Dear Sisters and brothers it is 2020 and I want to wish all of you a very Happy and safe New year. First i want to discuss something tragic that happened to one of our members on the Sykes a boat owned by Central Marine. Unfortunatley one of our members was killed when she tripped on the dock and fell in the water and drowned she also had head trauma. One of our members went into thewater after her but could not get to her in time. Please everyone be as safe as you can while on the boats and docks.  There is an ongoing investigation by the United Steelworkers and other agencies.  Lets keep our deceased sister and her family in our thoughts and prayers.    Also in 2019 we bargained for the first time with all three companies   simultaneously. We reached agreements with all three companies with Central Marine being the last one. We achived base wage increases in all 5 years increases in pensions, healthcare is maintained for 5 years and other issues that were positive for our members.  I want to thank all of our members that participated in the negotiations Gary Dubey Interlakes, Frank Jackson and Kevin Verkaryasz Keylakes and Jeff Thompson and Adam Larson for Central Marine. I also want to thank James Walker and Pat Gallagher the International represenative that worked with us also.  They all were a great help and represented all of our members very well. The only issue as far as bargaining goes is Leasing 3 which we are still working on, we are having issues with their pension which is differand than all the others at Interlakes. As far as layup goes and unemployment the Union can no longer put the letters out for all of you as we have in the past it is causing a lot of confusion and we just cant do it any longer. Interlakes was working on something with the State of Ohio but it will not be avaliable this layup season maybe next year. The union is working with the companies to get this done but again it wont happen this year. As far as the Local goes we are on solid financial footing and we will be looking to move out of the current address we have now to further conserve the unions treasury.   if you have any questions please claa Tom Zidek at 440-225-7752.  Again i want to wish all of you a Safe and Healthy New year. In solidarity Tom Z