Nearly 30 UE rank-and-file members from a half-dozen locals participated in a UE Subregion 1 meeting on Saturday, March 8 at the UE Local 506 union hall in Erie, PA. UE Eastern Region President George Waksmunski welcomed the UE members to the meeting and thanked the Local 506 members for the use of their union hall.
The subregion meeting featured two workshops on Preparing for a Strike and Fighting Unjust Discipline — Making the Most of Just Cause. The workshops were facilitated by John Miles, Local 506 Business Agent, and Brian Chismar, Local 506 Chief Plant Steward. They were assisted by Local 300 members Ewa Nizalowska and Jawuanna McAllister, who are grad workers at Cornell University and members of their local's negotiating committee.
Miles walked the members through the steps it takes to prepare for an effective strike, highlighting his local's experiences in two strikes against his members employer Wabtec in 2019 and 2023. Nizalowska and McAllister described how their local is preparing for a possible strike in their difficult first contract negotiations and how their negotiating committee is using escalating tactics of the threat of a strike to win concessions at the bargaining table from their employer.
After leading the UE members in discussions on fighting unjust discipline by filing grievances and using collective actions by the members and reviewing the Seven Tests of Just Cause, Chismar facilitated a mock Step 2 grievance meeting over an unjust discipline case with half of the participants taking the side of the union and other half of the participants taking the side of management.