New Chairperson

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support during the past elections and voting me in as your new union chairperson at Armada Toolworks.

It has been a very different environment in auto parts manufacturing than it was just 10 years ago. As some of you may be aware I was an employee at Libbey Owens Ford (LOF) beginning in 1987. Since then being a big 3 auto supplier has changed drastically both on the union side and on the management side. It is more important now than it ever was to stick together and all work together in order to be more economically productive. This does not mean we all start working unsafely in order to be more productive or skip our breaks because we don't have time to take them. The company I believe is trying to work leaner than what is possible of us the workers in order to survive in one of the worst economies since the 1930's. We must continue to work to the best of our abilities to be able to compete with China , Mexico and now USA workers. But keep in mind that we are all doing more than our share already and the company must begin to realize this. We must not work at such a pace that we injure ourselves. If we do we need to report it both to the supervisor and the on shift health and safety rep. We must then demand that a written accident report is done and copies given to the injured worker. Too many of our members are being denied benefits because the government is claiming that there is no proof their injury is work related. At this point the company is refusing to accommodate light duties for these people because the injury was not work related.

There are approximately 130-140 Temporary agency workers working at Armada. On the afternoon shift in plastics we have 75% temp workers to only 25% full time unionized employees. As full time employees we must treat these people as our own, and I was once a temp agency worker myself before being hired full time. We do not hate or dislike the people who work for the temp agency we only dislike the temp agency that hires them. It is our goal to get as many of these people off the Global payroll and onto Armada's payroll and into our union. The company has been hiring full time employees but the ratio between temp agency workers and full time Armada employees is still way too high in my opinion. The company has assured me that they will be hiring more in the very neer future and I plan on keeping a very close eye on the numbers. 15 years ago temp agency workers on a C.A.W. Shop floor were unheard of. But today G.M. in Oshawa recruits workers from a temp agency, along with several other top auto parts suppliers. There is not much we can do about this ongoing trend except for lobbying the government for change and ensuring that the company abides by article 11.02.4 of our collective agreement.

Your union chair person is allowed 20 hrs per month to do union business as per article 6.02. I will be making arrangements with the company to be off the floor every Thursday between 11:00am-3:30pm to do union business. During this time I will be available to everyone. Do not hesitate to get in touch with me during this time if you need help or have any issues.

In solidarity

Tom Worsley