Saturday, August 21, 2010

Which Side Are You On? IBEW Local 363 Welcomes All Fence Sitters!



Which side are you on? Do you know yet? Still on the fence? Can't be. Deep down you must have made your mind up. There are probably no fence sitters anymore - everyone now has a side to support in this. Don't forget - The most IMPORTANT one of those sides is your own.

I TRUST that the large MAJORITY OF PEOPLE will VOTE YES FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR CO-WORKERS. I BELIEVE EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS THE RISK OF WORKING WITHOUT A CONTRACT IN THIS CORPORATE WORLD WE ALL WORK WITHIN. YOU NEED TO VOTE YES IN ORDER TO HAVE PARTICIPATION AND PROTECTION.

Your fellow workers - who are on your side - came to the IBEW Local 363 and asked us to help them orgainize. They said they just wanted to PROTECT THEIR FAMILIES AND GET A WRITTEN CONTRACT.

None of that has changed since that day. Those are still the goals here.

Then on July 11 the workers at the Newburgh Can Plant came to the IBEW Local 363 Building to ask questions and get the answers they need to move forward. There were honest discussions about what options were available to all of you as you continue your new working life with the new company - ABInbev.

We answered any question that anyone wanted to ask. At least two people who came were openly not supporters - and they were welcomed and given plenty of time to hold the floor. We thanked them for coming even though they didn't seem to want a union and we made them feel welcome and free to ask their questions.

IT HAS BEEN OBVIOUS FOR ALMOST TWO SOLID MONTHS NOW that the workers at the plant have seen that coming together as a SOLID GROUP is the best alternative to protect everyones future in Newburgh.

Want a little proof of the strength in your numbers? Look at all the people FLYING IN AND OUT and the money being spent REACTING TO WHAT YOU ARE DOING AS A GROUP. What else could ANYONE of you have done INDIVIDUALLY TO GET TONY AND KEN to fly here?

If this was a question about your benefits or how your pension is doing I don't think they would put your little concern on the top of the "ta do" pile, AND FLY OVER AND SPEND $85,000 EDUCATING YOU - do YOU ?


This is an effort to get some stability, to have a voice at work and to have the rules that we are going to work under ON PAPER - IN CONTRACT FORM. A contract that has to be negotiated and agreed to by both parties in order for it to change.

THERE ARE MANY UNKNOWNS AHEAD - YOU ALL NEED THE PROTECTION OF A CONTRACT AND THIS IS HOW YOU GET ONE - YOU JOIN A UNION. To some people that is a scary thought. They have heard stories or had a bad experience. I can only answer for IBEW Local 363 - and there will always be an answer.

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT WITH IBEW LOCAL 363. WE ARE LOCAL PEOPLE TOO AND WE LIVE HERE TOO. IBEW LOCAL 363 HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED IN THIS AREA FOR ALMOST 100 YEARS ALREADY!

Having a seat and a voice at the table trumps every bad thought, fear or question about the "union" when you compare it TO WHAT THE COMPANY CAN AND WILL DO to all of you WITHOUT THAT CONTRACT.


That NO CONTRACT SCENARIO has NO LIMITS when it comes to WHAT YOU CAN LOSE - and not just this year - BUT FOREVER.

Please be assured, IBEW Local 363 wants the workers at Inbev AB to make their own decision as to whether they want a contract and a union or if they don't. We are not after you to make money, collect dues or to fool you into anything. We are one of the most agressive, active and professional unions in the entire Hudson Valley and we reacted to a request from your fellow employees to come in and HELP you.

We do it because that is what we do.

We believe that the VAST MAJORITY OF YOU KNOW THAT IBEW Local 363 is the best choice for the future of all the workers at the Newburgh plant.

STAY STRONG, STAY SOLID, LISTEN AND BE POLITE, TELL THEM WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR, EXPECT ONE ON ONES WITH TONY BEFORE THE WEEK IS OUT, THAT'S TEXTBOOK ANTI-UNION 101. TELL TONY WHAT HE WANTS TO HEAR TOO. ITS OK, LET IT FLY - IT WILL RELIEVE THE TENSION TO JUST TELL HIM YOU DONT WANT THE UNION - THEN HE CAN MOVE ON.

JUST REMEMBER - A CONTRACT IS THE BEST OPTION FOR YOU ANYTHING ELSE IS WRONG ADVICE.


DO NOT BE FOOLED INTO BEING AGAINST YOURSELVES. STAY STRONG!

VOTE YES IBEW LOCAL 363

27/28 363

37 comments:

  1. So I hear Tony is coming next week what is that about. Tony please leave us alone we want a union
    that is finally.

