Covington Paperworkers Union, AWPPW Local 675

November 2, 2016

THE BARKING DOG

WestRock Negotiations Update
By Bob Booth, Bleach Room, Local 675 President
The majority of last weeks negotiations focused on developing language for 12 Hour Shifts. The parties
approach to bargaining has evolved from the previously used Interest-Based Bargaining into a hybrid method
that includes elements of both traditional and interest-based techniques. The parties would exchange language
and then discuss the changes, or additions, to the language. The parties would then separate to work on
additional language.
The 12 Hour document is taking shape, with only a few items remaining that need finalized. Those items are:

Vacation Days when shift floating occurs- With 12 Hour scheduling, weve talked about vacations
being signed in blocks. A vacation block includes the week of the vacation, but also protects the days
off leading into and coming out of vacation. The question is, what do we do when an employee
changes shifts due to a temporary, or permanent promotion? The employee may have made vacation
arrangements that include the days leading into, or coming out of, the vacation week, but those days
would normally be scheduled workdays on the new shift. If those days remain protected, the employee
could lose money due to a shortened workweek and, in some situations, could make it difficult to fill
the resulting vacancies.
In situations where the vacancy cant be filled by normal procedures, the parties have discussed
allowing the employee to voluntarily work these days, awarding the employee who works a day on
vacation an additional future paid day off, eliminating floating for temporary vacancies, and allowing
the employee to work the normal schedule and select a future vacation week. The parties agreed to
seek advice from a consultant at Shiftwork Solutions. Well see if he has any recommendations, before
drafting further language around this.

Standby- The Union doesnt want standby, however the Company has informed us that corporate
WestRock insists that there be a guaranteed method for filling vacancies. Most of the remaining work
on standby language lies in determining adequate standby coverage per department and designing a
method for assigning standby.
The Company and Union will meet with department stewards and experts to determine the sufficient
level of standby for each department.
We will also seek advice from Shiftwork Solutions for developing a path out of standby assignments. It
stands to reason that a department, which proves it can operate without having to utilize standby for a
period of time, can drop their standby coverage. There could then be a trigger for resuming standby
coverage, if necessary.
Continued

Covington Paperworkers Union, Local 675

November 2, 2016

Triggers to Pull the Plug- One reason that drafting 12 Hour Language is taking so long is that this feels
like do, or die, for 12 Hours. If another trial fails in Covington, its unlikely that well get another shot
any time soon. A lot of effort is being spent to draft language that provides for a high chance for
successful 12 Hour implementation. That said, we still need to define triggers that would return us to
eight hour scheduling, if twelve hour scheduling is obviously failing. The language is being crafted to
allow opportunity to fix issues as they arise during the trial period, but if solutions arent found and
problems continue to occur, 12 Hours could be shuttered.
Potential triggers for eliminating 12 Hours could include a certain number of events requiring
employees to work over sixteen consecutive hours, multiple occurrences of excessive overtime hours in
a week, multiple cases of employees failing to report from standby, and a spike in safety issues related
to the new schedule. All of these details require negotiating. The parties are seeking input from
Shiftwork Solutions.

Temporary Promotions- The parties have discussed increasing the period for promotions that require
shift floating from twenty-eight days to fifty-six days (like the first trial). We have also talked about
restricting temporary shift floating to longer vacancies. Floating on a twelve hour schedule may make it
difficult to fill vacancies in some situations, particularly when vacations are involved.

