Pensioners Pages . . .

President Moe Durocher

Recording Secretary Ron Michaud

Financial Secretary Moe Brisbois

Preparing for the Christmas Banquet - December 07, 2005

On Wednesday December 07, members of the retirees chapter gathered in the kitchen at the hall to begin preparations for the annual Christmas party. Hemi Mitic will be the guest speaker at this year's event.

December 09, 2005:- Yesterday approximately 500 Mine Mill 598/CAW retired members and their spouses, family and friends joined each other to share a meal and an afternoon together. 

 Everyone brought non-perishable food items to donate to our food bank.  Approximately 2,000 pounds of food was collected because of the generosity from the people who attended the Christmas gathering. Geoffrey Lougheed told us that 13, 000 people in our community use the food bank on a monthly basis and our contribution would certainly help stock the shelves.  Over $700 was raised to donate to Camp Quality, a non-profit organization, who sends children to camp who are suffering from Cancer.

Our local union donated $1000. Hemi Metic from our National CAW/TCA donated $2000 to our Sudbury Food Bank.

 Our brothers and sisters are retired from the job and still try to improve the lives of others.

Click on the thumbnails to see the picture in a larger size.

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 RETIRED WORKERS CHAPTER - MINE MILL LOCAL 598/CAW

February 2005                                                                 

The Summer Camp at Richard Lake was put up for sale.  The Union is keeping about five acres on the lake as well as 110 acres across the road.  Dalron Construction intends to build some condos and semi-detached apartments, mainly for seniors.

The Union intends to build a building where eventually the offices, as we know them, will be re-located.  The Pensioners Chapter will be involved, be it with our own offices or whatever is suitable for our needs.

We have some new Executive Members who are fitting in very nicely – Ray Portelance, Bill Moore and George Markic.  All of these Brothers are very knowledgeable on union affairs and our goals.

Members of our Chapter have been involved and have attended a number of events this past year.  We attended a health care conference in Ottawa earlier last year, where organizations from all over Canada, including the North West Territories, gathered for three days to continue the fight against privatisation of our health care.  This is sacred and we will do whatever is necessary to discourage our governments going in that direction.

We also sent representatives to the C.A.W. Council meetings to hear and stay informed on what the C.A.W. agenda is.  Our Chapter was represented at the Annual Pensioners Conference in Port Elgin..

Leonard “Sarge” Hamilton once again organized a very successful golf tournament for 2004.  He intends to hold it again this year.  The date is not known yet, but you can call the Union Offices this spring for more information.

On March 23^rd at 5:00 p.m., the Union, in partnership with Laurentian University, will be launching the book on the 2000 strike with Falconbridge.  The Retirees Chapter played a very significant role in the strike and we, the retirees, are recognized in the book.  There are a limited amount of tickets at no charge.  Call the Union Office to reserve yours.

We hope a number of our members’ purchase a copy, as it is most important our children and grandchildren be able to educate themselves on the role we had in that seven-month strike against Falconbridge.

HELLO TO ALL:

On behalf of the Executive of the Retired Workers Chapter of Mine Mill Local 598/CAW, we wish you and your families a very good year in 2005.              

As for our membership meetings, we will be trying something new. We will be alternating the monthly meetings between different locations.  The schedule is as follows:

All membership meetings begin at 10:00 a.m.  We hope to see you at one of the meetings.

MEDICATION AWARENESS PROGRAMME:

We have an on-going programme that we put on for our pensioners, wives and spouses.  It is called “The Wise Use of Medication”, M.A.P. Medication Awareness Programme.

We invite you to attend the next M.A.P. session on:

DATE:            Monday, February 21^st, and March 21^st, 2005

TIME:            9:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

PLACE:          Sudbury Legion Hall Branch 76,

             1553 Weller Street, Sudbury

There will be other dates and places that we will be holding our M.A.P. sessions.  We are now doing the Sudbury Area, and when we have a location arranged for sessions after this one, we will be sending out invitations to our retirees and widows. We hope to see you at one of the upcoming sessions.

Members of the M.A.P. are:

If you have any questions, please call any of the above.         

STATE OF THE UNION

The last five years have been as trying a time as any in our Local’s 62-year history of representing workers.  In 2000/2001 we came through a bitter seven-month strike. Since that time we have grown through the addition of Health Care Workers from the Finlandia and St Joseph’s Nursing homes, and the service and office workers at the University of Sudbury. The latest group to join us will be the new workforce at Lockerby Mine, who will be organized under our successor rights resulting from the proposed sale of the Lockerby Mine to First Nickel. Mine Mill Local 598/CAW now represents nine workplaces in the Sudbury area.

Bargaining:

The Midas Care Service (certified 1994) representing the Midas shops on Barrydowne Road and on Long Lake Road at the Four Corners has just renewed their three-year contract. This small business has three workers laid off over the last couple of years due to a declining customer base. They are no longer just a muffler and shock supplier, but have evolved into a full service garage. They will offer a discount to all CAW members who show them their CAW membership card. I am asking you if you do not take your vehicle to a steady garage for repairs, try our Brothers at Midas, and if you like their service, remain a customer. Hopefully we can get the workers on lay-off back on the job.

The Bargaining Unit at Mansour Mining (certified 1987) is preparing for their March 30^th deadline for contract renewal. With the growth of the Chinese economy, steel prices have escalated and they are having trouble finding enough steel to meet their orders.

Northern Regional Recovery Continuum aka Lakeside Centre/Robin’s Hill (certified 1992) will start preparing later this year for their September deadline. This workplace is tightly controlled by Government funding and we are working through our National to get Health Care spending increased to help provide more service in the addiction field.