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  2. Is it me or does Tony look like a squirrel with his cheeks full of nuts? Tony as a business man you should call Sam its all over but going through the motions. We are already IBEW Local 363

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  3. Hey chubby checker did you hear TONY IS COMING BACK ON TUESDAY ?

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  4. I think after talking to my crew today we have
    75 % saying yes...

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  5. Lets guess what the vote will be.
    I say 96 yes 50 no. The balance will be on vacation half of them was no any way.

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  6. I Call Them As I See ThemAugust 21, 2010 at 10:29 PM

    Let Tony come again. It's their last shot. He'll ramble, Dan and Dave will sit there, pen in hand poised to ........ what do they do? It's kind of tough to write down things when you are trying to gauge peoples' reactions to being slapped in the face with shit. Maybe Warren can come in and chuck in his $.02. That'll clinch it for them! Is that the strategy? Bring the relief picher in the bottom of the ninth and sell him as the next team manager? He's been silent (muzzled?) thru this whole process. Let's hear his take on it. He has been the target of many, yet no response. Russ left under a cloud (Russ we miss ya), Warren stayed. Dan is up to his neck in it and Warren is quiet. Warren at one time was Tony's boy. Do the math, you don't need a slide rule. Holly has her faults but she's out there running A Crew. Where's Wald--Warren? Doing the Hermitage in the office, only comes out once a week to update his 64 color crayola crayon board. And smoke, sometimes in the non-smoking area by the front door and sometimes in the approved smoking area. Think about what's going on up there. Who's pulling who's strings.
    As for Tony, you came you spoke, you shot your wad, you got it all over the floor. Who's going to clean up that mess? You? you and Ralph Lauren? Stay in St Louis. We really don't want to hear anymore condescending and insulting, loss for a better word, BLATHER. Your Rat Patrol has failed you. Some of them have defected. Do Not Gut Our Plant! You have some good managers here. In different circumstances a good team. You still lost this team years ago when you required that piece of paper made from a goat's ass. And basically told your next cadre of hands on people to go f themselves. As far as I am concerned I am not paid to be a teacher so whatever happens with the vote you are about to lose, I now have a case of the "dumbs". Maybe your more "educated " people should read the manuals and then realize they ain't all that they say. Learn it like we did. Your managers when you were Plant Manager here were non college boys, not working out of their range of knowledge. (No offense but a lid plant guy trying to understand the back end as a unit?)then sharing it with a warehouse guy who doesn't know the names of the equipment?) But the old guys were career can makers. Each with there own specialties. You even had a Millwright in there to tie it all together with butcher's string. They made this plant and they taught us, NOT YOU! A mechanic's mechanic. When they retired you tossed it. Well pay back sucks. Now you have for the most part floor "sectors leaders" or whatever they are called now who couldn't manage to find the bathroom without a road map. If the hourly teachers had rebelled earlier this plant would have been in the shitter. But no the people you rejected kept this plant running, doing the right things whether their "sector leader" knew it or not. Now we reject you. We vote for a union we vote for a say in our work place. We reject Ken and his outdated propaganda pictures. We reject your opinion of us, the ones who really make you what you are, "boys and girls","children". We even really laugh at the fact that Ken stated you have a "Plan" to run the plant in case of a strike! Wow, we'd all like to see that one!Management will run the processes. OK! You'd be You Tube hits over night. 1 shift. You, Tony, once thought that running a printer was easy and you came on the floor and ran SHIT. Your planning is as unbelievable as your rhetoric.
    I'll be voting yes to the union. So will the majority of my team mates. Don't waste your coach seat, econ car, room at the Days Inn, or breath coming here again until after the vote. That's when we'll all have something to talk about. See you then!

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  7. wow docking a 22 year employee 8 hours pay on his last day for going out to lunch. An employee who never had sick day and from what he said...one day he left early to care for his hospitalized daughter. Dan and Dave you should be embarrassed ..but u wont be. You will be at the end of the month. I am glad he mailed it back..you guys need all the money you can get to fight the union...to late

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  8. I will admit that I do not know ALL of the details BUT THEY CANNOT DOCK somebody EIGHT HOURS pay for going out to lunch OR FOR ANY OTHER REASON.

    maybe this is the parts of having a union thye are most afraid of - being exposed for doing things they CAN"T do in the first place.

    VOTE YES EVERYBODY - YOU NEED A UNION HERE NOW - ITS NOT AB ANYMORE AND ITS GOING TO CONTINUE GETTING FARTHER AND FARTHER AWAY FROM WHAT AB WAS.

    I want to know more about that next week.