Department Issues- The parties will be setting dates to discuss department issues. This will likely take place in
the mill between regular bargaining dates. The Union intends to involve shop stewards and any other
department employees deemed necessary. Attempts to negotiate settlement of outstanding grievances may
take place in these meetings with departments in which the grievances were filed. Job Labor Grade
adjustments may also be on the agenda for these meetings. Please, get with your shop steward to make sure
your department specific concerns are on the agenda.
Permission Off- Permission off was discussed last week. The Union put forth concerns over the Companys
recent move to a more restrictive stance on granting permission off. The Company offered examples of where
they have granted permission off. The Union provided examples of folks with legitimate requests being denied
permission off. The Union isnt asking the Company to grant permission off for frivolous reasons, but
situations like the birth of a child, court subpoenas, childs graduation, and medical appointments that cant be
scheduled on off days should be no-brainers.
Not So Bold Prediction- Dont expect to vote on a contract proposal in December. We still have a lot of work to
do at the table. The following dates are scheduled for negotiations:
November 21 and 22. December 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, and 15 (We have an arbitration scheduled for December 7).
January 3, 4, 5, 6, 30, and 31. February 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
If I had to take a guess, based on the current pace of bargaining, I would not expect to vote on a proposal until
sometime in late Winter/early Spring. Your negotiating committee will continue to bargain in good faith, but I
believe it would be wise to prepare for a fight. A review of the economic terms of the RockTenn Master
Agreement is enough raise concerns. If the Company makes the mistake of trying to negotiate Covington
down to those terms, we need to be prepared to stand together. None of us know what a first proposal will
look like. We need to be ready for anything.

Covington Paperworkers Union, Local 675

November 2, 2016

Ingevity Negotiations Update

By Bob Booth, Bleach Room, Local 675 President
Local 675 Ingevity members and officers have been doing a good job preparing their bargaining agenda. I
popped by the Union Hall after completing a WestRock bargaining session, last Friday. The Ingevity
officers (VP Jon Bostic and Committeemen Brandon Jones and Mark Humphries) were working late hours
to prepare the agenda and deliver it to AWPPW Rep Don Draeger for formatting. Im looking forward to
sitting across the table from Ingevity with these men. Theyre ready to do the work and are focused on
achieving the will of the majority.
We understand that the Companys bargaining team will consist of Keith Potter, Cathie Symmes, Carie
Caskey, and Ed Wilson. There may be others. Ed Wilson served as spokesperson for MeadWestvaco when
we negotiated our current Agreement.
The Unions bargaining team will consist of AWPPW Rep. Don Draeger, President Bob Booth, Vice
President Jon Bostic, Committeeman Brandon Jones, and Committeeman Mark Humphries.
Either party can bring additional people to the table.
Negotiations will take place at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College in Clifton Forge, VA.
The weeks of November 14th and 28th have been scheduled for negotiations with Ingevity.

Local 675 WestRock members saw incorrect employee contributions reflected when doing annual
enrollment in the PPO Plan for 2017. The rates remain flat compared to 2016. There is no increase.
Bi-Weekly rates for 2017 are: Employee Only- $62.55, Employee + Spouse- $140.73, Employee + Child(ren)-
$118.83, Employee + Family- $203.27

Newsletter Submissions
This is your Union and this is your
newsletter. If you have something that
you would like to contribute to the
next edition of the Barking Dog, please
submit your article, cartoon, recipe,
etc. to the Union Hall.
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Covington Paperworkers Union, Local 675

November 2, 2016

Sarah Says
By Sarah Taylor, Local 675 Office Manager
Happy November everyone! It seems as if this year has gone by in the blink of an eye. I have many things I
wanted to write about because there is so much going on. Your officers are also working tirelessly on so many
issues that I will let them write about. Hometown Halloween was a great success thanks to Bob, Heather, and
their kids. A big thanks to the people who donated candy and for Toni for helping me put together all of the
goody bags. If we are going to continue to do community events we need your help. I would love to see more
people get involved. Our next big event is Cash Bingo scheduled for March 5 at the Covington Moose
Lodge. More details will follow.
After speaking with the WestRock benefits and legal team, it has been brought to our attention that because I
am not a WestRock employee whose job allows me to obtain your HIPAA protected medical information from
Anthem that we must change the way we approach insurance problems. It is Anthems job as your insurance
carrier to make sure your information is protected. That does not mean that I cannot help you. It means that
there are a few other things that we have to try first. If you have an insurance claim processed incorrectly you
must contact Anthem directly. This can be done by calling the number on the back of your insurance card or
by sending them a secure message through anthem.com. If you have not registered with anthem.com yet I
outline the details below. If you need help with this, please come down to the hall. The best advice I can give
everyone is to match every bill you receive with an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from Anthem. If you do not
have an EOB that matches the bill, do not pay that bill.
*Please note this is for WestRock employees. Ingevity employees can register at www.bcbs.com and have access to
similar tools as below.

