Your Stores Bargaining Unit officers had their first meeting with Corporate Services Management on the Performance Enhancement Process on June 15th and it reveled some very ugly information. It seems as though management has a clearly defined goal of essentially eliminating the stores bargaining unit by 2010.

The meeting started off with information surrounding changes in compliment at the various electric and gas service centers to better suit the new crew compliments at those locations. Management also outlined changes at the Primary Service Centers at WSC and Allen Road as a result of changes in work methods largely brought about by DTE2. There will be many personnel changes at the secondary locations due to these compliment adjustments. There may be layoffs associated as well.

In the Stores Gas Group, the plan is to consolidate from the satellite locations "Slow Moving" inventories into the primary at Allen Road service center. This and other process changes is to result in a reduction of four Gas Supplypersons by the end of 2007.

In the Material Transportation Group, the company stated that they plan to "Competitively Bid" the Special Service eliminating (2 positions?) and Hydraulic Boom Operations (3 positions?) and reduce the General Haul driver classifications by Six positions. They claim this will reduce the cost of transportation services by $329,000 annually. We are assuming management will put the displaced Special Service drivers and Boom Operators in with the General Haul drivers as part of the "Shell game" which was why they are listing a reduction of 6 General Haul drivers to replace them with these two eliminated classifications, but again we don't know for sure as management has not discussed this with us as of yet. .

Management also outlined how they plan to Out Source Investment Recovery. They claim to be able to reduce the cost of the operation by $250,000 a year by doing this. Of course they ignore the millions that I.R. has saved the company over the years. They show a reduction of three Supplypersons in 2007 yet we have eight Supply people in Investment Recovery. I assume the others will be moved to W-100 because management plans to reduce the compliment at that location by six supply people by the end of 2007 due to what they claim are process changes and technology improvements through DTE2.

As for the Electric side Secondary Service Center locations the "New Look" personnel compliments show a reduction of 10 positions (FTE's) from 66 to 56.

The company is now defining Service Centers as

"Underground" - Trombly and Caniff are listed as with Caniff being the satellite to Trombly.

The compliment at each of the Underground warehouses will remain unchanged.

Below are how the service centers are staffed today and how they will be staffed in the "Future State".

Current State: Future State:

Compliment Total ------ 66 New Total--------------56

For some unexplained reason the Wixom Pole Yard, where we have three operators has never been mentioned and Wixom did not appear anywhere in the document they presented to us on June 15th? We also have no idea how many Senior Supply Persons they have in mind? This was our first meeting and it was to receive information only.

You will notice the increase in the four Regional Sites to 7, we feel they plan on a 24 hour 5-day operation but management has not specifically stated this. You can also see that there will be concerns at Royal Oak, Ann Arbor and Newport with only one person at each of those sites. We will certainly be challenging other groups performing Stores work on a daily basis at these locations. There will also be the "small task" of all the reductions and increases in the workforce at all locations. I guess we will be playing musical chairs for a while to get that

worked out Under Article 7 Section 11 of the contract.

As for the reduction of 10 Supplypersons? I guess it will depend on if anyone decides to retire. If some folks do retire it will lesson the amount of people we will have to try and place.

If you have enjoyed the news so far stay tuned as it gets much more interesting.

Toward the end of the meeting management displayed their plans to out source pretty much the entire Stores operation by 2010. The plans call for vendors to perform ALL Stores work at all the Regional, Super Satellites and Satellite locations and Trombly. In nearly 32 years that I have worked at Detroit Edison I have never seen such a viscous attempt to destroy a group. You all should have seen how Cold and Callous some of the management team members were as they calmly spoke of these impacts on our members lives and their families, all the while knowing their families and their jobs are perfectly safe and secure.

If they have their way in 2010 any of you who are working in any Regional or Satellite Warehouse will be removed from your job and a contractor will be brought in and placed at your location replacing you and working with the same equipment, using the same offices and doing everything you do currently. What will become of the displaced Stores people? Well, I would bet that if senior management can do so we will all be on the street out of a job. This is how they value your contribution to the company. I want everyone in the Stores Bargaining Unit to clearly understand what management thinks of you. The next time management comes around to thank you for a job well done on some project or storm duty or for improved workplace safety you need to understand how they really feel.

Of course the Local Union is fighting these attempts to out source our work on many fronts and these issues will ultimately be settled by a 3rd party through arbitration cases, Lawsuits, appeals to the MPSC and the National Labor Relations Board. How the company can come out and say that they are going to eliminate a work group in the 4th quarter of 2009 when we have contract negotiations in June of 2007?.

I think this is enough for now, I know I have an upset stomach just from typing it. We will continue to update you as we meet with the company on the workplace compliment issues but I really felt you all have the right to know what Corporate Services management would like to do to you within the next 3 1/2 years. We must all stick together as a Local union in this bastardization of the workplace. The company wants us gone and we have to fight for our jobs.

John R. Holmes

Chairman

Stores Division

Local 223 UWUA