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  9. I'm with Call Em Like I See Em. We need to get a handle on this place. Let's face it we run the place they don't. This is our plant more than theirs. All of these years we were ok to work in this plant with no unioon. It worked because we worked hard and AB took care of us like there was no tomorrow. Well now AB sold and there is no tomorrow. Now is the time for US to take care of US. We need this union in here right now! This is not some little game anymore. We need the protection of the contract. We cannot trust these people anymore with our families survival. It just cannot be like that anymore. We need to get to the big tbale and face these guys and let them know that we are adults. real adults with houses kids, spouses, bills , problems at home and at the same time we are the best workers they could ever find to work in this plant. That is worth allowing us to make this choice without having to hear bullshit about it.

    Let's all come in at the end of the coming week and pile in the yes votes to make a statement all the way up to Brito. We need to stand up and be counted and the time for that is THIS WEEK.

    Let's Roll.

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  10. Sam did someone tape Tony? Because I think he will come back and say that we miss quoted him.
    Sam we want this so bad this is all we talk about.
    We like and trust you even if they call you a liar.Please tell me that you have been totally
    honest with us ?
    So we dont have to hear I told you so.

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  11. I have another one. What do you think of someone losing there PAD for being 2 mins late on Maints
    Day another person who is a good employee and a real step up guy.Why is it that if we are on the floor 9 mins after shift we dont get paid for it.
    Well guess what those days are over the machines will run in auto pilot.

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  12. yEA I think we have the Tony tapes someplace.

    With my job, everything is based on credibility. I need to keep credilbility. I do that by being honest and fair. When I am wrong, I will admit I am wrong and when I am right I will fight you to the death. But I will keep that easily identifiable constant there for all to see, that is what makes you a credible person.

    Look at all I have written here. Liars don't put things in writing.

    Honest people put things in writing.

    That is why you honest workers and your honest union should have an easy time getting a contract here at MCC Newburgh.

    We just want it all in writing.

    STAY SOLID STAY STRONG VOTE YES FOR IBEW LOCAL 363 ON 27/28

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  13. Sam how do you think we look for 27/28?
    We did another head count Friday and the # looks alot greater. We came up precentage wise 72%.

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  14. 8:27AM - Well the reason that it is like that now is because that is the way they say it is - you have no choice because you have no contract. That is a small example of the difference in having and not having a contract. They dictate that.

    In my view, there are two sides to that timeclock. I think it should be a fair system that looks at the beginning and the end of the day equally. Not saying that being late is ok because IT IS NOT. People need to be at work on time. Don't forget there are the chronic lates and the late maybe once or twice in a year. A contract can address that and be fair to everyone.

    There are also NYS Labor laws that come into play but I would rather devise our own way to adress that - which YOU can do with a WRITTEN CONTRACT.

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  15. I hope Tony isnt coming back to get rid of managers beacause it won't make a differents.

    1. For every manager gone they have a hit list
    for the team members they are going to get rid of
    if the union is voted out.
    PEOPLE DONT BE FOOLED IF THIS HAPPENS..........
    they have a agenta.

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  16. Countin" - I think we look really, really good. If you notice the way I did this campaign, I didn't let ANY WORKER come out front. I did all of that. I was the one and only one out in front. I didn't even want them defending me or the union - we built our union from within OURSELVES.

    I was representing the people. ( Wow, what a concept! lol )

    What I did build was a large, huge group of people who contacted me individually and in many of those cases no one knew who the others were.

    My reports from the people tell me that EVERYONE IS EXCITED, EVERYONE WANTS TO PARTICIPATE, AND IT LOOKS LIKE WE ARE ALL ON THE SAME PAGE WITH THE ENTIRE THING - WE WANT TO SIT WITH THE COMPANY AND MAKE AN AGREEMENT.

    We are almost there - can't wait.

    27/28 363

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  17. PS the employee with the PAD has never been late
    or never called in sick, and has been there I want to say 20 years.

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  18. 8:47Am - Well the UNION is GETTING VOTED IN.

    So they can take the list of employees and CAN IT. If I ever find out they did have a list they will pay dearly for that.

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  19. So much for their employee disciplinary policy....that is not what they say happens then.

    I want to know more about that you can't dock 8 hours.

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  20. Sam there is no way you can post that document
    you got from abinbev? That would be the real
    coffin nailer.

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  21. Please post on Sunday Morning if we won.
    I will be on vaction and that would make it even better.

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  22. I know but.....My gut tells me no. lol

    It's just very telling of how they fisbowl you guys and report on you like "worker bees".

    At this point in this election I really believe that the people know what they want - they have made up their minds. They will be choosing IBEW Local 363.

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  23. Sunday MORNING????? I will not go to bed on Saturday night without reporting that on the site! No matter how late I get home....lol

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  24. Union or no union, Change is coming.
    Union or no union, The Future is uncertaint.

    Union we have a contract so that at some point in the near future we will know what we have.