Go to www.anthem.com
Click on the person in the upper right corner and choose registration.
Scroll down and complete the registration process (you will need your insurance card).
Once registered, on the login screen you will see current coverage and past coverage. Make sure the
bubble is clicked beside current coverage and continue.
On the main page, if you scroll halfway down it will show recent claims; you can click on them
individually to open/print. You can click view all claims also to go back farther.
To see where you are at regarding your deductible and out of pocket maximum, click on claims then
deductibles and out of pocket amounts.
There are many other tools available. You can scroll down to file an appeal for a denied claim, request
additional ID cards, or register for Live Health Online where you have access to a doctor 24/7.
You can send Anthem a message if you have a question about a claim in the message center. If you get
a bill that does not match your EOB, first call the doctor/hospital/providers office. If you get an EOB
that is incorrectly processed, you can send Anthem a message directly through this message center. All
of these should be exhausted before you come to the Union Hall, if you cannot get it resolved yourself
please bring both the bill and the EOB with you.

Covington Paperworkers Union, Local 675

November 2, 2016

AWPPW Officer Election Results

Local 675 saw a disturbingly low level of participation in the AWPPW officer elections. The fact that the
time of election lined up with our 35 Day outage, certainly played a part in the low voter turnout. Still, its
clear that we need to put in some work into developing ways to educate our members on the candidates
who are running, so you can make an educated decision when filling out your ballot.
The democratic One Member = One Vote approach offered through the AWPPW is a privilege that is rare
amongst unions. We need to figure out what needs to be done to make it possible for our members to
exercise their voting rights with authority and conviction. Any members, who have ideas on how to achieve
this, are encouraged to share their thoughts at the Union Hall.
President: Greg Pallesen
Washington
Area Rep: Jim Anderson
Area Rep: Tim Martin
Relief Rep: Bill Sauters
Trustee: Janice MacArthur
Trustee: Rodger Schultz

AWPPW Election Results

Vice President: Bill Spring
Oregon/Idaho/Virginia
Area Rep: Don Draeger
Area Rep: Bill Martello
Relief Rep: Brad Monroe
Trustee: Jeannie Schell

Secretary/Treasurer: Rick Craft

California
Area Rep: Greg Jones
Relief Rep: Casey Freeman
Trustee: Glen Williams

When voters in Virginia cast their ballots on

Election Day, they will see an option to vote
on Amendment 1. Amendment 1 would
adopt anti-worker right-to-work legislation
into Virginias Constitution. Please, educate
your family and friends who vote in Virginia
on Amendment 1 and encourage them to join
working families in voting NO.

Covington Paperworkers Union, Local 675

November 2, 2016

Upper Mill Vice Presidents Report

We just finished a long outage with a lot of forced overtime throughout the mill and I know everyone is
tired.
I am very sorry to say that we had a fatality. Kent Johnson, a contractor for Valmet, was working at the #1
CD Filter in the Recovery department. OSHA is still investigating and we are awaiting a copy of their
report.
We also had 17 accidents: 3 report only, 9 first aid, 5 recordable, 2 lost time. I wonder how many of these
were because of employees being exhausted?
One of the biggest issues we deal with every week is schedules. We are trying to work on a better system
that is universal and much easier to understand.
There are a lot of complaints on vacation schedules. Many of these center around not bringing extra SMEs
back into the regular schedule before vacation signups. Also in Recovery they are restricting vacations for
top operators. As far as maintenance vacations go, we were able to have a meeting with the company and
work through several issues.
There are still many problems around permission off for daylight workers to go to the doctor. We have been
in discussion about this multiple times.
We recently had several 3rd step grievance meetings with the company for Power, Fiber Line, and QA. We
have several more that are to be scheduled.
There are also issues surrounding the greater than 28 day vacancy language. The company and union have
been discussing this at negotiations and they are not wanting to do it how agreed upon.
We just finished another round of contract negotiations the week of October 24. We still need EVERYONE
in the Union to show the company how strong we are. The true strength of our Local is in the people. We
have had a steady stream of new members and we welcome everyone to join in the fight.
Work Super Safe,
Gary Wilkerson, VP

