Brothers and sisters,

Just wanted to share some of the subjects of discussion that came out of the Winter Meetings:

• We have been working closely with the International to update the Local's By-Laws in an effort to begin moving towards bringing the Local out of Administratorship. Nothing is final so these details are just for information and could change before they're finalized. The Local will still be utilizing a part-time Business Agent for the foreseeable future. This way there is always a land-based union representative available to handle issues, without the exorbitant cost of full-time local officers. There will be Local Union officers holding the following positions: President, Vice-President, Recording Secretary, Financial Secretary, Treasurer, as well as Trustees. These board members would work in conjunction with the B.A.
• The next officer election to take place will happen beginning in April of 2021. According to L.U. 5000 By-Laws, there will have to be an election committee created in order to conduct that election. If it looks like the Local is coming out of administratorship sooner, we may have to appoint the first round of officers, and then hold the election during that 2021 cycle.
• Motions were made and approved by the members to allow spending for a badly needed new laptop, a printer, bill payments and incidental spending like travel to meetings, etc...
• Your Business Agent and International Staff Representative are still working through proof-reading the red-line version of the contract with Key Lakes. As soon as it is approved, we will make sure printed copies get out to everyone. We are still waiting to receive the red-line version of the agreement with Interlake. Again as soon as we do, we will get it out to the members.
• There is a land-based unit amalgamated with Local Union 5000. The employer is Sisco. They are in the ingot mold manufacturing and repair business. That contract expires July 31 so we will expect to begin bargaining with them shortly.
• Any member that is employed by Central Marine, please send an email with your name to jwalker@usw.org. Please note that you work for Central in the email. The Company would not give us any of the member's email addresses and we are trying to compile as many as possible to get everyone entered into an email blast program so we can communicate that way as well. 
• The Local had about $2,000 in the account when it was put under the administration of our Business Agent. Tom reported at the winter meetings that the Local now has approximately $135,000. plus a $16,000 CD and is financially healthy.

We want to thank everyone who was able to attend the Winter Meetings. We would also like to thank Gary Dubey from Interlake, Kevin Vekaryasz and Frank Jackson from Key Lake, and Adam Larson and Jeff Thompson from Central Marine, for all of their hard work during contract bargaining. Their knowledge was invaluable and they were a great asset at the table. We would not have been able to bargain the contracts that we did, without them. Thank you also to all the ship chairman who serve the members every day.

In Solidarity,

Jamie Walker and Tommy Z.