    No Union, no contract and we will never know day to day, month to month, year to year what we have or what our rights are as hourly employees.

    VOTE YES

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  25. Tony said that he wants to close the gap between union plant benefits and non union plant benefits by raising union benefits (which are locked in for the next few years because they have a written contract. So he will not actually be doing anything there)

    And lowering the benefits on non-hourly which he can do anytime he likes because there is no contract to honor.

    The best way we have to approach this as hourly employees is to unionize all of the MCC Plants. This way we can support each other (plant to plant)when it comes time for contract negotiations.

    THIS IS WHAT TONY MEANS WHEN HE SAYS UNIONS LIMIT THE COMPANY'S FLEXABILITY.

    Vote Yes for the unionization of all Metal Container Plants.

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  26. I heard that Mira Loma is ready they are waiting to meet with the rep.

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  27. Hey guys don't count us out.We are talking about
    another union drive.Do you think we can get that Sam guy here? We read this every moment we get.
    One thing is for sure THIS IS NOT AB anymore.
    We all knew that Tony is out for Tony.We read about the commments he made and we WERE NOT
    SHOCKED.We should all stick together.Good Luck
    and vote yes we are right behind you.

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  28. Rolling like a freight train.....

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  29. Every shift I work I am always the last one to be releaved in my area.Sometimes I punch out ten after six and I do not get paid for it.When I questioned why no pay was told I dont OK that overtime cause I dont know if you(meaning me) was working.BULLSHIT! I cannot leave my equiptment unattandent and they know this.If my addition is correct they owe me a couple of hundred dollars.Dan do you really need my few extra dollars?Isn't what $297,000.00 a year enuf for you?Just think on the evening of 8/28/10 I will have the last laugh when we are a "UNION PLANT" VOTE YES FOR 363!

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  30. There is nothing that Tony can say that changes anything that has transpired here at Newburgh. He can say things, like how great the company is and how great newburgh is doing, those things may be true. I hope so. Our pay
    has been frozen and so has our retirement. our breaks have been changed, our ability to leave and get lunch is gone.we have been told by Tony himself that we are overpaid,imlpying no raises for an undetermined amount of time. People who have to fill in for team leaders and do the job but are not compensated for it.people are written up for management not doing their job. Even our customers suffer because he sat in the cafeteria all day when his bosses werent around and caused the fillers to be shut down. our operations manager only comes out to the floor to put paper on the board and doesnt even get involved when major down time on equipment occurs.His assistant has more enthusiasm for her job and actually gets involved but is ineffective because she doesnt have the experience.
    People have been submitted by management to go see the company quack who works at a walk in clinic that he knows better than a specialist physician.
    What has been the things that as happened to you? What can Tony say to you that can change any of it. Better yet what has management in the entire company even after the satisfaction survey done to resolve any issue? You know the answer. nothing
    Heres the part that has happened. The union has influenced Tony to come here and listen to what has gone on here in newburgh.
    If the union isnt voted in they will go back to doing business as they were prior to the unions arrival. All the same issues will be the same as it was.
    At least 30% of us signed the cards. The union says its much higher.The law confirmed it was at least that. Did you sign the cards to keep things the same or make a change.
    We all have dreams of Newburgh being the best place to work. Why doesnt management? If they did they would have changed something.Dont forget what has happened and why you signed the cards. What the union has already done without even being in the plant for one moment. Tony can talk all he wants, he hasnt changed a thing.

    The union already has.
    Dont forget what has happened, make a change for us and our families. Make it better for all.

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  31. Pete Seeger lives in Beacon. That is right across the river from us. Maybe we can invite him over when we win this election. He will be pleased that the "Working Man" is still able to fight for his rights here in the good 'ol US of A. Thank you Pete for your inspiration. God bless the working man.

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  32. ALMOST AT 50,000 HITS. YOU MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT.

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  33. A contract would solve a lot of these problems

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  34. saynotomanagementshowAugust 22, 2010 at 4:07 PM

    Hey people remember this final week before the vote that it isn't all about the money like some people think. This is about how we are treated and the representation that this union will bring. This will stop all the unjust things that management does off the cuff. They will now have to go through Sam if they want to discipline us. It will be much more fair. Its not all about the contract and money remember this. This will be the backing that we need to even the playing field some. Stay strong and get through the final week. this has been a good push. Tony we are glad you are concerned but it came a little to late, sorry. GO UNION STRONG!!!!!

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  35. A fair contract. The right to work in a DIGNIFIED workplace, where we ALL are respected. The place where we all are treated the same....That is all we want.

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  36. A CONTRACT.

    It is all spelled out. That is what we want. No more arbitrary decisions on the part of management. Equal justice for all.

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  37. A contract-
    A contract
    Nothing but a contract-

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