UAW LOCAL 31 GM REPORT

OCTOBER 30, 2015

Highlights
$500 clothing
allowance for each
member through the life
of the agreement
Plant entry at either gate
without badge required
Body Shop and Paint
Repair trainers added
Enhanced language
about job selection
Skilled Trades regain
ability to select their job
by seniority within their
team
Every Skilled Trades
member will receive a
minimum of 40 hours of
annual technical training
Upgraded safety
training area
First-aid and CPR
training for electricians

A message to UAW Local 31

members at GM Fairfax Assembly
Local negotiations officially opened in June of
2015. After approximately six months, your shop
committee reached a tentative local agreement.
These negotiations began with the exchange of
several hundred demands from our membership.
As in the past, management presented initiatives
that attacked hard-fought issues that we
successfully negotiated over the years here at
Fairfax Assembly. As in all negotiations, the
demands and initiatives that were discussed,
debated and argued about were important to our
membership and our future. Your bargaining
committee, in support of the membership, held
firm in our collective position and now entrusts
the outcome of these negotiations to the proud
membership of UAW Local 31.
In solidarity,
Jorge Rodriguez, UAW Local 31 Chair
Your UAW 2015 Local 31
Bargaining Committee members,
Bill Gay, Dwayne Hawkins,
Johnny McEntire, Ben Miller,
Chuckee Robinson,
Shannon Roehl-Wickinson
and Brian Richardson

Significant Gains for Local 31 Members

During negotiations, management

attempted to target our seniority rights,
job transfer abilities, shift preferences
and monetary benefits. Every one of their
initiatives was successfully DEFEATED by
your bargaining committee.
The bargaining committee successfully
negotiated for, and local management has
agreed to, pay increases for the positions
listed below. The increases must be approved by the national parties as outlined in
the national agreement. Upon ratification of
the local agreement, the union and management will submit the proper documentation
to the national parties for approval:
Team Leader Pay
Pool Operators (same as Team
Leaders)
Tech Team Operators ($1)
Offline Repair Operators
Tier II in Stamping ($.05 same as Tier I)
Management pushed hard to get your
bargaining committee to accept initiatives
to reduce Skilled Trades jobs by outsourcing more of OUR work and stripping OUR
seniority rights even further. Your committee
successfully defeated their attempts to take
OUR work, limit OUR ability to bid shift
preference and exercise OUR union-negotiated vacation time.
Here are some of the companys initiatives
that were DEFEATED by your bargaining
committee:
Separate team members and team
leaders into different seniority groups, which
would have allowed higher seniority team
members to be laid off while lesser seniority
team leaders remained working.
Departmentalize maintenance and
restrict job bidding to your current shift.
This would reduce the ability to bid on
openings outside of your department, or
across shifts, and restrict shift preferences to
your department only.
Establish a one-year period be-
tween shift preferences and bids.
Remove Christmas holiday language.
This would have changed how they offer

Augmentation Guidelines Returned

to the Local Agreement
Bargainers won the establishment of Augmentation language, along with a flow chart
to be printed in the local agreement.
Enhanced Skilled Trades
Break Language
Your bargaining committee reinforced
employees right to self-manage 20-minute
breaks, including the right to be compensated for interrupted breaks. Employee

work during the Christmas holiday period.

Management wanted to stop making the
offers by seniority.
Exit remaining lighting tasks.
Exit portable Tool Repair.
Exit repair and maintenance of
scrap handling systems while still requiring
employees to be responsible for line down
situations.
Exit predictive work associated
with vibration analysis.
Exit all tasks associated with Weld
Water Treatment.
Exit major creaform tasks and assign
minor creaform tasks to Division I.
Reassign CMM tasks to Division I.
These management initiatives, along
with others, were DEFEATED by your
bargaining committee.

ble, and wants to be backup Team Leader,

when the Team Leader is absent.

Clothing Allowance
Despite managements attempt to eliminate the clothing allowance, your union
successfully retained the $500 clothing
allowance for the life of the agreement.
This will be in the form of a $100 voucher
to the plant clothing store for years 2016,
2017 and 2018. Additionally, a $100 payment will be made to each employee in 2017
and 2018.

Training
Your negotiating committee won the
establishment of two, dedicated repair
trainer positions for the Paint and Body
Shop. Each position will train current and
future repair persons applicable skills based
on their job. Included in this training will
be Metal Finish Repair, Welding, Paintless
Dent Repair and Paint Repair.

