USW Sisters and Brothers:

Yesterday, at the request of the company, we started early discussions about a successor agreement to our current contract.  The Bargaining Committee unanimously concluded that there was nothing which would disadvantage us by listening to the company’s presentation.  Therefore, in addition to wages, we talked preliminarily about a number of issues that you have said are important to you — maintaining our health care and pension benefits, dealing with issues such as a grievance procedure that works to protect and enforce our contract, ensuring that employees on certain types of leave are not included in the sick leave tiers, among others.

Obviously, this will be the first of a number of meetings and we will, of course, keep you posted as to any updates. If, and only if, we believe that we have reached an acceptable agreement, then we will bring it to the membership for discussion and a vote.

For now, we just wanted you to be aware that talks have begun!

In Solidarity,

Mike Gauger

President USW Local 10-00086

Medical trustee Chair

Office # 215-652-6555

Cell # 215-880-3653