations for two weeks over Christmas for the first time in their history."

We are not alone when it comes to the order books being low. The result here at Hamilton East is that we will also be facing more lay-offs in the coming weeks. Sadly, its not too surprising given the announcements coming from the auto industry.

But the fact remains that we are a viable operation and we should be able to ride out the first quarter until things start to improve in the second quarter albeit with less people. We do expect to have everyone back at some point in the next six months.

The following is a letter we are giving to each of our laid off members in hopes that they know the Union is here for them and we do care what happens to them and their families:

Dear member:

As we make our way through this difficult time the Company and Union continue to work together to make this business as profitable as can be despite the current economic conditions.

We have for many weeks been able to avoid any lay – offs here at Hamilton East but the time has come where this has become unavoidable despite our best efforts.

It should be noted that we are also entering our traditionally slow period for the business and we expect it to pick back up in the New Year.

You will find attached to this letter our contact information and a leaflet describing the services of the Steelworker Adjustment Centre, they are there to help you navigate through the process of finding another job in the interim.

During the recent set of negotiations the benefits for laid off employees were extended to three months from the date of lay off so you should be good until the New Year. We hope this helps.

We wish you luck in the coming months and look forward to seeing you back to work shortly. We will try to keep the web site updated so that you can see what the conditions here are. Feel free to call us in the event of any problems you and your family may be facing. We are here to help.

 In Solidarity,

 Your Committee

And Some good news for our Brothers at Georgetown:

We have had our first lay - offs. Three Brothers were laid off effective October 24th due to the slowdown in the economy. The Company will be reviewing its manpower needs on a week by week basis.

On a more positive note we are receiving requests for price quotes from a couple of American customers. The lower Canadian dollar should prove to be  a powerful tool for us as we fight for what little market there is in the wire business.

We have also picked up some strand and Oil Temper orders. So we remain optimistic that we can ride this thing out.

Your Committee met with the company this morning to discuss the weakening demand for Strand/cable. They wanted to cut back to 15 and 10 turns on strander/stabilizer and 15 turns on 61 frame.

It seems the global economic mess is playing hard on us as well and has interrupted our ability to sell to the South American market. The Canadian dollar though is opening the US market and the sales team is working hard to capture some of that business.

After some discussion they agreed to keep it up crewed for one more week. The Operators will be doing cleanup along with some production on their equipment.

The Company has also realized they are short of skills in the shipping area and will be posting an opportunity for Drivers to get familiarized there next week. The senior driver who comes forward will get the opportunity.

A few more people have come forward to take some of their pre-retirement vacation.

On a positive note their will be no lay-offs next week.

While we are slow at this time I'd like to point out that we are not alone in this slowdown. St. Patrick's and Walker Wire are both light on orders. The Rod Mill and Steelmaking will shut down for three weeks as the overall demand for steel has fallen in light of the current economic conditions.

We have been able to avoid lay-offs so far by working with the Company on solutions such as training and the Company train 11 people in Health and Safety Level 1. The housekeeping looks good and continues to be a focus. A number of people have stepped up and are using some of their 15 weeks pre-retirement vacations to also help keep people in the plant. These people are to be congratulated for taking care of their Brothers who would otherwise be laid off.

There will be a sales group strategy meeting at our plant on Thursday with people from Quebec and Detroit. Al says he wants to get volume in here regardless if we don't make a lot of money on it. The extra work which may be revenue neutral will lower our over head costs. So once I hear how the meeting went I'll let you know.
 
 

Summer is over and so begins what is traditionally a slow time for us at work. But this slow time allows us the opportunity to take advantage of having a few extra people so we can begin training people throughout the mill.

I have pointed out to the Company that we have a shortage of skills in the test room, cleaning lines, die room, strander/stabilizer and we still need to cross train in wire drawing. As well there is a need for tractor training. The Company does recognize these needs but with vacations and sickness there was just not enough people. So as vacations dry up we are hoping to start some of this training soon.

We will also be getting a new computer system which will replace the current IBS system. The new program which is called SAP, will go live on November 1st., training will take place for everyone in October. This new system will follow material from the time it comes off the truck as rod until it leaves our plant as finished goods. The Company has asked me to go to Montreal for a couple of weeks to learn the system as it applies to the operating area so that I can try to work out some of the bugs before it goes live and to work with all of you when it does go love. This will also give me a chance to take a closer look at the operations in Quebec while I'm there.

