Jun 18

NLRB to review Conn Selmer Decertification?

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This is the situation as I understand it;

The NLRB broad is supposed to have five members, (currently has four installed) in 2007 knowing they (Wilma Liebman, Peter Shacumber, Peter Kirsanow and Dennis Walsh ) were going to be short on the board due to term ending, delegated to a group of three members ( Liebman, Shacumber, Kirsanow) the authority to rule on cases to keep them moving.

The third member Kirsanow left the NLRB in January of 2008 leaving the board with only two members, Kirsanow felt when he left the two members were opposite and no decision would be made. Since then over 500 were made except for 60 cases they could not agree on and 60 that would set legal precedent.

Our case had 8 votes that they could not agree on but when pushed they found it in them to agree. After checking with lawyers and the justice department the board felt since congress could not agree on the nominations that they could keep the work flow going. Well haste makes waste.

The court ruled yesterday that “If Congress wishes to allow the Board to decide cases with only two members, it can easily do so. But until it does, Congress’ decision to require that the Board’s full power be delegated to no fewer than three members”

Justice Kennedy along with the new Sotomayor writes saying, “Despite the fact that the statute’s plain terms permit a two-member quorum of a properly designated three-member group to issue orders, the Court holds that the two-member quorum lost all authority to act once the third member left the Board. “

Justice Kennedy feels the board still has quorum even if there is a vacancy despite in the past when their was a vacancy the board to not rule on any cases. It would seem to me the two member group would be quorum as long as there were three on the board, which the three could delegate to the two.

In any case common sense tells you the intent of the language is that decisions are to be made with 5 members and no less then three, if two was acceptable the congress would have said two for the third person not only will break the tie votes but offer yet another view point for the other two to consider.

Remember our case was supposed to set precedent in labor laws including how unemployment would be handled. Liebman and Shacumber made decisions on who was pernamently replaced and who was not, what votes would be counted and what votes would be put shelved only to be taken down again and forced to decide on.

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Jun 03

“Story of the Conn Selmer Strike” Documentary

By Admin Story of the Conn Selmer Strike No Comments »
A video documentary made by the strikers of the strikers telling the facts as they lived them, ponder them and ultimately decided to vote every contract down. The lost to the industry especially of Elkhart Indiana would forever change the status of Elkhart as the Music Instrument capital of the world.

Episode One-Reasons for the strike, to be released on you tube June 5th 2010 at midnight. Search youtube for the words “Story of the Conn Selmer Strike”

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Apr 29

Key word here is uneducated

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Key word here is uneducated, when strikers are uneducated in the ways and means of fighting corporate entities, you drink the Kool-Aid of the UAW propaganda machine.

To say it clearly: if you’re without money while on strike, without strike training, and made to direct your anger at the company you’re leadership can get away with a lot.

How many times have we heard to stop fighting the UAW and direct our anger at the company we’re fighting.

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http://www.newsweek.com/id/236932?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+newsweek%2FWorldNews+%28UPDATED+-+Newsweek-++World+News%29&utm_content=My+MSN

A Surge of Their Own

All night, every night, an endless caravan of old cars and pickup trucks rolls through the dusty Pakistani town of Datta Khel in North Waziristan’s lawless tribal area…”I think at least one male from every family around here is going to Afghanistan,” says a villager

The new fighters are intended to bolster Afghanistan’s insurgent forces in the south, which will soon face the additional 30,000 combat troops that President Obama is dispatching to the contested region

According to the Pakistani military, there are 100,000 regular and paramilitary troops stationed along the border to stop the flow…Yet their efforts don’t appear to be paying off

Signing up new recruits for the Afghan jihad isn’t hard, says a senior Taliban operative

Uneducated, unemployed tribal youths, angry at the American presence in the region and at the increase in U.S. drone-missile attacks on suspected terrorists, are easy marks for Taliban propaganda

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Apr 21

$70,000 and Top Health Benefits

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We were building Professional Bach instruments, they were opening doors and taking out the garbage, surely we were worth what we asked!
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NEW YORK
Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:54am EDT

New York City building workers are represented by a local affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

The new contract with building owners contains a 10 percent raise over the next 4-years and fully paid employer healthcare with no givebacks on benefits, union president Mike Fishman said.

Building owners had argued this week that given economic uncertainty, workers should accept cuts. They said that at $70,000 a year, New York building workers are among the best paid in the United States Doormen’s duties range from staffing security posts and hailing cabs, monitoring visitors and accepting deliveries, holding doors and watching resident children and pets.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63J5VI20100421?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=76

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Apr 15

In Defense of Unions

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How GM’s Parma Metal Center bucked an industry trend

Cleveland Plain Dealer

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/04/how_gms_parma_metal_center_buc.html

Having just wrote about Joan Silvi of the UAW local Union Press Association in needing to have UAW leaders taking the forefront of making public statements, I offer this article in defense of unions working in harmony with management.

