To: Personnel Policy Committee

From: David Trumbull

Date: March 31, 1997

Re: Personnel Policy Committee Meeting March 12, 1997

The Northern Textile Association Personnel Policy Committee met on March 12, 1997 in Wakefield, Mass. Minutes and attendance list of the meeting are enclosed.

The next meeting of NTA’s Personnel Policy Committee will be June 11, 1997 at the Lord Wakefield Inn, Wakefield, Mass. The meeting program will be announced later.

Two articles of interest, one from the Concord Monitor, the other from the Wool Record, were distributed at the March PPC meeting. Copies of both articles are enclosed. I also enclose an article received after the meeting; it reports on a death at a textile facility in Fall River, Mass.

Two Federal Register notices of interest were distributed at the March PPC meeting. OSHA (in FR 62, No. 28) has issued a rule on Reporting Occupational Injury and Illness Data to OSHA. The Wage and Hour Division of the Dept. of Labor (in FR 62, No. 29) has issued a proposed rule regarding Expanded Use of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Programs Administered by the Department of Labor. Copies of these notices are available at the NTA office, phone 617-542-8220, fax 617-542-2199, or E-mail TextileNTA@aol.com.

Finally, please note that UMass Dartmouth will be graduating ten students in the Textile Sciences program this spring. Companies interested in establishing an on-campus interview schedule may call John Rich at 508-999-8658. Also, the University of Rhode Island graduates students in Textile Marketing. Both school have published the resumes of their students and copies are available at the NTA office or by contacting the schools directly.

Enclosures (3):

Minutes of March 12, 1997 PPC meeting
Concord, NH, Concord Monitor, Dec. 12, 1996
Wool Record, March 1997
Fall River, MA Herald News, Feb. 22, 1997

NORTHERN TEXTILE ASSOCIATION
Personnel Policy Committee
March 12, 1997
Meeting Minutes

The Northern Textile Association Personnel Policy Committee met on March 12, 1997 at the Lord Wakefield Inn, Wakefield, Mass. In attendance were Mike Schwotzer and Tara Schultz, BF Goodrich Company; Mike Butler, Carleton Woolen Mills, Inc.; Brenda Perry, Cascade Woolen Mill, Inc.; Alexis K. Paskevich, Dorr Woolen Company; Mickie Richardson, Homestead Industries, Inc.; Cindy A. Letourneau, Key Polymer Corporation; Dan Brown, L.W. Packard & Co., Inc.; Sam Alex, Synthon Industries, Inc.; Diane Wing, Warren Corporation; Rita McCauley, Warwick Mills, Inc.; David Trumbull, Northern Textile Association.

David Trumbull passed out copies of a newspaper story and a trade journal article of interest to personnel managers at textile companies. According to a report in the Concord Monitor, two New Hampshire textile companies were fined a total of $60,000 for OSHA violation. Neither company is an NTA member. The Wool Record of March 1997 has an article on new European standards for safe operation of carding machines.

Mr. Trumbull also passed out copies of two recent Federal Register notices of interest. OSHA (in FR 62, No. 28) has issued a rule, in final form, on Reporting Occupational Injury and Illness Data to OSHA. The rule requires employers to report information to OSHA contained in records that employers are required to create and maintain. The Wage and Hour Division of the Dept. of Labor (in FR 62, No. 29) has issued a proposed rule regarding Expanded Use of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Programs Administered by the Department of Labor. The proposed rule would apply to Environmental Whistleblower Cases, Family and Medical Leave Act Cases, Fair Labor Standards Cases (minimum wage and overtime compensation), Compliance Review Cases under Executive Order 11246 (equal employment opportunity in federal contracts) and Complaint Investigations under the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act.

There was discussion of the Dept. of Labor’s Maine 200 program which identifies for special scrutiny employers with a high incidence of workplace accidents or OSHA violations. There are some textile companies on the list. The Maine program was the first in the country. There is now a similar program in New Hampshire. Two textile facilities are on the New Hampshire list; neither is an NTA member.

There was much discussion of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Several people reported that the paperwork load generated by the Act is very high. Nevertheless, there was agreement that the Act is working fairly well. Some people also noted that adopting a strict no-fault attendance policy results in increase use of FMLA to cover those otherwise unexcused absences.

There was some discussion of vacation time and vacation pay policies. It was observed that summer shut-down seems to be disappearing in the textile industry.

Mike Schwotzer passed out copies of BFGoodrich’s Success Through Effective Performance Planning (STEPP) evaluation for non-production employees. Mr. Schwotzer also discussed BFGoodrich’s experience with outsourcing the answering of employee benefits questions.

Alternative sources for employee recruitment were discussed. Dan Brown reported some success in using prisoners on work-release. Some companies have tried hiring off the welfare rolls with mixed results.

Mr. Trumbull updated the committee on the state of the industry overall, the status of NTA surveys of interest to personnel managers, current environmental issues, and current international trade issues. The NTA/AATCC Spring Technical Seminar will be held May 29-31 in Danvers, Mass. The AFA Fundamentals of Flock school will be held August 6-8 on the campus of UMass Dartmouth.

The next meeting of NTA’s Personnel Policy Committee will be June 11, 1997 at the Lord Wakefield Inn, Wakefield, Mass. Mr. Trumbull work with the committee to get a speaker and develop an agenda for that meeting. The annual outing has been tentatively scheduled as a visit to the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Mass. August 5, 1997.

Respectfully submitted,



David Trumbull
Member Services
Northern Textile Association