Ice Machine Replacement

All scoop-style ice machines will be replaced with push-button ice dispensers upon
expiration of the current lease agreement.
Job Selection
Your committee won enhanced language
around job selection. Certification will take
place within 30 days, and job selection will
take place regardless of whether an employee has been trained during that time.
Team Leader Replacement
Your negotiators won enhanced language
regarding backup Team Leaders. Manpower permitting, management will utilize
the senior person in the team who is capa-

Skilled Trades

breaks no longer have to be the result of

a continuous breakdown to be compensated. Employees who have their break
interrupted will be given the opportunity
to finish their break, be paid for their break
or work out an acceptable solution with
management. It is understood that the last
break is at the end of the shift.
Lines of Demarcation
The current lines of demarcation in the
local agreement remain as a result of bar-

Plant Medical Department

Management has agreed to review with
union leadership, on a case-by-case basis,
instances where employees are sent out
by the plant medical department and the
employee subsequently misses work, is
under a doctors care, but their absence is
not covered by sick leave benefits.
Parking Lot
Your union was successful in winning
from management a widening of parking
spaces to their current size. The company
also agreed that the spacing of parking
spaces will not be altered during the life of
this agreement.

Plant Entry
The parties have agreed to develop a
method of entry at either entrance for employees who have forgotten/lost their I.D.
badge or when malfunctions occur.
Paint Access
A covered walkway will be installed for
easier access to the Paint Shop to the Trim
Department.
North Parking Lot Expansion
The North parking lot will be expanded
towards the north.
Alarms
Testing of emergency alarms will be done
five (5) minutes before break.

gaining, including the understanding that

the teaching of robots and all movement of
robots with the teach pendent is Electrician
work. Doc. 112, Doc. 157 and Doc. 159 of
the national agreement still apply.
Engineering Accountability
To reduce the need for engineering support when engineering is called to the floor
to support Skilled Trades, a document will
be initiated to determine why engineering
support was needed, how the problem was

Skilled Trades

plans to eliminate the dependency on a

stand-alone Powerhouse, bargainers and
the company addressed these concerns
by agreeing to red circle the Stationary
Engineer classification. As attrition takes
place, Stationary Engineers will not be
replaced with bargaining unit employees.
All Stationary Engineers will function
as they currently do in the Powerhouse
until they retire. Upon ratification and
at any time during the life of the local
agreement, Stationary Engineers will have
the opportunity to voluntarily retrain for a
Skilled Trades classification inside the plant.

corrected and if additional training is

needed. All skilled tradespersons will
be trained to initiate this document.
Program Logic and
Robot Programing
Electrician Team Leaders will be
trained for a higher level of Program
Logic and Robot Programming. Team
Leaders also will be equipped with
the tools and training to support their
Electrician Team Members.
Management Initiative Addressed
by the Bargaining Team
Management attempted to exit all
Powerhouse and Wastewater Treatment
work immediately. Your negotiating
committee fought back and successfully
defeated that demand while considering
the future of these jobs. Due to changes
in how our plant will supply services to
new Paint Shop processes, and company

New Training
Program Established
As a result of these negotiations, a
training program has been outlined and
will be piloted in the Body Shop. The
premise of the program is to create and
utilize UAW Local 31 Skilled Trades
resources to facilitate classroom and onthe-job training for all crafts.

Regained Ability to Select

Our Job by Seniority
Within Our Team
When a new employee enters the team
from an opening/bid, team members will
now select their job based on seniority.
The Manpower Committee must approve
the reselection. If unresolved concerns
exist, Key Four will resolve such matters.
Additionally, this limits managements use
of Right to Job Assignment.
Minimum Technical
Training Acquired
Your negotiating committee won
the right of every skilled tradesperson
to receive a minimum of 40 hours of
technical training per year.
Tooling Equipment Refurbished or
Replaced
A joint team will now audit existing
equipment in both tooling shops.