Union Meetings
Regular Membership Meetings are held on the first and third
Thursdays of each month at 12pm, 3pm and 5pm. The meetings
for this month will be held on November 3rd and November 17th.
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Covington Paperworkers Union, Local 675

November 2, 2016

Safety Is it really Safety First, Safety Always

By Trenia Critzer, Recovery, Local 675 Safety Director
I am the first person to say that safety is the MOST important thing both at work and at home.
Recently, I feel very frustrated that safety does not seem to be the priority, much less first at our
mill. When we are doing things like starting up a piece of equipment after a serious accident,
without a thorough internal inspection, can we really say Safety is FIRST?
We dont do root causes on all near misses that have fatality/serious injury potential. When a
person could have been seriously injured and we
do not get to the REAL root causes, Human
Performance says it will happen again. This is my
fear!
Unless there is a drastic change in the direction we
are going, I will not run again for the Safety
Directors Office next year. I feel like I am beating
my head against the wall these days. I want to
make a difference in safety while I work. I feel like
maybe I can be more help to my home department.
Recovery has been really struggling with safety
and other issues. I remain dedicated to each and
every person that walks through the gates here and
will continue to do the best job that I can to help
everyone go home every day safely.
Thanks to all who try to do the safest job you can
do and dont take any shortcuts. Dont ever let
anyone make you feel like you have to take
shortcuts on safety just to speed up a job! It takes
all of us, all the time trying to do the safest jobs to
make it out of here each day. I need everyones
help, since one person cannot be everywhere.
Stand up and be the safety example for all the
young workers that are coming in here. WE could
save a life if we all stand up for safety!

Stick a fork in me. Im done.

Dont let Safety take a back

seat to production.

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute
courage, that we move on to better things.
-Thoedore Roosevelt
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Covington Paperworkers Union, AWPPW Local 675

November 2, 2016

Opinion: Elect Derek Kitts

Note: Our Local has not taken action to endorse any candidates for political office this cycle, so this is purely my own
opinion.
If you vote in Virginias 9th Congressional District, please consider voting for Derek Kitts. Derek served our
country for twenty-four years in the US Army, including combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a
Purple Heart recipient and was awarded the Bronze Star twice.

Kitts will fight for Southwest Virginia and America. In Congress, Kitts will:
Promote Southwest Virginia as the destination for jobs and new businesses.
Re-envision former Congressman Rick Bouchers highly successful Southwest Virginia economic
development initiatives and top-notch constituent services.
Open additional district offices to allow citizen access to their Congressman.
Work to increase high-speed internet & cell phone service for rural schools, homes, and businesses.
Fight for our rural Veterans access to quality medical and mental healthcare.
Fight for access to reasonable and affordable healthcare for all.
Combat opioid drug abuse in Southwest Virginia.
Defend our 2nd amendment rights. Promote responsible gun ownership/stewardship.
Maintain and defend Social Security for current and future generations.
Support coalminers. Fight to protect their healthcare and pensions.
Fight to protect the right to collective bargaining and freedom of association.

A hard working, pro-labor, pro-gun, Congressman is exactly who I want representing the interests my
family, my community, and myself. Please join me in voting for Derek Kitts.
Sincerely, Bob Booth

CPU 675 welcomes the following new members who have joined since the our last newsletter:

Jeremy Kennedy, Ronnie Barnett, Gary Lilly, Darrick Taylor, Devin

Duncan, Brian Nicely, Robbie Woodson, Taylor Barr, Tom Buzzard,
Jeremy Arbogast, Josh Weikle, Matthew Elmore, Shannon Arthur,
Dwayne Rumfelt, Justin Shinault, Chris Unroe, Jeff Crowder, Cody
Thompson, Daniel Martin, Micheal Waid, Justin Harris, and Kevin
Hazelwood.
Covington Paperworkers Union
424 West Prospect Street
Covington, VA 24426
Phone: (540)962-5799
FAX: (540)962-7496
Email: cpu675@ntelos.net
Website: cpu675.org