News & Updates
Missouri Medicaid expansion victory![]()
By Jason Starr![]()
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The Missouri Supreme Court delivered a stinging rebuke to Gov. Mike Parson and the Republican super majorities in the House and Senate July 22 when it ruled that the state must expand coverage to approximately 275,000 low-income people. The decision reversed a lower court’s ruling that found the amendment approved by voters last August to be unconstitutional because it did not include a revenue source for the state to pay for the Medicaid expansion.![]()
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Although it took the Supreme Court to resolve the issue, our members can be proud that UAW Local 249 has been in the fight from the beginning and, truth be told, our members played one of the biggest roles in the fight at every stage of the battle.![]()
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Local 249 members were there at the beginning circulating petitions to get the constitutional amendment on the ballot. Many organizations, including the UAW, submitted nearly 350,000 signatures to place Amendment 2, Medicaid expansion on the ballot.![]()
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Republicans, who’d voted against expansion repeatedly since 2014, moved immediately to defeat the initiative. Secretary of State John Ashcroft rushed the signature verification process, bypassing local election authorities, to place expansion on the August 2020 primary ballot when Republicans believed fewer pro-expansion voters would turn up at the polls.![]()
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That failed. Medicaid expansion was passed by Missouri voters with 53.27% voting to extend eligibility in Missouri to adults that are between the ages of 19 and 65 whose income is 138% of the federal poverty level or below — about $17,774 for a single person.![]()
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With the voters having expressed their support it was expected that Republicans would finally do the right thing — that was naive — they still had plenty of cards up their sleeve.![]()
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In the last session of the Missouri legislature, that just ended, Republicans demonstrated that they care nothing for what the voters want. They don’t feel bound by the state’s constitution. They simply used their super majorities to block funding for expansion.![]()
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Gov. Mike Parson went along with the charade claiming that his hands were tied.![]()
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At that point public pressure was brought to bear. Local 249, Jobs with Justice and other supporters of Medicaid Expansion mobilized to confront Parson at the governor’s mansion in Jefferson City on July 1.![]()
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Three weeks later, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Social Services and Missouri HealthNet, who are responsible for the administration of Medicaid in Missouri, are required to use the funds appropriated by the legislature on all eligible recipients under the adopted amendment.![]()
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Apparently, that court still believes the ideals outlined in the Declaration of Independence — that “governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” — still stand.![]()
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There are some important lessons in the Medicaid expansion fight that all working people should absorb.![]()
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Although we are largely on the defensive — with all the power of monied interests arrayed against us — we can still win important victories if we are united with our allies in the trade union and social justice movements. With our friends, we brought the strength and power of our membership to bear.![]()
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The fight was long and hard, but in the end, we won
During the month of July, Local 249 finalized completing the process of converting 20 members from TFT status to Full Time In-Progression. ![]()
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Currently there have been 179 TFT members make the conversion to Full Time In-Progression this year.
First Place and Big Bass in the July 18 Local 249 Bass Tournament at Smithville Lake was won by Mark Spence and Mike Spence, left to right. Second Place went to Paul West and Daniel Campbell. Congratulations to all who participated in another great Recreation Committee event.
