For those interested in keeping up with USW news in Canada, North America or Globally, please be sure to check out the links in the top right-hand corner of our website. There is valuable information about the COVID-19 Pandemic, including resources for workers, WSIB, right to refuse and other workplace issues.

 There are also links to USW Social Media pages just below that.  You’ll find lots of great information about our USW brothers and sisters all over the world.

Stay safe!

For employees exclusively working from home

You should use your already existing, union-negotiated sick time:

- Full-time employees recieve 120 hours frontloaded
- Part-time and on-call employees receive 60 hours frontloaded and accrue the rest based on an average of straight time hours paid in the preceding two (2) pay periods.

Employees are credited with their entire annual allotment of sick leave days at the beginning of the pay period in which each employee’s anniversary date of hire falls. For purposes of annual sick leave days, in cases where an employee’s anniversary date of hire has been adjusted, the “leave accrual service date” will be used.

If you've already exhausted your sick leave benefits, you may be eligible to take a medical leave of absence. You can find out more about this in our local's collective bargaining agreement in article XIII on page 65.

For employees working in facilities

These benefits are available to employees, including per diems, working during this period at a KP facility, or providing care on behalf of KP in a non-KP facility. They do not apply to employees exclusively working from home.

Starting Monday, April 13, KP says a call center to help KP employees navigate these benefits will be available seven days a week. The package extends through May 31, and we will push for an extension past that date if necessary based on the spread of COVID.

Benefits include: 

Up to 80 hours additional paid leave: An additional 80 hours of paid leave will be provided to eligible employees who test positive for COVID-19. If the employee is sent home and is waiting for a test or for test results, the employee will be eligible for COVID leave for any day they are waiting to be tested and while they wait to receive the results. Even if the COVID test turns out negative, the time before the test result is received will be covered by COVID leave. The employee won’t be penalized for a lack of testing, or delay in testing results. The hours are prorated based on actual hours worked. KP says they are continuing to improve testing capacity, and will be further revising guidelines to expand workers’ access to testing. 



Childcare grants: Workers will be eligible for grants of up to $300 per week to secure childcare for school-age children (14 years or younger) or dependent disabled adult children while at work. The grant will be prorated if...

4/11/20

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We received a last, best and final offer from the company concerning Covid-19 relief and it included much more.  I am sure that most of you have seen the letter at the plant from Rodger Hoopes.  It explains the company’s proposal for some paid time off that we have been negotiating for a few weeks. The company also wanted to waive the foreman working language, temporary assignment language and some pay language that would allow them to move employees’ crews at no cost to the company.  While we were willing to make some of these allowances with some limiting language, we demanded that in the event of a lay-off the language would go back to the existing CBA. In the companies last counter, they also want to suspend the lay-off clause in the 12-hour letter of agreement.  The entire purpose of this language is to make sure that every available option is looked at before a lay-off is performed.  There is no way that this E-board will ever agree to anything that could possible help lead to one member being laid off much less more.  

The company has said it is going to unilaterally implement these polices starting Monday the 13th. I assure you we will take every course we legally can to try to stop this action, and if it does take place, to make them cease and desist such action.  Now don’t take this the wrong way, we said in our letter to the company and still maintain that we are more than willing to work with the company in any way possible to try to stop or minimize a lay-off.  But all of these changes the company wantsto implement will only increase the number of people affectedby a lay-off and potentially prolong their recall, if it remains in effect during a lay-off.

I hold out hope that there will not be a lay-off, but it my opinion, it seams that the company is positioning itself for one.  These are definitely uncertain times and I am sure that a lot of you are worried about your future, but please try to keep your mind on the task at hand and continue to work safely.  I will continue to do my best to keep the information flowing as quickly as possible.

In solidarity,

Mike Hernandez

4/11/20

Tony Osborne

H.R. Director Tata Chemicals

Tony,

We asked for the opportunity to bargain over some benefits and pandemic related topics in good faith.  After one counter,we received a last, best and final offer from the company.   While we were able to meet with senior leadership at the plant to try to work things out after this, I believe this is indicative of the company’s attitude towards this entire process.  We have looked at the company’s proposal for the Covid-19 relief, and instead of getting closer to an agreement, we feel we are even further apart.  We do not feel the company’s offering of 40 hours of pay over a two-week span to a pandemic victim is anywhere near the value of our negotiated terms that the company is so determined to step on.  Furthermore, the fact that the company did not change the offering of pay already on the table, just spread it out differently.  Then the company came back and wants to suspend the layoff clauses already in the contract. This is further evidence that this leadership needs to realize that the company is not negotiating in good faith, merely trying to take advantage of the situation at hand.  The mere idea that in a financial crisis that the company would have the right to suspend the negotiated layoff language built into the twelve-hour letters of agreement is absurd. The only conceivable time the layoff clauses would be used would be in a time of financial distress. The very intent and spirit of the language is to make sure every other avenue available has been looked at and considered before a single member is laid off.  The union was, and still is willing to agree to temporary language changes if the language would revert back to existing contractual language if a lay-off where to take place.

Neither the local or the International feel the company has the right to unilaterally change aspects of the CBA.  Our legal team has looked and found no evidence of any case law ...

Memorandum of Understanding Between
TATA Chemicals (Soda Ash) Partners and USW Local 15320
Last, Best & Final Offer
Whether accepted or not by the USW to be implemented as of 12:01 a.m. April 13, 2020
In response to the unprecedented health and economic crisis presented by the COVID-19 Pandemic, TATA’s priority remains the safety, health, and operational functionality of its workforce. To ensure these priorities are achieved, TATA has already implemented health-related protections for employees, including temperature screening for all employees entering the plant and social distancing protocols consistent with the recommendations of the CDC. TATA and the Union are committed to working together to keep employees safe and employed during this crisis.
On an emergency basis, to address the COVID-19 virus and its impact on TATA employees and their families, the Union and TATA have bargained in good faith and have reached agreement on this Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with regard to TATA’s response to the COVID- 19 global pandemic for TATA employee members of the collective bargaining unit, which constitutes TATA’s last, best and final offer. Notwithstanding the provisions of this MOU, TATA reserves all Management Rights pursuant to the 2019 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the parties (“CBA”) and nothing herein shall constitute or be deemed a waiver or an abridgement of its management rights.
Pandemic Leave
1. Eligibility: all regular hourly TATA employees who are represented by USW Local 15320 at the Green River, WY site.
2. Available Leave:
a. Subject to all terms and conditions herein, and subject to TATA management approval, beginning on the Effective Date of this MOU,1 TATA will provide each eligible employee with a total of up to two weeks of Pandemic Leave to be used over a consecutive fourteen (14) day period for the following reasons:
(1) The employee is subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order due to COVID-19;
(2) The employee has been advised by a healthcare provider 2 to self-quarantine
1 Pandemic Leave shall eligibility not apply retroactive to the Effective Date of this MOU except with regard to the following bargaining unit members: Mike Hernandez, Quin Parkinson, Bob Wyant, Alan Crow, Kevin Fortuna.
2 For the purposes of this MOU, healthcare provider is defined as: Any medical practitioner TATA is required by law to recognize. Such provider must: (a) be properly licensed or certified by the laws of the state where he or she practices; and (b) provide services that are within the lawful scope