Health and Safety

Successful Union
Safety Demands
Bargainers won strengthened language
covering your safety on the job, including:
Several upgrades will be made to the
Safety Training Area, including a state
of the art die-set simulator.
o During these negotiations, the
union engaged management in
spirited discussions concerning die
movement safety in the Stamping
Plant with the goal of improving
our die set training program. The
movement of dies represents one of
the most inherently dangerous job
functions performed at our plant. To
that end, your bargaining committee
secured an agreement from the
company to purchase and maintain
a state-of-the-art, die-set simulator
to reside in the safety training area.
This significant investment sets
Fairfax Assembly ahead of the curve
in providing meaningful, realistic
die-set training for our workforce.
All Electricians will receive CPR
and first-aid training.
o Despite the fact that the 2015
NFPA 70e removed this requirement, your bargaining committee
secured a written agreement to provide all Local 31 Electricians CPR
and first-aid training, to be refreshed

according to Red Cross requirements.

Take-shelter areas will be stocked
with first-aid kits.
o To enhance preparedness and
provide better shelter facilities,
hourly take-shelter areas will
be provided with an in case of
emergency break glass first-aid kit.
The weld check pull-off station at
BA140 (SS19) will be motorized to
provide ergonomic relief.
o Your union successfully negotiated that the pull-off station at
BA140 (SS19) be motorized. This
will eliminate the need to pull car
bodies by hand at this station.
Management will address floor
matting on footprints featuring conveyor
turns.
o Your bargaining committee spent
significant time debating the quality
and condition of floor matting in the
plant, specifically the gaps and unevenness of production floor matting
on conveyor turns. The parties agreed
to address such areas and ensure that
proper floor matting be installed and
maintained.
Management will ensure that exhaust
grates/screens will be cleaned on a 90
& 20 conveyor, DVT and Toe-in via a
safety PM in MAXIMO.
o To address questionable frequency

of process ventilation system cleaning,

including 90 & 20 conveyor, DVT
and Toe-in, the union secured
agreement to include the grate/screen
cleaning of these ventilation systems
in MAXIMO. These work orders
will be generated as safety PMs and
must be completed on time. Based
on visual inspections, some of these
ventilation components had not been
cleaned in many years. These new
safety PMs will help ensure that the
process ventilation systems function
as designed and provide our members
with the protection we deserve.
The company will address padded
glove shortages in general stores.
o During these negotiations, several
logistical errors and oversights were
identified and remedied which will
correct padded glove shortages of the
past.
The company will address clarity and
volume issues in the plants take-shelter/
fire alarm public address (PA) system.
o To improve the clarity and volume

of the plants public address (PA)/

emergency tone system, the union
and GM have agreed to work jointly
to identify and remedy problem
areas of the facility/site.
For the first time, simple flow charts

describing how safety issues are

resolved will be printed in the local
agreement.
o To empower and educate our
members, the union secured an
agreement to print two important
flow charts in the local agreement
showing how safety issues/
concerns are resolved. One
chart describes the health and
safety complaint (grievance)
procedure, and the other shows
how everyday Employee Safety

Health and Safety

Concerns (ESC) are resolved from
start to finish. Together, these flow
charts will help drive management
accountability for plant safety
issues and empower our sisters and
brothers to proactively improve
workplace safety.
ERGO Insoles
Operators will be provided, upon
request, ERGO insoles when they are on
operations where it is infeasible to install
floor matting without the insoles.

Feminine Products
Your bargaining committee successfully
negotiated with the company to stock
restrooms with feminine hygiene products.
Elimination of Eyeglass
Store Successfully Defeated
Management bargained to remove the
in-plant safety eyeglass store. Your union
successfully stopped this from happening.
The in-plant safety eyeglass store was
maintained as a valuable convenience for
our membership.

UAW 2015 Local 31

Bargaining Committee at General Motors

Jorge Rodriguez

Vicki Hale

UAW Local 31 Chair

Bill Gay

UAW Local 31
First Shift Zone
Committeeperson

Ben Miller

UAW Local 31
District 10
Committeeperson for
Third Shift Body Shop
and Skilled Trades

UAW Local 31 President

Dwayne Hawkins
UAW Local 31
Second Shift Zone
Committeeperson

Chuckee Robinson
UAW Local 31
District Representative
for Skilled Trades
First and Second Shifts

Johnny McEntire
UAW Local 31
Third Shift Zone
Committeeperson

Shannon Roehl-Wickinson Brian Richardson

UAW Local 31
District Committeeperson for
Paint Material and Stamping

UAW Local 31
First Shift Chassis
Committeeperson