USW Local 309 Membership Update 12/12/2025

Brothers and Sisters,

Sorry for the delay in sending updates, but the text system that International had been down for a while and came back up recently. My goal is to send updates out bi-weekly as we get closer to bargaining.

Safety

• If you are working and need to perform an LTV (Lock, Tag, Verify), please follow the full procedure. Ensure all paperwork is completed and verify that the Lock Out was done correctly. Taking 5–10 minutes to double-check could save your life. We’ve had several recent incidents where Lock Outs were done incorrectly, and the workers performing the tasks didn’t catch the errors. Fortunately, no one was injured — but we can’t count on luck. If you notice a problem during Lock Out verification or while performing the job, report it immediately. Reporting helps us correct issues and protect others. Not reporting is equivalent to failing to report a mobile equipment incident and may result in disciplinary action.

Bargaining Updates

• We met with the company on December 10^th to start setting the ground rules for bargaining and the finalize the bargaining dates.
• Local Negotiations are set to begin on January 6^th, 2026. We will be bargaining 3 days a week through February 19^th. The CAT team will be communicating out important dates and events that will be happening. We will also be using this text line as a main source of information and will be getting some signup cards out ASAP. If you know of anyone that isn’t getting these texts, please encourage them to sign up.

Hall Upgrades

• Work on the basement should be starting soon as we gave Smokey Mt. Renovation the deposit check on December 12^th.
• Reminder: The body approved today new pricing for renting the basement out. This change will take affect starting January 1^st, 2026. It will now be $75 deposit with $50 being returned for individual rentals and the groups that rent monthly will have a monthly charge of $50, except for 2 of our retiree groups that will remain free of charge. These new charges will be going to help pay for the upgrades and we’re going to be increasing the frequency of cleaning that occurs for the basement to bi-weekly.

Upcoming Events

• December 13^th:  Wreaths Across America, meet at the Hall at 9am leave at 9:30am, and the event starts at 12pm.
• December 16^th: Arbitration
• January 6^th: Local Negotiations start.
• January 8^th, 12pm and 3:30pm: Monthly Union meeting

CAT Team Members

• Pam Neubert- (865) 414-8516
• Aaron Crowder- (865) 804-0716
• Avery Moneypenny- (865) 336-0193
• Sarah Forester- (865) 898-1523
• David Christopher- (865) 621-2613
• Devin Pratt- (865) 459-9126

In Solidarity,

Nick McCarter
President, USW Local 309
(865) 254-6252
nmccarter@uswlocal309.net