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Greetings from Local 33                                                            January 2010

It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating New Years and now the first month of 2010 will be over this weekend. January is the month our members receive their second vacation pay check for the 2009 work year. There have been many issues with the vacation checks being short this year so please take a few minutes to sit down and look them over closely. One particlular issue that happens quite frequently is the provision found in Article XII, para. 1(c)which requires a member who works 1750 hours during the vacation year (January 1st thru December 31st) to receive a minimum of 120 hours of vacation pay if he or she has been in the industry for less than 5 years and 160 hours of vacation pay if he or she has been in the industry for 5 years or more. This is almost always an issue for members that work for more than 1 employer during the vacation year, but this year has been a problem with at least one single employer. Everyone should take a few minutes to sit down every week to make sure their pay check stubs are completely correct. If you are having issues understanding the stub, contact your local's business representative for assistance.

The work in our area continues to hold as it has been the past few months. Local 33 has been pretty fortunate to only have a handful of members off right now. I have been in contact with several of the locals around the area and they are not fairing nearly as well right now. I feel good to report at our local union meetings that we only have a few members off, but that does not provide any comfort for the member that is off work. The thing that is depressing is that there is no work for travelers anywhere right now. Hopefully that will change this year.

I know in the past I have discussed the Article IV violations of the current collective bargaining agreement. The IUEC has a link on their website to allow our members to access all of the recent settlement agreements regarding pre-fabrication. Please take the time to look at these settlements and even print them out to have in your road boxes so that if your supervisor comes out and threatens discipline for removing violations, you can hand him the agreement. The employers are not passing these agreements on because they want their local branch offices to put the pressure on our members to work against these agreements. It is our duty, all of us, to enforce these agreements. Please help us protect our work.

Jobsite safety continues to be a serious concern for the IUEC. The employers stress jobsite safety every day and so does the IUEC. I know that many say the employers use safety as another avenue to discipline our members. My question is if we are following their programs to the crossing of every "T" and the dotting of every "I" what are they going to discipline us for? I know that proper jobsite safety takes additional time. I also know that the employers are already breathing down our members necks to cut job times. Is cutting a corner worth risking your life or the lives of those working around you? We must take the time to perform our jobs in the safest fashion possible. Please take the time to WORK SAFE AND WORK WITH UNION PRIDE!

Fraternally,

Wayne Sims
Business Manager
IUEC Local 33

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