PRESIDENT ARTURO FRIAS323-236-0577artfrias@uwua.net SEC-TREASURER NANCY LOGAN323-717-5526nancylogan@uwua132.org BUSINESS AGENT MILTON DAVIS323-314-4631miltondavis@uwua132.org REGION OFFICERSClick Here for Listing! ********Oppose Corporate GREED!Click Here: www.stopthesocalgasripoff.net
The attachment is the Supreme Court of California Ruling on lunch breaks. The Union is planning to schedule a meeting with the Company regarding this important issue.
Come to the Sempra Shareholders meeting being held in Newport Beach, CA on May 10, 2012! Under an arbitration decision several years ago, (see the attached document), you have the right to use personal business to attend the shareholders meeting.
Many, if not most of you are Sempra shareholders receiving shares as part of your 401 K. As such you are entitled to attend the Sempra shareholders meeting, ask questions and vote at the meeting. We have heard from many of you about how angry you are that Sempra is making more money than ever before, yet refused to pass any of that cash along to Gas Co. employees. Instead they served up a diet strictly of takeaways during these recent negotiations.
Now is your chance to ask questions of people who run the Company. It is a forum which the Local have used very effectively in the past.
Also attached are the requirements for entering the meeting taken from the Company’s proxy. You should have received the proxy statement in the mail if you own shares.
If you have a son, daughter or grandchildren and are a member of local 132, then here is a great opportunity to enter our scholarship program. 4 scholarships will be awarded to high school graduates entering college and 4 scholarships will be awarded to those who are already attending college. To down load the application with further information, click on the links below.
All the negotiated documents have been proof read and analyzed by the Joint Steering Committee and have been delivered along with a signature page to the Gas Company. The Company finally realized that we were not going to include anything else that was not part of the Last Best and Final offer or The Tentative Agreement. They have now decided to sign the documents as provided. These documents will now be sent to the printer. Prior to the printing of these documents, the Company will provide a draft to the Joint Steering Committee and we will proof read them one last time before the documents actually get printed. We have been receiving calls from you asking when you will be receiving the Retro-active pay and wage increase. We have just been notified by the Company that the general wage increase will start with the pay check of May 4, 2012. The Retro-active pay will be on the pay check dated May 18, 2012. Local 132 is planning to conduct membership meetings throughout the Gas Company service territory soon. We will keep you posted as soon as we have confirmed dates, times and locations. Again, we want to thank you for all your support and patience, a lot of the outcome would not have happened without it.
The Joint Steering Committee has finished counting the ballots and the membership has ratified the contract.That allows us to move to the next phase of this process.As we have pointed out before, the Company is trying to change the Agreement even before it can be signed.
The Union has made it clear that we will not accept unilateral Company changes to what has already been agreed upon.Furthermore we are in the process of putting together the contract as agreed to in the Tentative Agreement and nothing more.We hope to meet with the Company next week.
We will keep you informed of the status of the process.
Joint Steering Committee Statement on Negotiations As you know, talks took place over the weekend between executives of Sempra-SoCalGas and national officials of both the Utility Workers Union and the International Chemical Workers Union Council. While the members of the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) were not actually in the room, they were in the hotel, available for consultation. The Union and the Company have reached a tentative agreement based on those talks, and the JSC, even though it believes the few improvements are a long, long way from sufficient, has decided (not unanimously) to recommend that the membership ratify it.
Why? Improvements have been made that increase the wages, protect more than 60% of the membership from the Company’s proposal on post retirement medical, and reduce the impact of those proposals aimed at the Union as an institution. But it is clear by their insistence on cash balance and their version of catastrophic sickness allowance (among others) that the Company has declared war on the Union and its members and intends to continue that war. The Union has agreed “to recommend a ‘yes’ vote during the ratification process.” We wanted to ensure that you get to vote on this revised settlement, and we believe we are better off fighting back against the Company’s war on its workers while having paychecks, a minimum level of benefits, and the protections of arbitration. We feel we have no choice but to work with a contract and continue to fight back in every way under the contract and law to protect our rights. The alternative in all likelihood would have meant many more months of campaigning and a strike, with no arbitration procedure for members who get fired.
