Friday, April 29, 2011

USW local 7884 has a tentative agreement

 Over the last few months the  USW Local 9346 bargaining committee has recieved a lot of critisism for their timing on calling the strike at the Sparwood mine. Many of the critics felt that they should have timed it to better line up with the collective bargaining at Elkford. Before i go further on this i will explain that the bargaining committee works independant from the executive committee. The bargaining committee has two members from the executive ( the local president and grievance chairman) plus four others elected from the membership at large. They will formulate a bargaining strategy and gather information from the membership to start the bargaining process for a new collective agreement. The executive committee basically runs the local and deals with the company in administrating the contract. The two committees may meet and seek direction during the negotiation process but it is the bargaining committee that will reach a tentative agreement with the company. After that the executive has the same right as the rest of the members and that is to voice their opinion and vote on the offer. Our collective agreement expired October 31/2010 and the Elkford agreement expires on May 1/2011. From our previous negotiation process in 2005/2006 I can tell you that each local will do what it takes to get a contract for their own members. The locals do work together throughout the terms of their individual contracts but cannot make deals that would affect their own bargaining position. Their obligation is to their membership only during negotiations, that is the proper thing to do. As a matter of fact on April 29/2006 the Elkford Local 7884 actually reached a tentative collective agreement before theirs had expired the last time the two locals lined up their bargaining process. That left Sparwood local 9346 hanging in the wind. We eventually settled without a strike because the bargaining committee felt they lost their bargaining power. The company offer was recomended to the members and was narrowly accepted. The members were very bitter over this--- flash forward five years.  When our strike was called on January 30/2011 it was felt under the circumstances it was the best time to do it. The expression was used that it was a train that was not going to be stopped. Many of our members were still upset over the previous settlement in 2006. The mood was there and some members were pushing for the strike before Christmas. Our strike started after the negotiating committee turned down the companies offer on January 30/11. We were given another offer that was recomended to the membership on March 14/11 it was turned down 56.9% by a ballot vote. Again on April 2/11 we voted on another recomended offer this time it was accepted by 59% of  the membership. Both votes were close and split the workers, exactly what the process was intended to do as viewed by the company. The Elkford Local had already started negotiating in March and reached a tentative deal  April 28/11 just before their contract expires on May1/2011. They surpassed our deal without going on strike. Had we still been out on strike the offer to the Elkford Local would have been even better than what they got now. Our issues still linger and will lead to another strike in 2015. The company likes to refer to these issues as slight variations of their collective agreements. Lets see bussing from your community and a pension plan are only  slight variations. See you in 2015.     "Any fool can criticize, condem and complain and most fools do" ---- Benjamen Franklin

Monday, April 4, 2011

How we got here

The history of the Crowsnest Pass has always been directly tied to the mining indusrtry as we all well know. The health of these mining companies has had the most effect on our local economy and in recession years that can be devastating. The early 1990`s were no different and because of bankruptcy issues the local giant Westar was shutdown at two of its operations across the border, A third mining operation Byron Creek was experiencing severe layoffs and the job opportunities in the area were minimal. Housing prices plummeted and laid off workers were either letting them go or selling them cheaply. One residence in my neighborhood sold for somewhere in the low 20.000 dollar range. At that time I was laid off as well but managed to get work elsewhere and hang on to things. Over the next decade things gradually improved and production at the mines went up the same scenario our parents had gone through. Then the developers came to town and with it all the hype. Now this same residence i refered to earlier is listed and sells for around $86,000 which i thought was worth about $50,000. The new owners are esstatic and told me how glad they were to get in before the housing prices go up. This is when it hit me Peter it doesn`t matter what you think its what the rest of the world is willing to do. Watching them push dirt around at the River Run development and advertise for a 200 boat marina at Trouts Landing looked ridiculios to me but people were buying into it. By now one counciller and a former counciller were actively promting the Bridgecreek developments and the mayor would soon join in. Another remarkable thing happens the demand for housing in Alberta magically goes up and housing prices soar provincewide, the same residence is now listed in the $160,000 range. Now i am thinking Peter you really missed the boat this time you are so headstrong in your beliefs you do not see what others are willing to do.  Unfortunately time and reality has put things back into perspective and i am actually looking like i made some good decisions here sure i could have taken some risk ( nothing ventured nothing gained) but i did not see those as opportunities to make money. What is unfortunate is that people with long standing ties to this community and realized what was unfoalding would continue to be part of the deception of what was happening there. Thats the way i see it ---Peter Rosner