March Union Meeting Summary.

Greetings Brothers and Sisters,

Welcome to the summery of our March’s Swing Shift Member’s Meeting. Apologize for taking so long for March’s Summary. At March’s Day Shift Meeting we had a deviation from our normal proceedings and spent the majority of the meeting on Lockheed Martin Contract Proposal and the Swing Shift’s meeting took me a bit to get too.

Our meeting began promptly at 13:00.

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 Luis started with thanking everyone for showing up. With the contract being over, members tend to stop participating and he appreciates everyone still staying engaged. He also thanked everyone for showing up to the vote on the 5th.

Brother Gerald started by thanking everyone as well. Then he addressed issues he has heard from the shop floor. Management giving out ANVOs about food and drinks as well as attendance. So be careful out there. He reminded everyone about your Weingarten Rights and remember your rights to have a steward present. He also brought up about people being asked to work split shifts for things such as training. Make sure that if that is imposed you get it in writing so you never end up stuck there. We’ve had several members agree to “help out” and because it wasn’t in writing, we have been fighting to get the wrongs right. Brother Luis then chimed in and recommended to just reject those requests unless its in the contract. These discussions should involve the Union, the individual, and management. Brother Gerald then brought up to make sure you study the new contract. The hard copies are going to be coming so make sure when you get it, study it. Know your rights.

Brother Brett reported to us about the upcoming ratification bonus, that the forms had made their way to the floor. The form was to defer your bonus to either your 401k or HSA. This means bonuses will be expected sometime next month before April 24th. He also continued by thanking everyone for coming out to vote, but we still didn’t have 100% turnout. 400-500 people didn’t show up and vote. Those are members we feel we didn’t reach. We need to work that much harder to make sure everyone votes.

Next Sister Patricia informed us that we had a few submissions for By-Laws changes. The By-Laws Committee will be meeting to review the proposed changes and the changes will be proposed to the membership over the next 2 months before we vote on those proposed changes.

Now we moved onto Good and Welfare.

Good and Welfare was taken a bit out of order and questions had been taken throughout the officer’s reports. For the summary however, we will keep that section here. We had questions in regards to stewards and how you can become a steward. Who our stewards are as some members are changing departments. We had questions about the bonus deferral and how it was going to work as well as the possibility of when it will be paid.

We also had questions for our plan going forward between now and the next contract vote. Our goal is to do everything and anything we can to increase turnout. To increase active participation. That was what we cared about and championed all last year leading up to negotiations. Active participation and communication is our goal to make sure the entire membership is as informed and educated on what your rights are. The more active you are in-between contracts, the more the company will fear you when the next negotiations begin. If all you do is become active just the nine months before negotiations, what real fear is there that you’ll will actually do something. We are going to work on that increase in participation. As far as preparing for the contract, that will depend on what issues we face and the company faces at the time of the next contract. What language issues did we miss this time around? What loophole were discovered? 5 years from now, what the membership wants, cannot be predicted today. That is why we have surveys when we get a year out, to know what you want us to fight for, but active participation, vocally speaking your opinion on a monthly basis on how you want to shape this Union, that is what we are going to be doing for the next 5 years. Working on shaping the Union into what every member wants it to be. What we might want today, might not be what we want in 5 years.

A member brought up about how the membership seemed to have a more of a reaction attitude and didn’t get active until about nine months before the negotiations began. He felt that if we had had more time, than we might have had a better plan leading into the vote. Brother Luis then informed him about a stat within out Local. This Local Union is a young Union. 70% of our membership were only here under the last contract. 70% of the membership, that was the only contract they knew. Out of that 70%, around 65% of those people were hire in the last 2-3 years during COVID. We weren’t having on-boarding. We weren’t able to get out and speak with the membership. It made it very difficult to get people engaged. Prior to the last contract, Brother Luis admitted that he himself was just as guilty with not being active as well. He wasn’t participation. He wasn’t active. He was apart of the Union, but he sat back and was willing to let the old timers do it all. He then told us that of the 70% of us who were new, a large portion of us, showed up to vote. That was what we did as an E-Board in getting the membership the information and encouraging your participation. We newer members are the new Union. We will be the ones to shape the future of our Union. Members like Brother Brett, Brother Gerald, Brother Ruben, they won’t be here for the next negotiations as they should be retired. The next contract, Brother Luis will be one of the old guys. We the newer generation will be who shapes this Union going forward.

With a question of being involved, Sister Patricia brought up about with people retiring soon if you really want to be involved to run for a position on the Local Lodge Executive Board. Many of the people on the board have their position because they ran unopposed. They were the only one running to hold that position. Elections for these positions are every 3 years and positions will be available to run for at the end of 2024 and the term will go from 2025-2028. If you want to be involved, run for a position.

A question was brought up about the new Chief Steward Position. As of now that is TBD but it is an elected position. Rules behind it will be coming once they have been worked out.

Lastly…

We had our raffle drawings for a prize.

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

We had a motion to accept a proposal to start a giveaway for the questions of the month. This was to help encourage participation. Prizes are not to exceed $100 a month. This was accepted.

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 14:16 with many members staying behind to talk with your E-Board after the meeting…

Remember, stand strong and stand together,

In Solidarity,

See you at our next meeting.

E-Board & Communicator