Both Finlandia Nursing Home (certified 2003) and Finlandia Care Services (certified 2004) have new contracts that will carry them over to 2006 and 2007 respectively.

The University of Sudbury (certified June 2004) service and office workers are in bargaining for their first contract with National Rep Tom Dattilo are preparing to apply for conciliation as they go into the final stages of talks. These brothers and sisters voted overwhelmingly to join the CAW.

The Bargaining Committee for our unit at St Joseph’s Villa nursing homes have recently started preparing their contract proposals and hope to be at the table starting in March to begin negotiations for their first contract. The workers voted to join the CAW on October 6^th, 2004.

Mine Mill Local 598/CAW will carry the successor rights to bargain a contract if Lockerby Mine is sold to First Nickel on February 1^st 2005. We have reached a tentative agreement on an 18-month contract. The final document is with the National and will it will retain the full scope of the 2004 Falconbridge contract as amended to pertain to a one-site operation. Full details will be given at the February membership meeting.

Rick Grylls, President

Mine Mill Local 598/CAW.

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January 11^th, 2005.

Mr. Dean Lindsey,

National Retirees Director,

Canadian Auto Workers,

205 Placer Court, North York,

Willowdale, Ontario.

M2H 3H9

Dear Brother Dean:

Thought we would drop you a line to inform you about our Wine & Cheese Christmas Party for the retired workers of Local 598 Retirees Chapter.  They, along with spouses and widows (approximately 550-600) were impressed and sincerely enjoyed themselves.

We hired five buses for people who lived in areas outside of Sudbury to provide transportation to and from our event.  As mentioned, we provided wine and cheese, along with sandwiches, cold cuts, salads, vegetable trays, fruit trays and desserts.

The pensioners were asked to bring some non-perishable food items, which as you can see from the article in the local newspaper (The Sudbury Star), was very substantial to say the least.  I might add we also got coverage from the local television station.

Other charities also benefited.  The Brain Injury group looked after the coat check and realized a $250.00 profit.  The money we raised from raffles we had (prizes from our Chapter, the Local Union, the National as well as other individuals) donated to the tune of $400.00, which went to Camp Quality, a summer camp for children with cancer.  We also purchased Christmas cakes and Christmas gifts of jam from the Shriners.

Our Chapter members prepared all the food, which was substantial – 90 loaves of bread for sandwiches, for instance.  All the food left over (a van full) was given to the Salvation Army and a local food kitchen for the homeless.                                                            

To cap the spirit of sharing, $3,300.00 in cash was also given to the local food bank, as mentioned in the enclosed newspaper clipping.

Dean, we are very proud of our Retirees Chapter here in Sudbury, as we know you are knowledgeable about.

Once again, thank you for the gifts, which were given out as door prizes and raffles.

We are sure Buzz would enjoy reading about this Christmas Party and would appreciate your passing this along to him.

Thank you on behalf of the Chapter.

Yours in Solidarity,

Tom Rannelli and Brian McDonald,

Christmas Party Co-Chairs.

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Pensioner’s Rally

January 27, 2004

This morning January 27, over 400 retirees and members of the active workforce met at the Howard Johnson’s Hotel in Sudbury for an update on the current set of contract negotiations. Tom Datillo, National C.A.W. Rep opened the meeting and spoke about where the negotiations have gone over the past nine weeks, and where we might expect to go in the next few days as the deadline approaches. Tom also spoke to the pensioners about their pension and benefits rights and said, “There is no way that your Bargaining Committee will agree to any concessions taken from the retirees. If there is any injustice being done to any of our pensioners, we will fight!”  President Rick Grylls echoed Tom’s sentiments, when he said, “It is a shame and a disgrace what this company does to the people of this community.”  The current set of negotiations have been bogged down over contracting out and job security issues. If the company does not choose to negotiate in a meaningful fashion we are facing a strike at 12:01 am on Saturday evening.

Tom Ranelli, of the Retiree’s Organization told the gathering that in the event of a strike, “We are asking our pensioners not to cross the picket lines. We will identify the scabs, if the workers go out, and we intend to name names. They are not replacement workers, they are scabs and they will not be accepted in our community.” Rolly Gauthier, past president of Mine Mill – Local 598, initiated a motion of support for the struggle of the active workers against the greed of the corporation. The motion passed unanimously. Rolly went on to say,  “It is vitally important that we understand what is going on here. The strength of the corporation is in the scab legislation that was passed by the former Tory government in Toronto. We must challenge Rick Bartolucci to repeal this legislation. During our last strike, while in opposition, he promised that he would lead the process to have this legislation repealed when he got into government. We are calling on him to live up to his commitment.”

Health and Welfare Officer, Wayne Nitchie discussed the fiasco the company created when it unilaterally changed the benefits supplier from Great-West to Manulife. There have been numerous problems and Wayne explained that it is expected that most of these will be sorted out shortly. Wayne’s opening comments spoke to the solidarity between the retirees and active workers.

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Once Again

 Three years following a bitter labour dispute FALCO is at it again. I see the frustration on the faces of the CAW bargaining team. With the price of Nickel being healthy, I cannot believe that FALCO wouldn’t make an effort to sign a new contract before the deadline. FALCO, for some unknown reason, is set on making life very tough for the union and its members.

The union has done very well on behalf of the members’ wages, benefits, pensions, safety and health concerns; but it was an uphill battle all the way.

The men and women who work in the mines, the mill and the smelter are not working in an environment friendly atmosphere. They deserve to keep what we have fought for over the years.

Why can’t FALCO for once, come to the table with the community and its workers in mind instead of trying to push these people in a corner.

Remember, when you back someone into a corner, they will always come out fighting.

R. Landry

CAW Pensioner

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