May 2021 — Fossil News

Still on the forefront of everyone's thoughts and concerns is the pending sale of the fossil fleet. With roughly 120 members impacted by the sale, it is a distraction to say the least. When the sale was first announced, it was a shock to all of us. With the prospect of having a single buyer for the entire fleet, I feel more confident that we will be positioned well with whomever the new buyer is. We have a tremendously talented workforce, the best run plants in the country, and are in the middle of the most lucrative energy market in the United States. The flexibility that our CBA will afford a new buyer in my opinion is a very unique and valuable asset in this business. I think many of our members are ready to move forward and see what the future will bring us with a new owner. We have heard many of the concerns that the affected members have brought to our attention, and passed them on to the company. I encourage everyone in the plants to continue to ask questions at the meetings conducted by the Senior Leadership Team, so they know for certain what is on everyone's minds. Once the prospective buyer is announced, we can dig into the specifics of how they operate, their track record of working with labor, and what challenges we may have going forward. We have our contract in place with an agreement signed by the company that any prospective buyer will be subject to the terms and conditions of our CBA. I would imagine we will be hearing something by the end of the second quarter, as far as the buyer, if the deal is still to be completed by the end of this year. We are still in talks with the management of LTS for the creation of transfer matrix to help make the pay offers extended for transfers within the lab more consistent and fair. We have met 3 times so far and are very close to the guidelines that we will be using going forward. We have representation on the committee from the union side, as does the company from management side. This group will function as a de facto JEQC for the services group, as they do not have one. Hoping everyone gets off to a safe and fun start for the coming summer!