January Union Meeting Summary.

Greetings Brothers and Sisters,

Welcome to the summery of our January’s Member’s Meeting.

Our meeting began at 16:00.

We started the with The Pledge of Allegiance. This led us into our standard protocol with an E-Board Roll Call.

Following roll call, Brother Vic had informed us that we had no visitors or guests and we also had verification of forum.

Sister Patricia read us the past minutes of our last meeting. That can be read by clicking the button below.

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Next, Brother Brett gave us the Secretary Treasurer report and reported our bills which we agreed to pay.

After that, Sister Patricia said we had no communications to bring up.

Next, we moved to Reports from the E-Board

Brother Luis started by thanking everyone who took the time to attend the meeting. He thanked those who came in while it was still their vacation. He hoped everyone enjoyed their holiday. He then moved to, “As this year starts, our negotiating committee is about to head back into negotiations to finish off with non-Economic for the second half. They will be going back in on January 9th. In February, they’ll go back for Economics. In March, which is right around the corner, we will be voting for our contract. The Vote “Will” be on a Sunday. It has always been and will always be on a Sunday. Thats just the way it is. Please be prepared for that.” He then continued to explain about how important it is to Vote. Next, he brought up that we will be having the strike sanction vote later this month. That strike sanction vote is to let the Union and the Company know that we are unanimous. That strike sanction vote is to tell the Union to release the funds so that if we go on strike, we still can get paid. It is not saying that we are going on strike. There is absolutely “NO REASON” why anyone should say “NO” to a Strike Sanction Vote. Everyone should vote “YES” to make sure we get paid. We pay our dues so that way “if” we go on a strike we can get some of it back. “Why on earth would we not want that money.” “Obviously no one likes strikes. No one like hearing about strikes, but the company need to hear it. They need to hear it so that they can fear it. They need to be worried about it.” He then stated that one of the best things about our contract is that it is in March. What is the best thing about March? Tax Season! Tax returns! If we go on strike and you file as soon as you can, you should be getting your return right as we vote. If we don’t go on strike, then you still get your return and start our new contract all at once.

Brother Gerald wanted to give a shoutout to our Negotiations Committee in their hard work and efforts coming to a tentative agreement with Lockheed. We still have a long way to go, and we need to support them 100%. He also wanted to remind everyone that we are the eyes and ears of the Union. Listen and watch. Talk to your fellow Brothers and Sisters. We have to be strong and united. Wear your shirts on Wednesday and remember to wear your buttons. If you haven’t gotten a shirt or want to buy another one, contact Gerald. He also brought us information about protocol for strikes. Brother Gerald is the strike captain, so he informed us about all the different committees. (Kitchen, Transportation, Picket, Etc…)

Next Sister Patricia informed us about the Women’s Committee. She now currently has 5 members and then she wished everyone a Happy New Year.

Brother Vic also wished everyone a happy holiday, and a Happy New Years. Next, he brought up about the Machinist Non-Partisan League contributions. The MNPL contributions go to support candidates on capitol hill that are labor friendly. He challenged everyone on the E-Board to make a contribution we all gladly made. He also wanted to let everyone know that we have to stay united within the shop. We can’t let the company, especially right now, weasel their way into us and start to divide us. Start to put a wedge between us. We need to have solidarity. Its 2023, the time is here for our contract to be won for us. We need to be together in solidarity.

The Negotiations Committee wanted to wait for good and welfare to address questions.

Now, we moved to Reports from our Business Rep.

Brother Richard started with a negotiation update. They negotiated from Nov 28th through Dec 14th. We reached tentative agreement on non-Economic sections. We found ourselves negotiating job security. We spent a lot of time on that. Currently under the contract that is expiring, the company has the right to sub-contract work. We see sub-contractors on site all the time. What they were trying to do was to put a fence around that to protect our work. The next portion of negotiations is with the job studies. Discussion of labor grades and job descriptions. negotiations based on the presentations made by your fellow brothers and sisters you submitted these studies. When it comes to the strike sanction vote, we don’t have a solid date yet. It will be conducted here at the hall with the hopes of it being during the week and it has to be in-person, similarly to how we voted for the last MOA. It will be conducted this month. It’s not a strike vote. It’s a solidarity vote to release funds should we decide to go on strike. It shows everyone that we the membership mean business. Another thing that will be coming out this month is the next survey for negotiations. We need to survey everyone on economic items that are of interest. The last thing he wanted to harp on is solidarity. Wear your shirts. Wear them on Wednesday. The company sees that. When Richard goes on walk through the site with management, they all take notice. Labor Relations takes notice.

