Local Lodge D27

Union marks 60th year with School for Workers

Lodge joins with other unions, agencies in regional drill

A MINE RESCUE team from Local D-27 (Sugar Creek, Mo.) and eight other teams from across the Midwest tested emergency tactics and equipment during a drill at Eagle Materials’ limestone mine in Sugar Creek, Mo., Nov. 6-7. The event was sponsored by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Central Plains Cement Company and the Missouri Department of Labor.

Eagle Materials owns and operates the mine and the adjacent cement plant located near Kansas City, Mo. L-D27 members are employed at both facilities.

Coordinated bargaining, international pressure help lodge prevail

Boilermakers, Steelworkers lead group; network will coordinate bargaining strategies

FIVE UNIONS THAT represent workers in the North American cement/building materials industry have created a network to coordinate collective bargaining strategies and other activities. The Boilermakers and the Steelworkers will co-coordinate the group. Other participants include the Mine Workers, the Laborers, and the Teamsters.

Program held in five cities in United States and Canada

2008 WAS AN election year — not only for the governments of Canada and the United States, but also for Boilermaker local lodges in both countries. While U.S. lodges must hold elections every three years, Canadian lodges do so every five years. Occasionally, the Boilermaker local lodge election cycles coincide, as they did in 2008.

Local struggles to preserve retiree health care benefits

THE STRUGGLE OF Local D27 members (Independence, Mo.) to keep French-owned Lafarge from cutting retiree health care benefits during collective bargaining reached an international forum in Paris Oct. 3 and 4. Lafarge employs 55 Local D27 members at its Sugar Creek, Mo., cement plant.