UAW local 1005 of Parma Ohio was one of GM first plants to take concessions and allow some outsourcing. The company paying union wages was able to remain competitive with Mexico and Asia. All this was accomplished when the plant manager and union officials deducted they could accomplish a lot more if they stopped throwing rocks at each other.

The negotiating team of Conn Selmer was still throwing rocks because they had a different agenda, one that was to eliminate the union or at least subdue it.  They could not negotiate because they had their marching orders.  This we know because the team would use to cell phones to check on proposals offered or throw our proposals in the garage right in front of our committee.

I guess with the GM stamping plant in Parma the company needed a workable stamping plant and chose the better of two options moving to China or learning to get along and manage a plant here in the US.  We wish Steinway had chose to get along.

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Apr 07

LUPA communicators: Time stand up for the UAW!‏

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I recently got this email from the Local Union Press Association; they must have forgotten my membership was canceled when the hierarchy decided our local was not worth the fight. 

Joan Silvi UAW Local Union Press Association coordinator: 

“Folks, the UAW is getting killed on the blogs. It isn’t because our arguments are weak. It’s because we need a bigger echo chamber for our case.” 

Well Joan is not that you need a bigger echo you need to have your officers and Reps. speak up when asked by the media about current questions the public has.  Remember in our strike we were not allowed to do blogs, web sites, newsletters or press releases and certainly not with any endorsements of the UAW.  

I asked our union lawyer Robert Hicks to approve an information flyer, all he approved was your on strike, with no reasons as to why.

Continue reading »

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Apr 03

Michael Moore: Capitalism a Love Story

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Michael Moore: Capitalism a Love Story

 

A must see for Conn Selmer Strikers in order to understand why companies need to ever seek more and more profit.  At first I though Michael Moore was attacking the very idea of the profit motive and I wish he titled his movie something less alienating to the profit paid for skills and quantity.

We at Vincent Bach loved the idea of getting paid piece rate, a fair wage for extra effort put out.  Those who were under the weather that day or working sick could get paid for the numbers they put out.  Everything was fair for both sides.

Continue reading »

Apr 03

Hugo Boss, after Glover visit, gets Mediator!

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http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/03/hugo_boss.html

Hugo Boss and Workers United, the union, are scheduled to reopen bargaining with a federal mediator April 8. The company had announced plans late last year to close the factory, which makes high-end suits, on April 27.

The company said the Brooklyn plant, though profitable, was not “globally competitive.” Officials said they would shift the work to Turkey and other European countries where the company said it has excess capacity at manufacturing sites. The company had asked the workers, who make $13 an hour, to accept a wage cut of about $5 an hour.

Eight dollars an hour to make exquisive clothing for the famous, I’m sure it’s takes some time to acquire the skills.
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Apr 03

Conn Selmer Strike needs a celebrity too!

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http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/03/actor_danny_glover_takes_a_rol.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio — When Actor Danny Glover was invited several weeks ago to join the push to keep the Hugo Boss plant in Brooklyn from closing, he didn’t flinch.

The actor, best known for his roles in popular movies including “Lethal Weapon,” “Predator 2″ and “The Color Purple,” has long been an activist not only for international causes, but also for those involving the plight of working-class Americans. Saving jobs from being shipped overseas has been a particular interest of his.

“I applaud their courage, and I am on their side,” Glover said in an interview. “If someone who is visible, such as myself, can identify and elevate or celebrate the response of the Hugo Boss workers, then maybe it encourages other workers, or gives them a chance.”

The Hugo Boss workers are facing the same fate as workers around the country, Glover said: “Workers have lost their jobs. Workers are concerned about losing their jobs. It is important to realize that we are all in this together.”

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Apr 03

Say no to Conn Selmer Gag orders

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The latest Toyota victim: free speech-CA AFL-CIO Pulaski Blames Toyota For Gag Rule Agreed To By UAW Officials

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_14787829?nclick_check=1

“This was a harsh condition extracted by the company in the middle of the night when the terms of the factory’s closing were being finalized. Vulnerable workers, facing the hard reality of a long job hunt in an area where unemployment already averages about 16 percent, had to choose between their free speech rights and their families. In truth, they didn’t have a choice. No matter how much we Americans value our free speech, it can’t feed a family.

The gag rule bullied through by Toyota forbids NUMMI workers and their union from publicly questioning the wisdom of the company’s action in shutting down the factory or even talking about the hardships it imposed on thousands of workers, families, and their communities.”

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No matter what agreement we reach we must never succumb to a gag order just for profit.  Our story is the loss of special skills in the making of musical instruments.  Only one plant is left in Eastlake Ohio for major production of brass instrument.
Corporations must propagate the idea that their greed will be your profit too someday, if only, you can believe and dream their plan.
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