GE 2019 Contract Update and Voting Information

Brothers and Sisters,                                                                                   

            Members of Local 201 will be voting on the new Tentative Agreement August 13th, from 6:00am to 5:00pm above the cafeteria, onsite in Building 96-2 and at the Union Hall.  Absentee voting will be at the Union Hall, 112 Exchange St, Lynn MA from 8am - 4pm on August 9th and August 12th.  There will be an Informational Membership Meeting at St Michael's Hall, 25 Elmwood Ave, Lynn MA at 12:15pm and 3:15pm on August 12th.  We encourage all members to attend and participate. 

Following the rejection of the last Tentative Agreement, the Local 201 Policy Board told our Negotiating Committee that our priorities for improvement were increases to wages, improvement on healthcare, COLA and Overtime changes.  The Negotiating Committee was able to address 3 of our 4 concerns in the new Tentative Agreement.  IUE-CWA GE Conference Board Delegates unanimously voted to recommend ratification of the Agreement.  The majority of the Local 201 Policy Board also voted to recommend ratification (8 – 2). The Stewards Council will vote on their recommendation on Thursday, August 8th from 2pm - 4pm at the Union Hall. 

The IUE-CWA National Negotiating Committee is working on a communication outlining the changes in the National Agreement.  The new Tentative Agreement includes an additional 20 cent General Wage Increase, 80 cents in Cost of Living Adjustments, a reduction in the ACP payments, and a reduction to the increase in insurance premiums (Ex: Option 1 Premium Contributions were lowered from 0%, 5.9%, 5.9%, 5.9% to 0%. 4.9%, 4.9%, 4.9%).  This information is available at www.Local201IUECWA.org.  These were the improvements to the rejected Tentative Agreement, everything thing else has stayed the same.  By no means did we get everything we wanted.  However, our delegates and a majority of the Local 201 Policy Board felt these changes constituted a more reasonable package and are recommending ratification to the membership. In Unity,

- IUE-CWA Local 201 E-Board - 

August 6th, 2019