Letter Q Resolution
Sisters and Brothers,
As you may have heard, we recently reached a resolution to our dispute with the Company over the 2022 CBA, which was preventing the printing of the books. We want to bring you all up to speed on the recent developments. I apologize for the lengthy letter, but this is an important topic that you all deserve to know about.
To remind you all, we ratified the agreement in August of 2022. The Company sent the Master Bargaining Committee our first redline copies of the CBA in February 2023. The committee reviewed the redline upon receipt and found around 30 items that we believed were incorrect. Some of those were simple housekeeping or grammatical issues, but most were substantive language issues. Over the course of the following six months or so, multiple versions of the redline were exchanged as we tried to work through the issues. We continued this process until it was clear we had reached a stalemate, with about four major issues left unresolved. These remaining issues were all related to Letter Q, otherwise known as the “New Hire Language”, that the Company and Union had agreed to eliminate from the agreement.
The Company authored the redlines, and while they did strike Letter Q in its entirety in the very first redline, they had moved several of the provisions into other parts of the contract. While there were specific items around eligibility for certain contractual benefits that we agreed would remain in the CBA, the Union’s understanding was that any items that were not discussed would revert back to the corresponding language that already existed in other places in the CBA, pre- Letter Q. The items that we were disputing in the redline were over and above what we had discussed. The disputed items included access to the grievance procedure for probationary employees, bidding rights for newer employees, the right of the Company to require mandatory OT on the three-day weekends for employees with less than 5-years of service on 7-day continuous operations, and lastly, the number of hours paid to employees with only one week of vacation, under 7-day operations.
The grievance procedure is our exclusive remedy, with the last step being arbitration, and we had been advised by the International that this is how we should proceed. A master grievance was filed, and arbitration was scheduled for this November 14, in Louisville, Kentucky. I was to be a witness due to my involvement in 2022 negotiations and some of my notes and documentation being used as exhibits. The arbitration started as scheduled that morning, and opening statements were given. After that, the arbitrator stopped the hearing to have a discussion with the advocates for both parties. In that discussion, he told the parties that based on what he heard from the opening statements, he strongly advised the parties to reach a settlement as he didn’t believe he had the authority to impose a remedy to the grievance. This was not a complete surprise. We’ve always known that this arbitration would be unique in that we were not asking the arbitrator to interpret contract language, but rather to decide what the parties agreed to in negotiations and what language should be in the contract. This arbitrator did not feel it was within his jurisdiction to do that. After discussions with the master local presidents, it was decided to not go forward with the arbitration and to take another stab at a settlement. The parties then spent several hours going back and forth and were ultimately able to reach a settlement.
The settlement does get us mostly where we wanted to be. While not exactly what we believe was negotiated, we were able to get pretty close to our requested remedy on three of the 4 issues. The one thing we were not able to get movement on was in the mandatory overtime. The language that will unfortunately remain is that on 7-day continuous operations, an employee with less than 5 years of service can be scheduled mandatory OT on one of their days on the long weekend off.
With this resolution, it is our hope that we will have printed copies of the CBA early next year. It goes without saying that this is a long time coming. We appreciate the membership’s patience and understanding as we worked through this, and understand the frustration this has caused. I can assure you that local union leadership has shared in that frustration. While it’s absolutely unacceptable to go this far into our agreement with no printed books, what would have been even more unacceptable would be to allow the Company to slip language into the book that we did not agree to. It was extremely important that we resolve this issue, not only to get contract books, but also so that there are no questions as to what the agreement says going into 2026 negotiations. Let me assure you that while it may have seemed like nothing was happening, there has been an immeasurable amount of work done by the master locals to finally get to this point, and none more so than here at Local 310. President Bell, Former President Tim Linn before him, and myself have done everything we could to keep this moving forward, keeping the USW International’s attention on it and providing any and all resources within our means. Our membership also deserves to be recognized, as there were many members who made calls to the International to voice your concerns, with the help of some organizing by Tony Link.
What has been most disappointing to me personally is to have had this dark cloud hanging over what we accomplished in 2022. We took zero concessions in this contract, which I think might be unprecedented. Aside from economics, getting rid of what I call the “original sin” of Letter Q was our first priority. As a matter of fact, the proposal to do so came from Local 310. The idea that all of our members are equal and should all enjoy the same wages, benefits, and treatment is core to our values as a union. Letter Q created exceptions to this in our CBA, and was first ratified in our agreement in 2005. Many of our members do not remember a time before it. We lived with it for 17 years, and it was time for it to die. We were successful in making that happen. Some of the other gains we made, just to name a few: A $2 GWI at the beginning of the contract. 100% COLA restored to the card for every single employee, for the first time since, I believe, the 2000 Agreement. A twelfth holiday, Veterans Day. Increase to 5 days funeral leave for certain immediate family members. Increase to $1.00/hr for night shift bonus. $1.50 training pay. Maternity and parental leave. Closed the 5 to 15-year wait for the 4th week of vacation by bumping it up to year 10. This resulted in an extra week of vacation for everyone between 10 and 25 years of service. This is no means an exhaustive list, and it’s a contract to be proud of.
We look forward to getting contract books in the near future and moving forward from the tough times we’ve seen the past few years. As we turn the corner into 2026, we will begin preparing for 2026 contract negotiations. As always, we will need a united and prepared membership if we are to be successful. Local 310 membership always steps up when it’s time, and I’m fully confident this time will be no different.
In the meantime, we would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and holiday season. We hope to see some of you at our Children’s Christmas Parties, a Local 310 tradition, on December 7 and 14.
In solidarity,
Emily Brannon
Vice President