February Union Meeting Summary.
Greetings Brothers and Sisters,
Welcome to the summery of our February’s Day Shift Member’s Meeting.
Our meeting began slightly later at 16:05 as we had a much larger attendance.
We started the with The Pledge of Allegiance which led us into our standard protocol with an E-Board Roll Call.
Following roll call, Brother James had informed us that we had no visitors or guests and we also had verification of quorum.
Sister Patricia read us the past minutes of our last meeting. That can be read by clicking the button below.
Also, if you’d like another option to stay informed to this website, please check out our new Facebook page. Give us a follow so you can see all updates as we post them there as well.
Next, Brother Brett gave us the Secretary Treasurer report and reported our bills which we agreed to pay.
Next, we moved to Reports from the E-Board
Brother Gerald started by thanking everyone for their turnout and showing up to vote for the Strike Sanction Vote. As stated in the post about the results of the vote we had a 98.9% yes vote with a major turnout for the vote itself. He then continued to start with his explanation of what would happen with a strike authorization vote. Brother Gerald is our strike captain. He is responsible for preparing us and organizing everyone if we strike. He is responsible for setting up strike committees and explaining their roles. If you wish to signup for a committee, please contact Brother Gerald. Next, he reminded everyone to, on Wednesdays, wear your union shirts. If you need a shirt contact Brother Gerald. Every member was to receive one shirt for free and you can purchase extras for $10.
Brother Brett had no communications but then threw a curveball and thought I, the communicator, had something. Unfortunately I didn’t have any communications at that time.
Next Sister Patricia informed the members of the Women’s Committee to be on the lookout for a text for when they will be having their first meeting scheduled.
Brother Vic told us about the District Delegate’s meeting he had and brought back reports from that meeting. If you are interested in seeing this information contact Brother Vic.
The Negotiations Committee wanted to wait for good and welfare to address questions about negotiations.
Now, we moved to Reports from our Business Rep.
Brother Richard started by thanking everyone for their participation in the strike sanction vote. He told us how he liked to talk about how, we the membership, are the bat that he likes to swing at the company. We gave him a big bat to swing with that vote. The turnout was amazing but like anything, it wasn’t 100%. We have some work to do in spreading this information to those who weren’t able to make it. Be sure to have them come to this website. Have them check their Emails. Even printout the emails and posts from this site and put them up in your breakroom. Posting things in your breakroom is not a privilege of a steward. Every member has the right to post information for their fellow members. So please, Brothers and Sisters, help us spread the word. Next, he informed us we had great participation for the surveys he sent out. It wasn’t quite as good as the participation as the sanction vote and we can always do better. That survey really gave them vital information needed to help fight for what we want. Telling them what we are willing to strike over, and what working schedules we want, etc. Negotiations are about to start back up and they will be leaving again on February 12th, where the will be headed to Palm Springs. They will be meeting will all the sites involved in the Economic portions of these Negotiations. If you’ve been hearing rumors about anyone receiving anything related to money, like a Labor Grade or saying that we got more money, its not true. All of that will be negotiated this month. That is the main points of negotiations in this last go around. Anything economic, Wages, Benefits, Labor Grades Increase, Shift Differential, Premiums, General Wage Increase, anything to do with money. All of that is on the table. The benefits, the pension plan. We have a proposal to bring back a pension, but none of that will happen without everyone’s support.
Next he thanked all of his stewards for all their hard work. Thanking them for all they do with grievances and getting them settled before they make it his level. Lastly The Vote. We have been saying the Vote for Ratification would be on the 12th, however the contract expires on the 11th, so we cannot vote on March 12th. This means we will most likely be Voting on March 5th, but keep an eye out there for the official date to come. What it also means is your negotiations team is going to have to come back and work hard to get the proposal in our hands. To setup informational meetings, and to get us prepared to vote that much sooner. Right now we are planning to have the vote at the AV Fairgrounds.
There were then some questions about “Why on a Sunday to Vote? Many of the members living far away and having them come up on a Sunday is hard for them.” The Sunday Vote is there because its in our constitution for the IAM, and then Brother Brett and myself had a very direct response to those who have to drive up for this vote. “For those who complain and feel like its to far to drive up to make a vote, we have just one thing to say. Is it really that far for this one day, for you to sacrifice a few hours of your day to come up and place your vote for a contract that will effect your financial future for the next 3-5 years, depending on the length of the contract offered. A few hours to effect how your working conditions are for your day to day work environment. How many hours a day do you sit and waste away watching TV? You mean you cannot spend these few hours to come make a choice for you future? If you cannot sacrifice those few hours to cast your vote, then you have no right to complain about the outcome of the vote.
The last point Brother Richard had was, yes we still have grievances out there that we are trying to handle during negotiations. He is still getting to those, having grievance meeting today, and even more next week. He understands they are being held up because of negotiations but they are not being forgotten. He will get to your grievances.
Now we moved onto Good and Welfare.
With Good and Welfare started, as expected lots of questions came in about negotiations and voting.
I, Brother Derrick, your communicator, tried to answer many of those questions by informing everyone that we will be releasing a video about the contract and how we vote for the contract. It will be a detailed video explaining the process and how your votes will effect the results. I will also be explaining the percentage of votes required to ratify as well as the percentage of votes to strike. Be on the look out as that video will be coming very soon. I anticipate having that video released before we head back to negotiations on February 12th. Our goal is for this video to answer any questions you might have for the voting process.
Now one of the biggest things addressed in good and welfare was the emphasis of Unity. The Unity we have when we stand together and what the threat of a strike means to Lockheed. The fully burdened labor rate (Wrap Rate) Lockheed has is around $400 per hour per employee. What that means is for every hour we work that is what is charged to their customers. So we can do the math on that. We have just over 1200 members working here at Lockheed. That is $480,000 an hour. If we strike, that is the amount of money per hour Lockheed will be loosing. That is why the threat of a strike is so powerful. We have power in numbers. We need to stand together in solidarity. At the end of the day, together we have power. We need everyone to vote.
Other questions discussed which will again, also be addressed in the video to come is that only those who show up to vote will be counted in the vote. We have just over 1200 members here at Lockheed. If only 100 member show up to vote, then those 100 will decide the fate of that contract for the remaining 1100 members. NO SHOWS ARE NOT YES VOTES!!! Only those who vote will be counted.
Lastly…
We had our raffle drawings for a prize.
We had a motion to accept March’s Callouts for our E-Board which was accepted.
We had a motion to accept the bill for this website to be paid for another year which was accepted.
We also had a motion that was brought to us by a fellow Brother for donation to a local Little League. That was Unanimously agreed upon.
To end the meeting, we had a moment of silence for members and family of members who were sick or passed away.
And with that we adjourned at 17:02 with many members staying behind to talk with your E-Board, Negotiations Committee and myself personally after the meeting…
Remember, stand strong and stand together,
In Solidarity,
See you at our next meeting.
E-Board & Communicator