Labour Day was a huge success once again and this year it was even better because of the volunteers who helped at the parade and at the park. I'd like to thank the following people for their assistance. Terry Willock, Brett Lewis, Jerry Porcelli, Nerses Kizilian, Mario Caruso and family.

Effective August 31st we have a COLA increase of 36 cents.

_________________________________________________________

On June 26th the membership of Local 5328 voted 84.7% in favour of accepting the new agreement between Local 5328 and ArcelorMittal Hamilton East.

While there were no big wage or pension gains in this round we did secure new language which will help with vacation bookings, transition from 8's to 12's, and new preferential hiring provisions which include Dofasco and improved bereavement language. There are also increased benefits for both active and retiree members.

The agreement addresses concerns for the business as well as the needs of our members and retirees. It provides opportunity for investment and the hiring of new people to our workforce.

Details of the agreement can be found on our Update page.

I would like to thank the members of the Negotiating and Health & Safety Committees for their professional behavior at the table and I'd also like to thank Tony DePaulo, our Staff Rep. for his help.

This afternoon the Company and Union agreed to a protocol on negotiations which paves the way for us to start negotiating next Monday, June 2nd. The goal of the Union committee is to bring back an agreement which meets our needs going forward prior to the shutdown so that you the members can go on your vacation with the knowledge that you have an agreement to carry you through the next couple of years.

We will try to keep you updated as often as we can.

There will be a social after the June membership meeting where we will serve hamburgers and hot dogs and have a few drinks to kick off the summer.

On May 1st a demonstration was held at the Local 1005 Union hall protesting the loss of manufacturing jobs in Canada and the governments failure to do anything to help curb the job losses.

Speakers included Ken Newman, Canadian President of the Steelworkers and Gen Georgetti, President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

Protesters marched down Kenilworth Avenue along Burlington Street, back up Ottawa Street and then back to the Union Hall for a barbecue. Below are two links which captured the spirit of the march. Please have a look.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-8772514068297583533&hl=en-CA

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8439117114396034240&hl=en
 

Your Negotiating Committee has been working hard to get our proposals together for negotiations. The letter below was delivered to the Company on May 1st and we await their reply so we can set an agenda going forward. We will keep you updated as best we can.

As directed by the membership we have sent four 5328 sweaters to the remaining employees at Walker Wire. When I talked to Sean (President of that Local) he sounded quite grateful for them. We continue to stay in touch with each other.

At our next membership meeting we will hold a draw for those active members in attendance, to be part of the Local entry into the Rick Woods golf tourney, 4 to be drawn.

I hope to see many of you there.

May 1, 2008

 Sandra Cabral

Director, Human Resources

ArcelorMittal Canada Hamilton East

 Dear Sandra,

I am writing to inform you that the Union desires revision of the current Basic Agreement due to expire on July 31, 2008.

I look forward to hearing from you to discuss matters relative to the renewal of this agreement and its ancillary agreements.

We look forward to productive and mutually beneficial discussions.

 Yours Truly,

Darren Green

President

USW Local 5328

Walker Wire

On April 3rd I visited Walker Wire to have a look at the operation as directed by the Executive. What I saw there came as no surprise, it was exactly as the Company had explained to me.

Walker used to have a draw room and a straighten & cut room but the machinery has been removed and these areas are used for storage of coils waiting to be delivered to our customers. The Bell Furnaces and the Cleaning Line are still there, mothballed  incase they are ever needed again.

I had a chance to spend some time with the Local Union President (UAW), and we had a good talk. He is hoping that the economic climate changes in the future so as to be able to get the business running again at some point. His members are all collecting unemployment insurance and will be ok for possibly 2 years if they go back to school.

We promised to keep in touch with each other and I will be sending 4 USW Local 5328 shirts for the 4 remaining  hourly employees there.

Other news

It has been reported that for the period ending the first quarter that while the wire group lost money our facility has finally shown a profit and this along with the 8 new hires is indeed good news.

