On Monday April 21st, 2008 the Company communicated to the Union that they had been ordered by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to alter the method of making deductions from the SUB payments, which resulted in an additional amount of tax being taken from each employees income on the pay date of April 25th.

Given that the SUB plan is a negotiated benefit, changing the method of deduction was perceived by the Union as an arbitrary decision by the Company, and as such the Union requested a copy of the order in order to substantiate the change in deductions.

To date, the Company has failed to produce any such order issued by CRA to support their position.

Further inquiries by the Union has in fact revealed that there NEVER was an order issued by CRA and that the Company chose to increase the deductions based on a simple recommendation made by a CRA Trust Exam Officer.

Copies of the recommendation will be posted in the CAW information boards and made available in the CAW office above Cab-Line.

The Union has now requested that the Company revert to the previous taxation method.

Changing the taxation method has created considerable concern for our members, and in light of the absence of any order from CRA was completely unnecessary, and unilateral. Taking additional funds from workers "take home" pay during periods of unemployment when it was not the condition of a direct order from CRA is completely unacceptable.

The Union has expressed deep concern over how the Company's position has adversely affected the relationship.

The SUB payments are an extremely important benefit for our workers and the Company had no right to act unilaterally in making the adjustments to the taxation method when there was no order issued by CRA.



In Solidarity
Richard Laverty

Please be advised that Daimler Trucks Canada Ltd. has received a tax ruling regarding SUB payments.  SUB payments are special payments and as such must be taxed at the bonus method rate of taxation.  What this means to an employee is an increased amount of tax deducted from their SUB payments.  It also means when filing income taxes in April employees will not have large amounts owing to Revenue Canada as was the case with many employees in 2007. 

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Dear Editor,
       
The article published last Thursday about the attendance concerns in industry in South Western Ontario has certainly created considerable fallout at the Sterling Plant in St. Thomas.
                   
The general concensus is that the Union (me in particular) was completely irresponsible in the comments that were made.

There are a number of quotes in the article attributed to me that I feel were taken completely out of context.

The message that I was intending to convey was that the Company and the Union were working together towards finding resolutions to address problems facing the operation, not isolated to whatever issue there are involving attendance.
                                               
The LFP decided instead to use the article for an entirely different purpose. One which has publicly damaged the reputation of our operation.
        
I have no idea why the LFP would choose to make the issue newsworthy and to further make Sterling the centre piece of the story. The article, in fact,  appeared several weeks after Mr. De Bono and I had spoken and the comments were made on the heels of a discussion unrelated to the article in question.
          
Our plant contunues to operate in the face of enormous adversity, and in light of the obvious challenges facing the manufacturing sector in Ontario, the article did little to improve neither the morale in our plant or the public perception of our workplace.

The majority of our workers remain committed and diligent employees and those who fall outside the parameters of the collective agreement are dealt with.

I must take reponsibility for what I said and the LFP must take responsibility for its committment to journalistic integrity.

Needless to say choosing to publish the story has carried serious and negative consequences for our workers all for the cause of sensationalism.

Richard Laverty
CAW Chairperson
Sterling Truck

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