Membership Update – 10/11/24

This past week, we held a drive for the Helene victims at the Hall. We collected donations on Tuesday and delivered them on Wednesday. Pam Neubert, Aaron Crowder, and Kayla Jackson spent the day driving all over Northeast TN, delivering a 20’ U-Haul full of donations to collection sites. They also assisted some centers in transporting goods to the affected areas. Incredible work! Seeing the devastation in pictures is heartbreaking, but seeing the faces of those they were able to help was truly inspiring. Proud day to be a member of USW Local 309 for sure. We also have a collection going on at our Solidarity Picnic this Saturday, 10/12/2024.

Please make plans to join us this Saturday, 10/12/2024, at the Hall for our Solidarity Picnic. The event starts at 10 AM, and food sales will begin at 12 PM and go until 6 PM. There will be bounce houses for the kids, cornhole, and a screening of the TN vs. FL game (kickoff at 7 PM). Unfortunately, the 50/50 drawing will be postponed until the November Union meeting. These pens are still available for purchase, and we will have them at this event if you’re interested.

We are gearing up for the Blount County Foster Association event, which we participate in annually. This year, the kids’ Christmas party will be on 12/6/2024. Information about this will start appearing in the plant soon.

We are close to finalizing a deal with Alcoa Tenn Federal Credit Union for some great benefits for our members. Some benefits include three months of interest-only payments in the event of a strike or layoff and a 0.25% lower interest rate on consumer loans. These benefits will be for members in good standing. The necessary motions to start this process were made and passed during October’s meeting.

We will be closing the Hall on 10/28/2024-10/31/2024, 11/28/2024, and 11/29/2024. The 31st closure is due to the bargaining committee being in Davenport, and the November dates are holidays.

The CHT and TCM schedules were discussed in last week's Labor/Management meeting, and the company confirmed that both departments would be on a 5-straight schedule for the month of December. We secured a good amount of solid business, and this should hopefully get us back to a 7-day schedule at the start of the year. However, as you all know, planning and scheduling are not their strong suits, so don’t be shocked if this changes.

Please remember to ask your supervisor at the start of every shift for the safety callouts sent out after every event. Ensure we follow the SWIs, and if they don’t have them for a job, request the proper personnel to create one. Above all, if it’s not safe, STOP and get help! If you face any pushback when attempting a Safety Stop, inform your Department Chair, Plant Chair, or contact me directly ASAP, and we will address the issue.

We must remain focused on quality and stop when something is not up to our standards. If it’s not up to how you were trained and a foreman asks you to proceed anyway, contact someone in the Union Leadership immediately, and we will get it addressed.

Please promote and share the link to this update. I do my best to share it on all platforms, but I can easily miss one. Thank you for all that you do and stay safe!