The Company has started canvassing for vacations and hopefully it is wrapped up shortly. The shutdown at Christmas is now the last week of December.

Your Negotiating Committee has been working for the last three days on proposals to be put forth at the bargaining table. On May 1st we will give the Company a letter of our desire to revise or terminate the current agreement on July 31st.

On Wednesday the company announced that it was closing its Lachine wire mill to consolidate it into St. Patrick. This was not a surprise as these two operations were running at about 48% capacity at both plants. This move will allow the company to reduce some large overhead costs. 58 of the 158 jobs from Lachine will be moved to St. Patrick, the company will offer buy-out packages and move other workers to its other Montreal area facilities.

This move has little or no effect on us here in Hamilton. We are in two different product lines and the machinery from Lachine is very old and of little use to us.

We wish our Quebec brothers well as they go through what is sure to be a tough transition.

Vacations

The vacation Relief postings have been awarded so now its just a matter of confirming how much vacation time everyone is entitled to. We should be having a meeting early next week to get them going. They will return to canvassing employees this year.

There has been some confusion in the last week as we return to an 8 hour shift pattern on many jobs. The reasoning for this as stated by the Company is as follows:

We cannot support 2 furnaces with our current load so we are idling back the Holcroft furnace. The former Burlington members are being trained/familiarized  as wire drawers so that they have additional skills in our plant.

The Oil Temper Lines on the other hand have a great demand put on them as customers are asking for a shorter turn around time. To that end we are starting up #2 line on Friday Feb. 29th. There will be some temporary transfers here until the people who are training get qualified.

The Bundling is down crewing to 15 turns with 3 people per crew. This is due to the fact that we will no longer be processing for one customer. The number of people per crew will be monitored to see if 3 is enough.

We are also trying to get the training finished on the Strander/Stabilizer so it can move to continuous operations.

Tests are being written by those who have applied for the test room training opportunity and successful applicants should be posted shortly.

With all the movement over this week and next there is bound to be some mistakes however your Committee is working hard on your behalf to try to minimize these mistakes. Let someone know if you have a problem.

On March 3rd your Negotiating Committee will be seeking your input as we prepare for the upcoming round of negotiations. Please take time to fill in the questionnaire that will be handed out at the punch clocks.

On January 24th your Committee had a meeting with the company to go through the 2008 budget, while I cannot share the actual numbers with you in this forum, I can provide you with info on how the company plans to proceed with the business this year.

There is a mixture of good news/bad news for us here in Hamilton, you be the judge of which is which.

Over the last year we have had many visitors throughout our mill, many were here evaluating our business and our product lines to see if we could improve our performance with more value added products and practices. After continual losses over the last two years the patience is running out in regards to the Wire Group, (not just Hamilton). 2008 seems to be the make or break year for all plants. However the company did acknowledge that  the losses have not been due to just shop floor issues but that the problems go throughout the business.

Once again pride of ownership was brought up as an issue. Our sales team is out pounding on doors to get new business but as has happened more than once, a potential customer has not given us their business because of the state of our mill. All of us have a role to play in keeping the mill clean and orderly form the shop floor worker to the supervisor to the plant manager. First impressions do count and we have to make that good first impression.

The tonnage for 2008 remains roughly the same as 2007 yet we will notice a shift in the products we produce with more focus on high value products such as Oil Temper and Strand Cable.

We have lost a customer who added a lot of volume to our mill but little in the way of return and at times costing us money to produce. This will result in one of our furnaces being shut down. This customer has committed to taking any material we have for them on the floor and that should allow both furnaces to run until the end of March.

With the up crew of other equipment, training issues, vacations etc. the employment picture should remain what it is today. The shutdown of the furnace will also give the former Burlington employees a chance to upgrade their skills here.

The company has introduced a price increase which has generally been accepted by our customers, but along with that, the customers expect a quality product on time when paying this increase.

The company is looking at the composition of the mill going forward and how jobs will be scheduled ie. continuous vs. Mon-Fri.

A preliminary look at the operation goes something like this:

Oil Temper...looking to get as much production as we can out of the two lines currently running, we need to get people trained and then start the third line.

Strand ....leaning towards continuous operations on the stabilizer, 15 turns on Strander and either 15 or 21 turns on 61 Frame.

