We are here to stay!

We are the USW Local 8-675 here in Covington, VA! We are currently organizing members to become the Bargaining Unit for the hourly workers at the MeadWestvaco Covington Mill from the weak Coviington Paperworkers Union!
We currently have about one-half, and growing, of the hourly workforce staunchly united together as one.
Interested in joining us and becoming a Covington USW associate member? Contact us at (540) 962-4971!

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• Alcan Global ATI is Pleased with the Ratification Vote of a New Collective Bargaining Agreement at Ravenswood Plant

• Alcan Global Aerospace Transportation and Industry (Alcan Global ATI), part of Alcan Engineered Products - a business unit of Rio Tinto - announced today that employees represented by United Steelworkers (USW) Local 5668 at its aluminum rolling mill in Ravenswood, West Virginia, have ratified a new two-year agreement. The Company continued to operate throughout the negotiations and contract extensions, and looks forward to implementing the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
  "I am very pleased with the outcome of the ratification vote. It is a clear demonstration that all parties are determined to work together in a constructive way to shape the future of the Ravenswood plant. This new agreement balances the interest of the employees and the necessary competitive improvements in a challenging economic environment" said Christophe Villemin, Alcan Global ATI President.
  Despite the plant's difficult financial situation for the last few years, the new agreement preserves employees' health care coverage, and provides for a higher contribution to the employees' pension plan over the new agreement's period.
  Key contract changes will make the plant more efficient through work reorganization with an even greater emphasis on safety, reliability and quality.
  "It's now time for Ravenswood to re-focus on business and operational excellence, thus securing the plant's position in the marketplace as a preferred supplier of aluminum products for Aerospace and Defense as well as other important markets", concluded Christophe Villemin.

  The new two-year contract covers 700 unionized hourly employees at the Ravenswood facility.
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• Settlement Opens Door for Union Vote; 
  Agreement Stems from Complaint Filed Against Coca-Cola Enterprises

   

  A settlement between the Teamsters and Coca-Cola Enterprises clears the way for employees at several Atlanta-area facilities to vote on whether to be represented by the union.
  The National Labor Relations Board approved the settlement between the union and the country's biggest bottler of Coca-Cola products.
  The deal follows complaints of unfair labor practice filed by the Teamsters against CCE in June. Those complaints led to the cancellation of an organizing vote last month.
  The settlement does not set a date for a new vote, but it requires CCE to rescind a discipline issued to a union activist and post a notice to employees stating the company will not interfere with their right to form a union. It also grants back pay to some hourly employees at CCE's Marietta bottling plant.
  "We're pleased that the NLRB has intervened to help negotiate an agreement," Randy Brown, president of Teamsters Local 728, said in a statement.
  Coca-Cola Enterprises said the settlement did not find it in violation of the law.
  "We avoided the lengthy litigation process in an effort to allow our employees to participate in an NLRB-conducted secret ballot election at the earliest opportunity," Coca-Cola Enterprises said in a statement. The company said it "cooperated fully with the NLRB."
  The Teamsters represent more than 14,000 people involved in the production and distribution of Coca-Cola in the United States. For more than a year, the union has been trying to organize about 340 workers at metro Atlanta facilities. Frustrations over the process clouded the annual shareholders meetings of both Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Enterprises earlier this year, with Teamsters complaining of roadblocks.

  The complaints come as Coca-Cola works to buy the North American operations of CCE, a transaction expected to close late this year.

  
  

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In Chicago, 30 workers are killed by federal troops, more than 100 wounded at the "Battle of the Viaduct" during the Great Railroad Strike (1877); President Grover Cleveland (below) appoints a United States Strike Committee to investigate the causes of the Pullman strike and the subsequent strike by the American Railway Union. Later that year the commission issues its report, absolving the strikers and blaming Pullman and the railroads for the conflict (1894); Battle of Mucklow, W.Va. in coal strike. An estimated 100,000 shots were fired; 12 miners and four guards were killed (1912); President Truman issues Executive Order 9981, directing equality of opportunity in armed forces (1948); The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) took effect today. It requires employers to offer reasonable accommodations to qualified disabled employees and bans discrimination against such workers (1992).