$2000 Special Payment

The $2,000 special payment will be on the pay issued Dec. 10. This payment is one of the annual payments negotiated in 2012 in place of cost-of-living adjustments. All seniority employees who have worked during this calendar year up to and including Nov. 1 will receive the special payment. It will be taxed the same as 2014.

Vacation Pay Change for SWEs

The Shop Committee has negotiated a change in how SWEs will get their vacation pay. This change should help resolve a number of problems our members have had with the issuing of ROEs (Record of Employment) and E.I.

On Dec. 10, 2015 all SWEs will receive a lump sum payment of the 4% vacation pay they have earned on hours worked up to Dec. 6. Going forward, they will get their 4% vacation pay each week based on their earnings for that week. This will mean that laid-off SWE members will no longer be disadvantaged with regards to E.I. by having vacation pay designated as earnings during weeks of layoff, leading to being disqualified for a period of time.

The Company also agrees that active SWEs not scheduled to work during the annual shutdown period will be coded “X” (Shortage of work) in GMTKS.

The change will also have a tax advantage, as the vacation pay will be taxed at a slightly lower rate. It is estimated that from $350 to $500 less tax will be deducted over the course of a year. These changes will apply to SWEs in both St Catharines and Oshawa.

UAW Negotiates Wage Increases

Without going into all of the details in the new UAW contracts, one thing is clear – there are base rate wage increases for “traditional” workers (often called Tier One) and substantial increases for “in progress” workers (Tier Two). This will only help us in our goals for our own negotiations next year.

Thank You
On behalf of Tim McKinnon and the Shop Committee