March update
Greetings 94c!
Both the E&G and membership meetings were held March 4th. We did meet with the company.
The agenda for the meeting with the company was:
- Bottled water The company is moving forward with installing filtration systems in break rooms and on water fountains and will do away with the bottled water.
- Site Speed limit To comply with corporate policy the site speed limit will be reduced to 8 miles an hour.
- Fast Net Update Groundbreaking should take place during the third quarter or early fourth quarter of this year. Hiring should start in late 2028 early 2029.
Topics of discussion in E&G and membership meetings were:
- Merck tax document The tax document that was mailed out for the overtime exemption shows less money than what your last pay stub shows for pay at the 1.5 rate. When they calculated they did not include anything that was not hours actually worked such as vacation bereavement etcetera so some of the 1.5 pay later in the week according to them is not eligible for the exemption. Two different accountants have given us two different answers as to whether this is correct or not. According to the IRS you do have the right of using your last pay stub from 2025 for this years taxes. In almost all cases that will be to your advantage. We will try to get clarification on what the exemption actually covers before next year.
- Packages There were a total of 27 ICWUC members who put in for packages. All were accepted. All those jobs will be backfilled with the exceptions of those coming out of Primaxin.
- Job Postings Postings will come out this week or early next week. The first wave of postings are for roles that have a test associated with the bid and they will not have a surplus attached. Waste Water Operator, Facility Operator, Bargaining Unit Trainer and the MTP apprenticeship positions will be the first jobs to go up for bid.
- MTP graduate job placement When MTP trainees graduate from the program jobs will be posted in their craft. They will remain in the area that they are currently working until the bidding process plays out. They will be placed on shift the first day of a new pay period two weeks after graduation.
- Speciality Skills Update The company has decided not to pursue opening the main shop at this time. They say they are still interested in it and believe it to be advantageous to the site but do not have resources to dedicate to get it open right now. I hope that is the case and it is not retaliation for 94c leadership pushing back on them wanting to transfer work between the two Unions at the site.
- Pur Dispense/ Charge and Buffer work The dispense work group will be staffing formulation, UPLC( which is coming quicker than was previously thought) and are responsible for settle plates. There will be some balancing of work between the groups. Buffer was to take sieve testing and 7390 years ago, but the company hasn’t moved forward with it. We are pushing for this to happen in the near future. The original time line for the transition was tied to column usage.
- IFS jobs As it becomes more and more likely that Merck operations will take over cleans inside the airlocks we are trying to find ways to limit the impact to the IFS bargaining unit. The FDA housekeeping findings are driving the company to clean black spaces at a higher level which will require more manpower. We have found two additional buildings to add to their scope of work and are seeking approval for them taking that work. Primaxin cleans that are not critical are being reduced so that more cleaners are not hired only to have them laid off later this year. There is a chance that we can get through this entire slowdown without losing a 94c member involuntarily. IFS site management has been great while working through this problem.
- Fermentation LOD vetting Two separate workshops are being held to ensure that the tasks and LOD’s for fermentation are accurate. The first is geared at making sure the training facility tasks are fully representative of what is happening on the floor. These have been vetted before but we’re taking a fresh look at it with new trainees and stewards from the area. The second is to identify differences between 63 and 64 and generate separate LODs for tasks that are not the same.
- Steward School We will be having an abbreviated Steward school in the very near future for the Stewards who have not been through one. The International will provide additional training during fall of this year.
We did not have any new members or retirees since the last update. The Next Union meeting is April the 2nd please make plans to attend