USW 309 Membership Update 8/15/2025

Brothers and Sisters,

We’re going to be sending out our member surveys the week of Labor Day. This is going to be both digital and paper. This will help us to set our proposals for local negotiations.

This Monday (8/11), we had 30 new hires start. All 30 signed their cards to join the Union. This will bring our total headcount to 788, and we were told that the company is looking to bring another class in in the month of September.

Please help us in welcoming these new hires as they will be providing some much-needed relief to our current understaffed situations in many departments. They will start on the floor the week of the 18th. Please help them out and help keep them safe as they begin their training.

We have just a few left to process through the CRT testing next week, and after this, the move results should then be finalized and officially posted. We should start seeing expected release dates for the bid winners soon after that.

The Oct. 6th-8th dates have been confirmed for the Top Table meeting in Lafayette, and the bi-annual benefits meeting will be held in Pittsburgh on Oct. 1st.

2 postings went up on 8/14/2025 regarding movement and transfers. One was for an additional CDP-E, and the other is openings in the Electrical Department for the 2 electricians that are coming into the plant. I will post them up in all the usual places digitally, and they should be up within the plant as well.

We really must continue focusing on Safety and Quality every day. If you’re running and something is broken, STOP! If it’s not up to the quality standards that you’ve been trained to, STOP! If it doesn’t feel right or you believe it isn’t safe, STOP!!!! Stopping and taking the time to ensure that it’s right is way better than continuing to run and someone getting hurt, damaging equipment, or running bad product. If you STOP a job, please document everything (people involved, reason for stopping, and the outcome of the STOP) and get this information to the Department Chair so that they can get it escalated up to the Bargaining Committee.

Nick McCarter
President, USW Local 309