5/13/20

Hello everyone,

​Today we learned that the company want furlough an additional 60 employees.  They want an additional two from surface and 58 from underground productions.  There have been five salaried positions eliminated and there will be around 12 salaried employees furloughed.  While I thought this was coming last week, we were not sure on the numbers and was definitely not in a rush to start this process.  Like I said last week, we are again looking for volunteers.  If this is not met there will be people mandated to take the furlough.  While this is the plan every volunteer will be looked at and the numbers will be adjusted.  So, if anyone is interested please contact any eboard member.  We are turning the voluntary list in Tuesday the 19th, and should know all of the affected employees the following day.  The last day worked for these individuals will be the 23rd.  The plan as of this time is for all surface employees and half of the underground employees to come back to work July 1.Then at the end of July the other underground employees will come back.  

On other business, there has been drug paraphernalia found on multiple occasions underground.  This is definitely disturbing that someone would be so brazen to not only use drugs at work, but leave the paraphernalia around for others to find.  There are obviously numerous health and safety concerns associated with this behavior.  Don’t be surprised to see bucket checks and even K-9s at the plant site in the near future.  If anyone sees any drug use please contact someone so we can get the individual help, and remove them from the work site.  We all have plenty of things on our mind during these times.  We do not need to be wondering if our coworker is high and endangering us.  The monthly meeting is scheduled for next Thursday, but we are waiting to see if the mass gathering limit is lifited on Friday like expected.

Most of the states are starting to reopen.  The major auto manufacturers are set to open next week and Mexico is starting to open up.  There are positive signs that we are coming out of this and I hope that this will be the bottom.  I am being told that the demand for our product should come back fairly quickly.  I hope that we all are able to get through this as best we can.  Please do what you can to help out, and remember we are all in this together.  Hopefully we emerge from this stronger as a local, community, and country!

In Solidarity,

Mike Hernandez