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CONTENTS

• Economics;  Pages 1-5
• Benefits;  Pages 5-7
• Retirement;  Pages 7-9
• Other Changes;  Pages 10-11
• Rate Schedules;  Pages 12-15

Brothers and Sisters,

Since we began this round of contract negotiations in September 2021, our goal has always been to bargain a deal that reflects your hard work and effort in keeping the shipyard running during the height of the Covid-19 outbreak.

In order to keep your priorities front and center, we sent out surveys and held department meetings. We then formulated a list of proposals based on your feedback that we presented to Huntington Ingalls on behalf of the members of Local 8888.

By November, we made enough progress that we decided it was time to present a tentative agreement to you. The membership sent a strong message to the company by voting down this deal – and...

There’s an old saying, “If you’re going through hell, keep going,” that is, forge on until you get to some other place. For too many American workers, hell, is simply injury or even death at the workplace. Union-centered health and safety programs are meant to get us to another place, a safer place, a space where our members can freely work on real solutions to hazards at the workplace. And that’s exactly what United Steelworkers (USW) Local Union 10-234 in Trainer, Pa., has been doing for many years. And now, the local has received solid validation for their hard work.

On Oct. 25, 2021, USW Local Union 10-234 health and safety activists working for Monroe Energy were awarded the yearly Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Safety Excellence (GASE) by Governor Tom Wolf. Usually, the award is given to a company that has achieved provable advances in protecting workers. But this most recent award was given to both the company and union local, something that has happened only one other time in over three decades. How was this achieved?

Dawn Andreoli, the union Triangle of Prevention (TOP) coordinator on site (an oil refinery), explained how it all works, “We have a robust ‘safety engagement program,’ we’re very active in racking up what we call ‘good catches,’ that is, early detection of possible dangers that don’t seem quite right at our plant. Also, we work without fear of retaliation.”

Andreoli went on to further explain how the engagement program not only “catches” hazards before they turn into injury incidents or even “near-misses,” but that it works aggressively to turn those “good catches” into actual fixes. For example, at the plant, some workers had been assigned to clean out the plant’s water treatment tanks. This involved climbing into them and scrubbing them clean. The “catch” in this instance, was the ever-present algae coating the tanks. Algae, at even low concentrations can adversely affect one’s health. However, the workers kept at it, cleaning out the tanks, until the union’s health and safety committee called a special session of the engagement program to address the issue. Andreoli, along with Fran Cooney, Local 234 health and safety recording secretary, investigated the matter, and eventually came up with a fix to the problem. They learned of a special kind of coating paint that is resistant to algae. They gave it a go – and it worked! Now, workers at the plant don’t have to dance around that hazard. It simply doesn’t exist.

Andreoli added, “The Safety Engagement Program is unique in that it’s a company program, but fully managed by the union.”

It is the accumulation of these kinds of engagements that has led to a steep decline in injuries at the plant. Let’s have a look.

In 2012, the injury rate at the plant was 1.91 (OSHA Injury Rate = Total Injuries or Illness X 200,000 ÷ Number of Hours Worked by all employees). By 2021,...

Ken Wolfe to discuss workman comp issues from 1:15 to 3:45 p.m. at Union office

Children and dependents of members of our local union qualify for two great Steelworker scholarships.  One of them, the A.F. Kojetinsky Scholarship is open to Steelworker members throughout the Midwest.  The other is done by our local union and is only for the children and dependents of members of Local 9460.  Below are links for each other them - containing all of the info about each scholarship, and the application form.

This info is also going to be mailed to everyone in the next issue of the Pulse newsletter that our local union publishes.  If for any reason you need additional copies, you can get copies of the paperwork for both scholarships by emailing us at [email protected]