Now we moved onto Good and Welfare.

With Good and Welfare started we opened with any questions people might have about negotiations or any other thing that might be on their mind.

We had many questions about various topics that were answered. One of the main topics discussed was an understanding of why our dues go up each year. This also led to a back and forth about past contracts and how people choose to vote. This cleared up some misunderstanding that a few members had.

Brother Vic then brough up about how we need to stop dwelling on the past. We need to be looking to the future. Right now, everything is tipped towards us getting a win. We need to be in the here and in the now, but without you the membership nothing can happen. Brother Luis then reiterated that we, the membership, vote. Our vote is the more important. We have to vote. You need to be informed and vote for what it is you want. We don’t want anyone to feel pressured to vote a curtain way. Vote for what it is you want. My vote is mine and your vote is yours. Understand what it is you need in your life and if the contract works for you or is doesn’t, vote for what you want.

Another thing that was addressed was any misunderstanding of who we the E-Board are. We do not work for the Union. Like the majority of our Local, we too are Lockheed employees. We do not have anything more than you do. We pay the same dues. We have the same shitty benefits provided to us. We are on your team. We don’t want a membership vs the E-Board kind of mentality. We are on the same team and our negotiations committee has all of our best interests in mind, but at the end of the day, we the membership are the ones who have to vote for our next contract. We decide if the contract presented to us is worth accepting for XX amount of time, for XX amount of money, for XX benefits. An example from the last contract vote had been brought up. At the time we had around 700-800 members working at Lockheed. Can you guess how many actually showed up to vote to gage their financial future for the next 5 years? … Somewhere around 300. We had less than half the membership showed up to decide the financial future of the membership for the next 5 years. When people were asked why they didn’t vote, they didn’t want to drive up because they lived down below. They couldn’t take just a few hours out of their day to help make a decision that would affect their financial futures for the next 5 years. They could drive to hour to 2 hour drive each day to come to work but they couldn’t do it to cast the vote for their future. That is the importance of voting. If you are unhappy with the current contract and the shit benefits, they provide then you need to come out and vote. We need to be informed and vote for our future. If they give us a crap contract, we need to tell them that by voting.

We always hear people say, “Well, what’s the union doing for me?” These people need to understand that “WE” are the Union. We decide our contract. We are the ones who have to stand together to make it happen. Now more than ever, put your differences aside and stand together so We the Union can finally take back what has been stripped away from us through years of bad contracts. We voted for our 3 negotiators to represent us in these negotiations, but we will be the ones to decide if the contract Lockheed gives us as a “Last, Best, and Final” is good enough for us. We need to stand Unified. We stand United. We are all one and, in the end, our E-Board that you voted in, will insure to do their best to get you the contract as soon as we can so that you can make an informed decision for yourself. (With no TBD on the contract)

To end good and welfare, Brother Vic stated, he, Brett, and Moe after being elected to the negotiations committee, started combing through the contract back in January of last year. Striking through sections and drafting proposals so that we the membership can have the best contract. They were meeting on days after work, meeting on Off-Fridays, meeting on weekends, spending their own precious time preparing for these negotiations. With that said, each and every member of your E-Board and myself, the communicator, volunteered for these roles. We spend our own time trying to make sure we all can succeed in this Union. We don’t get paid extra, we don’t have any extra benefits, we do this with the goal to make things better for you. I, as the communicator, took this role to make sure that no one is uninformed about what is going on between the Union and the companies we work for. I spent time not understanding what was going on between the companies and the Union. I took this role to make sure not a single member is in the dark and this is why I’m always looking for suggestions and improvements. I, like the rest of your E-Board, care for the betterment of this great membership. Ultimately, we want everyone informed. We want everyone to have passion for their future. Come out and vote. We the membership hold the key to our future.

Lastly…

We had a motion to accept February’s Callouts for our E-Board which were accepted.

We had another union withdrawal card which we accepted.

We had our raffle drawings for several prizes.

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 17:10 with many members stayed behind to talk with your E-Board personally after the meeting…

Remember, stand strong and stand together,

In Solidarity,

See you at our next meeting.

E-Board & Communicator