Lynn Sherman
Chief Steward GCMS

Brothers and Sisters,
I'm sorry to say we have come to a point when 2 thirds (or more) of us will be leaving permanently. I know this is welcome news to some of you who have not had an opportunity to bid back to your home plant and I know that many of you recognize the importance of a traveling crew and the leverage it gives us in keeping a lot of our customary work in the hands of Local 148 craftsmen and women and in fact do not want to leave GCMS. All I can say is the union has informed the company throughout these negotiations that we will grieve our rights under Article 2; Section 2 as well as other issues involved in this reduction.

To those leaving I want to say thank you and good luck back in the plants! Some have been on GCMS from the start of PPM and others have only been with us a short time, yet everyone performed his or her job over the years with the utmost of expertise and I and this Local greatly appreciate your efforts. I'm sure we will see you when we roll into your plants in the future and I look forward to that.

I want to let each of you know that you can stay informed as to what is going on in the Local by going to our new and improved web-site. (If you have access at work, make sure you do it on your own time) There is a wealth of information on there now and since we no longer will be putting out the "Gauge" news letter, this is a great way to keep everyone informed as to what is going on.

Once again, thanks to all those leaving and I hope we can work together again in the future!