Production and mask protocols return at KCAP![]()
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By Jim Fisher![]()
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On July 26 all shifts of production have returned to work from the most recent layoffs due to the parts shortages. On August 2, the Transit System will return to a 5X10 hour work schedule with Super Production scheduled for both No. 2 and No. 3 Shifts. The Truck System has returned all three shifts of production to work, with a couple of Super Production shifts scheduled between now and the end of September. Currently neither system shows any more down weeks through the month of September, but that is always subject to change. ![]()
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On July 26, Ford Motor Company announced that they would adjust their protocols on COVID-19 and go back to requiring masks for all members inside the facility. Ford says that positive COVID cases in Missouri have increased. In a letter from National Joint Health and Safety Team, which is made up of both International Safety Union Reps and Ford Motor Company, they announced that they were addressing states where there had been a significate increase in COVID-19 cases. Ford will continue to monitor COVID-19 daily and stated they expect to have to adjust to protocols over the coming months.![]()
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On July 28, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced a mask mandate for indoors in public places starting Monday, August 2 and will go through at least August 28.![]()
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With this decision, KCAP Management needs to address all requirements of the Return-to-Work Playbook and quite frankly do a better job protecting its workforce. Ford has already said they won’t return the Temperature Scanning booths, because they caught less than 1% of positive COVID cases entering the plant. The reality is they were a failure from the beginning. Tents were constantly unmanned, had reduced lanes, had employees who failed the scan but waved into work anyway so they wouldn’t be late, and had entrances management could enter without going through the scanner.![]()
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Another very significant part of the Return-to-Work Playbook is cleaning. KCAP Management has completely dropped the ball on this as well. The intention of the Return-to-Work Playbook is very clear on this matter. All workstations, bathrooms, break room, and anything else with a high touch potential needs to be cleaned on a regular basis. Unfortunately, KCAP didn’t find this part important either. On most occasions hand sanitizer stations were either empty or broken. The restrooms are still filthy, and most are either missing soap, toilet paper, paper towels or the bathroom facilities themselves are broken. However, the company posts signs to remind us to repeatably wash our hands.![]()
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KCAP hires an outside company called Team Solutions to clean the plant. Since the beginning of the pandemic Ford has reduced the funding to Team Solutions for pandemic spending in a cost saving effort. This has caused Team Solutions to reduce their cleaning staff dedicated to COVID 19 cleaning by one third. ![]()
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The Return-to-Work Playbook also calls for a daily “signoff” by the supervisor of the area. This includes walking the workstations, break rooms, and restrooms. To avoid providing Local 249 the documentation that these walks were taking place the company covered for them by saying that they emailed them to their bosses. The fact is that workstations we not being wiped down, break areas had no cleaning supplies – and most still don’t – and bathrooms are still in horrible conditions clearly proves these “signoffs” have never been completed. ![]()
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During this pandemic, Local 249 performed several audits of the Return-to-Work Protocol and required the company to walk with us. It should have been the other way around with the company asking us on the walks and asking us for input. At the end of the day the company is responsible for keeping their employees safe. KCAP management must step up their game as this virus appears to be increasing in cases.![]()
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The pay practices at KCAP also remain an active issue. Members report to work and are not paid correctly by floor supervisors. KCAP's Labor Relations and HR Departments have intentionally delayed SUB payments, and even admitted to not paying out SUB pay benefits during the last week in June to improve the company’s second quarter earnings. On July 28, Ford Motor Company reported a “surprise” net profit of $1.1 billion in the second quarter, one can really only wonder what the numbers would have been if they had not delayed member's pay until July 1, which is the start of the third quarter.![]()
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During the past 18 months, all of us have seen changes. However, Ford has clearly made a change that’s not in the best interest of our UAW members across the country. In the 2019 National Agreement Ford committed a $960 Million investment into the Ohio Assembly Plant. Since then they have told the UAW they don’t intended to make that investment after all. At the same time they have moved the Electric Mustang, Bronco Sport, and Maverick Truck production all to Mexico.![]()
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Our In-Progression members have also been disadvantaged by a pay issue nicknamed “Leapfrog”. This has caused members with lower seniority to receive pay raises before higher seniority members. During the Ratification Meetings the company agreed to correct any “Leapfrog” issues. They did commit to address the immediate concerns while voting on the contract was taking place. Since then, the have said fixing the “Leapfrog” was too expensive. We suggest using the “surprise” second quarter earnings to correct the pay. ![]()
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Local 249 has and will continue to take direct action with the support of the International Union. We have also advanced the issue to the National Labor Relations Board to seek immediate resolution![]()
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As long as Unions have been around there are things members like and don’t like. However, the attack from the company on the UAW has now been made very clear. We must immediately begin to act like union brothers and sisters and have each other’s backs. We need to start acting like we are 7,300 strong. Union Reps can’t win all the fights alone. Spend time learning your contractual rights and holding the company accountable. ![]()
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It’s clear the company forgot that in the third quarter of 2020 and coming back up from the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown that KCAP broke every production record ever set by this plant. They have forgotten who saved them in their “darkest hour” from the financial crisis in 2007. They have chosen to ignore their “UAW Partners” in return for new friends on Wall Street.![]()
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Maybe it’s time to help them remember who got them where they are.
Click below to see a copy of the most recent bulletin distributed in the plant: