August Union Meeting Summary.
Greetings Brothers and Sisters,
Welcome to the summery of our August Day Shift members meeting.
Our meeting began promptly at 16:00.
We, as always, started our meeting off in the same way we start every meeting with The Pledge of Allegiance. This led us into our standard protocol with an E-Board Role Call.
Following role call Brother Victor had informed us that we had no Visitors or Guests and that we had verification of forum.
Sister Patricia read us the past minutes of our last meetings.
The Grand Lodge gifted our lodge Tee Shirts which we are now using for our meeting raffle prizes.
If anyone has any problems with qualifications for the bid period than get with your stewards so they can go through it with you for why you might not be fit for that roll.
Brother Brett gave us the Secretary Treasurer report and reported our bills which was accepted to pay.
Next, we moved to Communications from the E-Board
Brother Luis brought to us some information from July as we didn’t have a meeting. First was that we recently lost a brother on July 4th and that as an E-Board we agreed to send flowers for him. He then thanked the union membership for completing the survey’s from the international and stressed their importance as we move towards negotiations in a few months.
Brother Gerald brought to us that we are planning a Union Picnic for Saturday October 29th at the Moose Lodge in Palmdale. The time will be from 2:00(14:00)-6:00(18:00) but we have been informed that we can stay for as long as we wish too. We are needing to gage interest to accurately calculate the amount of food we need to order. You can find an RSVP on our front page just under the first section. Please take a moment to fill that out if you hadn’t already. Being close to Halloween we could even do stuff for the kids with a costume contest. We hope to make this a great time for everyone. We just need everyone to help get a number of interested people so we can make sure to have a number to bring to the membership to vote on for its cost. Next, he informed us that we put in another order for Union shirts to fill the amount of shirts sizes we have ran out of. So, if you were waiting on a shirt in your size contact Brother Gerald to get your shirt. Lastly, to a more serious note, he brought up information of Boeing’s current negotiations situation and how Union Members were ready to walk out on Monday the 1st of August because Boeing had offered a terrible contract offer. Being a defense contractor like Lockheed it was unacceptable for a company that makes billions of dollars a year to make such an offer. We, like the member there, need to stand together in solidarity. We have the leverage. In today’s climate we need to draw a line in the sand. Stand together and stand strong. As of August 3rd, their contract has now been ratified after the threat of a strike forced Boeing to present a much better offer. For more information on the Boeing Ratification click the link below.
Sister Patricia wanted to thank the membership for the opportunity in sending her and Brother Vic to Leadership training. She learned so much about being a steward and an officer. They really made her feel great about being a representative of our Union. During orientation, when asked what positions she held in the union, the instructor had to stop her right after she stated she’s “just a steward.” He then said “You’re not just a steward. A steward is probably one of the strongest positions you can hold because you’re inside the building. You’re seeing stuff that we cannot see out here. That is why it is your job to work from the inside out and I just want to thank you all for doing your job.” She also wanted to bring up, specifically for the women, about starting a women’s committee. So, for any women who are interested in joining please contact Sister Patricia for more information.
Brother David, one of our district delegates, brought how he was involved in an organizing event to potentially grow the Union’s Membership further in an attempt to organize another big-name company. They found there was lots of interest and we hope to hear more going forward.
Brother Vic, another one of our district delegates, brought us the April thru June financial report from the distract for those who wished to see it and also thanked the Membership for sending him as well to the leadership training. If you wish to read and see more of their trip, please click the link below.
Next, we moved onto reports of anyone sick, injured, or deceased.
We had reports of three brothers and/or sister reported as either sick, injured or passed away recently that we would hold a moment of silence for before adjourning the meeting.
Reported were…
A brother who passed away recently on July 4th.
A report of our recording secretary’s grandmother had recently passed last Monday.
A Brother who is recovering after a really bad accident.
Next, we received a report from our Business Rep, Brother Richard in which Lockheed and we the Union, approved an M.O.A. which was a very good thing for our local. We are already seeing the effects as a result of the M.O.A. For more information Contact Brother Richard. Next, he informed us we have begun prepping for negotiations. Surveys have been sent out and our negotiations team will be going East for training and preparations on the 13th to help for a strong negotiations team.
Now we moved onto Good and Welfare.
As Good and Welfare started, Brett brought up the importance of our Union. We have heard of many people comparing us to working for companies like Northrop where they pay more and have better benefits without a union. These companies are not what people think they are. First, those companies offer what they do because of Unions like ours. They get wind of our contracts and then counter their own employees to keep them working for them. These other companies can, at any time cut anything they want. We even had a member share their terrible experience where they were terminated from employment for something that we’d all agree was illegal to terminate for. They used a legal loophole to get away with it. We need to stay strong and at least we get a say in what we get. We have the power to negotiate what we want. In todays climate, we have the leverage now and we need to jump at it. We need to talk to each other. There are so many closed doors around Lockheed that we need everyone to help spread the word and to stand strong. Get people to come to these meetings. Get people to come to this website. We need to all work together to fix things they took away in past contracts. We need everyone to be informed.
Brother Luis reinforced what Brett said and stressed the importance of coming out to vote. We need every single employee to come out and vote. We will be using this website to keep everyone informed. By the time we are done there should be no excuses for why you couldn’t get the information of what is going on during negotiations. Luis stressed that he only wants one thing for you to say at work from this moment forward. One simple line regardless of what you choose to vote, “Give me a fair contract or I Walk.”
We than took questions in regard to the M.O.A. which led to discussion of what it means and clarified it’s meaning going forward.
Next was an explanation of what a strike sanction vote is, and what it means. More will be posted about its meaning later, but in short, a strike sanction is not a vote to strike. It is a vote that if we do strike, the money we pay in our dues each week is used to help fund us while we strike. If we vote no on the strike sanction and then go on strike, we get nothing. That is why when it comes to a strike sanction, always vote yes. It also sends a message to the company that we are willing and ready.
It was also brought to our attention about leadership using Article 3 “Right to Manage” as a catch all for everything they do. Article 3 Section 1 exact verbiage is…
The Company has and will retain the right and power to manage the plant and direct the working forces, including the right to hire, discipline, suspend or discharge for just cause, promote, demote and transfer its employees (department and/or shift), subject to the provisions of this Agreement.
Take note of the bold section. If you feel your leadership has violated a provision within this contract and claims right to manage, get a steward. It doesn’t even have to be your steward. Just get a steward and discuss the situation with them. We are here to protect you and prevent the abuse from leadership.
The last thing brought up was about the questionnaires on this site. Firstly, as your communicator, the asking for names and email addressing on each questionnaire is only used as a way to verify responses as legitimate. Because this is a public website with no login required to answer questions, we need a way to verify responses as legit. You might have come here from an email we sent out but anyone, including those not in our Union can answer those questionnaires. It also for some responses, gives us the ability to, if required, follow up with you on your responses. Results of these questionnaires and personal information are not seen by a single person besides your communicator and the E-Board. The E-Board and the negotiations committee are given a consolidated list for the responses to help them better represent you. I bring this up because I know some are fearful that their responses could be seen by their management team. Being that this month’s question is about management, I understand the fear, but I can assure you that no one will know who or what your responses are besides myself. PLEASE… Don’t be afraid to answer a question. Just make sure you fill out these questionnaires on your personal devices and not company assets.
Following the discussions, we had our tee shirt raffle.
We had our Old and New Business in which we had some union withdrawal cards which were accepted.
We had a motion to accept September’s Callouts for our E-Board.
We had a motion to accept the purchase of 100 New Hire Packets to be used for On-Boarding.
And lastly, we had a motion to accept the purchase of more Tee-Shirts for our month members meetings.
Before adjourning we held a moment of silence for our lost brothers and sisters.
We adjourned the meeting at 17:05...
Remember, stand strong and stand together,
In Solidarity,
See you at our next meeting.
E-Board & Communicator