Each local is planning to meet with its shop stewards before sending out a ballot. Local 132 will meet with its stewards this Saturday, February 4th. We know that even what we have been able to extract was achieved only because of the solidarity and determination of the membership. We intend to continue to organize that solidarity as we take the fight to the Company over the next weeks, months, and years. There is no question this is a very bitter pill for all of us who have fought so long and hard. We knew from the beginning that we were up against a very rich, powerful, ruthless corporation making enormous amounts of profit in an economic climate where vulture capitalism is the norm and not the exception. We have learned a lot more about the lengths to which the Company will go to disrespect its employees; they will have to learn that we will not take it lying down.
Utility Workers Union Local 132 offers more training through the Western States Utility Workers Training Trust
Through this program participants will learn how to use tools to install the advanced meter module onto the gas meter. A specialized power tool will be provided to each participant. The program will also provide an overview of safety at the Meter Set Assembly including mains, services, risers and regulators.
Who is eligible: All part time meter reading employees (non-management) who are willing to volunteer their own time
When: Most Saturdays through the 4th quarter of 2012
Where: Pico Rivera Training Facility (Special sessions will be held in SLO, Visalia, Oxnard, Valencia and the Inland Empire.)
Come and prepare for your future by learning the utility trade. If you are interested and are eligible, please complete the sign-up sheets at your work location.
Saturday schedules for the Advanced Meter Modules Orientation
To All Shop Stewards and Activists: All-Union Shop Stewards Meeting on January 8th to prepare for Strike Action
As a result of the Company’s continued time wasting and other unfair tactics at the bargaining table, increasing numbers of members have been demanding to know why we are not shutting the Company down. We now feel we have no choice. The Company’s most recent “Last, Best and Final” offer continues in the same line as previous Company rip-off proposals aimed at undermining our wages, our pensions, our post-retirement medical, our sick-time and the strength, unity and power of our union. While we are not yet willing to telegraph to the Company the exact date of any strike action, we are putting all the pieces into place right now, including doing the internal organizing that is necessary to bring out 5,000 members in two unions and seven locals. Recently at Alhambra base, a lead organizer announced that we are planning a strike and the base erupted in applause and desk pounding!
That is why we are bringing all stewards together on January 8 th . We want to hear views from all shop stewards and activists (regardless of Union/Local), of how best to organize the upcoming strike and the follow-up that will be necessary.
The meeting will be held at 1 pm until no later than 4 pm at the Whittier Radisson, 7230 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier CA, 90602. We will pay mileage if you carpool and parking is free.
You became a shop steward to help the membership and help protect them when the Company attacks us and our families. That is exactly the situation today. The Company wants to drastically cut in one attempt what took us decades to win. Your members need you now more than ever. I look forward to seeing each and every one of you on January 8 th . Stay together, stay strong. We can only lose if we quit, and I don’t believe any of our stewards or activists are quitters.
Here's our working family agenda: Anyone who wants to work should have a job with a living wage. Workers are proud of their work and should have the chance to do it right. All workers and our families should be able to live in dignity with health care and retirement security. Every worker should enjoy the freedom to form a union and bargain collectively. Workers want to contribute to, and share in, building a world-class economy
Cervical Cancer Screenings For Union Women
The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)
has launched Cervical Cancer Prevention Works,
labor’s own cervical cancer awareness project aimed at empowering union
women to be aware of how to prevent this deadly disease. January is
Cervical Cancer month, and union members are encouraged to get informed
and get screened for cervical cancer.
Shareholders Meeting Admission Proxy (
Personal Business Time for Shareholders Meeting arb decision (
The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)
has launched Cervical Cancer Prevention Works,
labor’s own cervical cancer awareness project aimed at empowering union
women to be aware of how to prevent this deadly disease. January is
Cervical Cancer month, and union members are encouraged to get informed
and get screened for cervical cancer.