Bundling...less load could result in only 9 or 10 bundlers 15 or 21 turns.

Annealing...continuous operations for one furnace.

Cleaning...Continuous Operations at # 2 Cleaning Line and 5 turns on #1 Cleaning Line.

Wire Drawing...tonnage to increase with 35 wire drawers needed.

The company is aware of their training needs and hopefully we can address these in the coming months. They are currently working on a vacation schedule, we are hoping to meet with them this week or next.

After a rough start to the New Year the mill seems to be running well. We have received the first part of our carrier order (more to come), and both the Holcroft and Surface furnaces are pushing steel. Bundling and Oil Temper are busy and we are training on the Strander/Stabilizer.

There was a posting for training on the Oil Temper lines but only one person applied. I would encourage the newer employees to consider taking this opportunity as it will add to your skill set and provide job security for you in the future.

Congratulations to Vince Orr who has decided to retire. His job will be posted this afternoon (Thursday Jan 17th).

There seem to be some payroll issues and the Company is looking to have them corrected.

The Company now has its 2008 budget approved and once it has been reviewed they will share with the Union. This should enable us to move forward with a plan for booking vacations, give us an idea of staffing levels for our equipment and put us on solid ground going forward. As I receive more info I will post it here.

Senior Committee Meeting Dec 6, 200

We will be starting up the mill on January 6, 2008 for the 8 hour employees, the first shift in will be the Sunday night. During the second week of the shutdown we had to take a weeks vacation here, during that week is New Years day, so employees are entitled to a lieu day for this. You must request this day prior to the shutdown and it has to be taken within  3 months you can also ask that the pay be deferred till that date. 

The Company will be posting the overtime awarding procedure and the hours of work legislation on all major bulletin boards and reinforce with the supervisors to lessen the issues we are repeatedly dealing with.

Carriers:  They say they have ordered another 600 carriers from Fabri – Tech. This will be the 4^th order this year. They are also working with brokers to find used carriers. It appears part of the problem is that since Walker has closed, it is a warehouse where they ship to the customers they had prior to shutting down. A lot of these customers are distributors so they hold an inventory of wire for their customers, so we have a great number of our carriers sitting in warehouses of these customers and indeed at Walker, where as our historic customers used the material, emptied the carrier of wire and sent the carrier back.

We brought up the wire drawer training we are doing and an e-mail Brian Howe sent to Jason about a month ago stating that we need to identify people who are best suited as trainers to get the most value. I said offer them an extra job class to do this. They agree there needs to be something different for next set of hires. Also with the peg boards at the frame Jeff Skea didn't think that these new hires didn’t need tool boxes, they said they didn’t know that and will issue them to new hires. They also pointed out that tools are disappearing from these peg boards.

 Bank Annealed:  We carry anywhere from 3-400 tons for Accument stocking program at Walker Wire. When Accument takes material from Walker we automatically replace it from our banked annealed stock. We also have annealed rod/wire which we processed for Walker where the customer has cancelled it mid way causing us to have this material as well. There is a rumor that we have no load for the furnaces …we were assured that we do have load for the furnaces. We pointed out that we are now stocking this material in outside locations which is not a problem for the steel but because the bands come loose it creates an unsafe stocking program. They are reviewing this.

Chemicals for the cleaning lines:  We are having trouble with lead times for acid, smut and other materials…this is a supplier problem, the supervisor who orders this material has been told to order more frequently and at larger amounts to avoid running out. The company’s ordering system is called SAP and the levels of approval needed to order something is strenuous on the operation.

67/68 Frames: Counters will be installed, a hoist has been ordered for the back end.

Outstanding Vacations are being sorted out, a plan for next year is not put together yet because the 2008 Budget has yet to be approved by London. Once this is in place and manpower needs are firmed up a plan will be developed.

Strander / Stabilizer: will be worked on during shut down and a set of wheels will be sent out for repair with the hope of having them back in February solving the problems we are having there.?

Shut down: The Company made everyone book a weeks vacation during the second week of shutdown, with New Years day we are entitled to a lieu day, we asked whether they want to come back a day later or have every one book a lieu day on there own during the 1^st 3 months. They will reply today.

They are looking at manning the OT lines during the 1^st weekend of shutdown…there are many without vacation time so coverage should be no problem.

Inventory will be done on December 21^st. looking to get all wire drawing on day shift this week.

Metallurgical: It will be communicated to the people involved in this area who is in charge here.

Mechanical: Mathew met with Steve on Friday and they agreed to strike a team in January to rewrite old procedures and develop new ones where needed. He said that he intends to start having weekly scheduled meetings with Steve.

Machinist doing welding function: We had quite a lengthy discussion on this but the bottom line is the machinists will not be doing anymore welding.

Oiler/greaser job still being eliminated in the new year. Work will be distributed amongst the millwrights.

Package Boiler: The Company is still waiting on approval for this system to replace our boiler house.

Winterizing will begin on Monday and the oil temper door will be repaired by next Friday.

IMT training is taking place this week and next for millwrights, electricians and machinists. The machinists are involved because of their working with the mechanical Technicians on jobs throughout the mill.

CWS: I reminded Sandra of a letter I sent her last month regarding outstanding CWS issues and offered up a member of the CWS Committee to do the work but the company has to pay for it.

Talked to Sandra this morning they want to bring in Roman Furman on December 10^th till after the shutdown and Ted Neptune for 3 days. She will send us a letter.

Retirees will be gone once the new hires are deemed to be able to work by themselves. This training will be extended by one week because of the carrier situation.

_________________________________________________________

There are several issues which have been pointed out to me in the plant which we are trying to address, I will continue to visit the plant as often as I can but please don't wait for me to raise an issue. See a shop  steward or Tony, Brian, Terry or Steve Blacklock if you have issues they will assist you.

We have a Senior Committee meeting being arranged with the Company and I will provide an update in this space after the meeting.

At the December membership meeting we will be holding a Social for our members and retirees. It will take place at the Steelworkers hall at 6:30 pm. Refreshments will be served and there will be draws for t-shirts and jackets. I look forward to seeing you there.

Congratulations go out to Steve Blacklock for being selected to the position of Guard.

What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time we were struggling to increase the work load here in Hamilton and laying off our vacation relief employees.

Presently  we have gone to continuous operations on #2 Cleaning Line, Bundling, Rod and Bar, and Spare man jobs. We have hired 11 new employees off the street who are now being trained as wire drawers. While we train these people we have retirees who volunteered to come back to work here in bundling to help us meet our customers needs.

There is a possibility of wire drawing going continuous in the near future as well.

The Company and Union continue to work together to address the day to day operations and we are working to increase our compliance rate with our customers.

I would like to congratulate Tony Ciaramella who was selected by the Executive Committee to be our new Vice-President and Brian Howe for his selection as Chief Steward Operating.

Scott Duvall has retired from Arcelor Mittal Hamilton and is now serving the community in his role as Councillor for the people of Ward 7 here in Hamilton.

I join the membership of Local 5328 in wishing Scott all the best as he moves forward with his new career and responsibilities.

Our workplace has seen many changes over the last two years since the acquisition by Mittal and we continue to move forward. While these two years have been difficult as we maneuver through the many work rule changes, the Union and Company continue to meet so as to position the Hamilton facility as the leader of its wire division.

Joe Crugnale

1943 - 2004

Union man Crugnale's passing marked with sadness

On Dec. 29, 2004 we lost a true friend.

Joe Crugnale served our local union for many years as a steward, chief steward and negotiating committee member.

He was elected president of our Local in 1988 and served until his
retirement in 2001.

Brother Crugnale fought for the rights of our workers, winning battles others thought unbeatable.

Tough as the nails we produce and as soft as the lowest grade of steel we draw, Joe wore his heart on his sleeve in standing up for the underdog.

As president, Mr. Crugnale used the opportunity to debate with both Sheila Copps and Jane Stewart on the issue of employment insurance payments to workers after a work stoppage, fighting not only for his members but workers across Canada.

Joe was a mentor to myself and others in our local union, encouraging us to take charge of our future.

And he never allowed our fate to be dictated by others.

As a retiree, he was elected to head up our retiree committee throughout the CCAA process.

Thank you Joe, we will never be the same without you. We will continue our struggle knowing you'd accept nothing less.

Darren