6:58PM, we are now at 36,000 feet on our way back to Seattle from San Francisco. Dave, Phil and I have just finished another round of meetings for the “Contract Steering Committee”. Of course Phil had just finished having a two day conference with the company in Chicago on the PV/GQ saga before coming out to San Francisco; maybe the company will give him frequent flyer miles.
Our day starts out in the morning at the local hall, there is coffee and donuts, they’re nice, but as the time goes on you realize they are not going to let you go! Even during lunch time Local 856 brings in sandwiches and we have a working lunch. Now back to work, after a while of pouring through the contract you lookout the window and the sun has gone down and you are hoping that we get through this one last article. It is now after 7:00PM and we’re headed back to the hotel. We set down for a late dinner and discuss some of the hurdles we had during the day.
It is amazing that there is so much experience in the room. As we talk about one section of the contract someone will raise a question and remind us that there is language in another area on the same subject and explains the trouble we have had. As it was said before this is a very mature contract and is in need of a cleanup.
We have completed more then half of the contract and plan a five day blitz in March to complete the rest. I do find this is a very good and democratic process. We should be ready to preset our proposals in April.
