September Union Meeting Summary.
Greetings Brothers and Sisters,
Welcome to the summery of our September’s Member’s Meeting.
Our Day Shift Meeting began with a motion to delay the start of the meeting until 16:15 and our 2nd 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.
Next Brother Brett gave the report of the Secretary Treasurer.
Next, we moved to Reports from the E-Board
Bother Gerald started with how he, Brett, and Patricia attended The Growth and Unity Conference in San Diego. It was announced that the International President Robert Martinez as well as several VPs announced their retirement. This means there are several changes at the top levels within our Union. Our Union is growing, and we are strong.
Brother Gerald continued about the upcoming Family Day at Lockheed Martin. October 8th and you must have registered for the event. The deadline was extended till September 15th.
The last topic Brother Gerald brought up was about these quote “Cowboy Supervisors” creating a lot of problems. If you are having issues in anyway by these people, do hesitate to speak up. Contact a steward, Contact Brett, or Contact Richard. If you’re having issues, bring it up. Stay strong and be vigilant.
Next, (I) Brother Derrick started by informing everyone that we are starting a Newsletter to post information about the Local on our Union Boards. I continued with expressing that he is looking for help with communication. I’m looking for someone who can assist in maintaining the website and/or sending communications to the membership. If you are interested, please reach out to me. Other areas I’m looking for assistance with is to help with writing stories and articles about our membership. Stories and articles to excite the membership and help with driving engagement. Again, if you’re interested, please reach out to me.
Brother Brett brought up about how we have been having challenges with Lockheed and how they have been dragging their feet when it comes to settling the vast number of issues we have.
Sister Patricia started with The Growth and Unity Conference. In some of the meetings they are looking for more diverse people to get involved. Brothers and Sisters who are multilingual and those who have different cultural backgrounds. She thinks that is a calling for many of our locals’ brothers and sisters to get involved.
Brother David started by thanking the membership for sending him to W3 for Organizing.
Brother James started by thanking the membership for sending him to W3 for Leadership 1.
Next, we moved to reports from the Business Representatives
Brother Richard started by piggybacking of what was said earlier about The Growth and Unity Conference. One of the big takeaways was about trying to organize more. Ways to grow the Union. As an example, for our area as a whole, Northrop is one of these places we are looking to organize. The more we can organize, the stronger we become.
Next, in this past month we had a meeting with one of the Directors of an area at Lockheed. We discussed issues, such as, work leaving our site. They told us they are in a tough situation where they are hiring like crazy because we are so far behind, but then we are sending work out because it’s holding up a production line. Then we were hearing from the membership that they are running out of work.
With Grievances in this past month, we had 2 all day meetings where we settled on around 15 grievances, but everyone also needs to understand that not all grievances are the same. They aren’t all cut and dry easy fixes. Some involve unwinding the clock and researching how to settle it. They are difficult and Brother Richard really wanted to thank Brother Brett for his help with everything.
Next, when it comes to “Flexing your time,” we are currently working on correcting the issues we have been having with Lockheed.
Lastly, Brother Richard also wanted to talk about how we have a lot of new hires. We have been dealing with issues where people are being told they’d be going to ADP but then they end up at Site 2. People have been feeling like they were misled. These are issues we are trying to address and fix going forward to the future.
Now we moved onto Good and Welfare.
Good and Welfare at Day Shift’s Meeting had many issues and questions brought up. The first issue was how with many of our new hires. Brothers and Sisters that were brought into a position and now are being deemed “Not Qualified” and are finding themselves being demoted to a lower Labor Grade. This is something that Brother Richard has been working with Lockheed to try and get the best outcome for our members. None of this was our brothers and sisters’ faults. The Hiring Department at Lockheed appeared to have been giving out offers to many of our new members who might not have been qualified for the positions they were offered. Many of the members in attendance had various opinions on this but we must all understand that it’s not our new brothers and sisters’ faults.
Another member brought up about training and making sure we are there for each other. We must support each other whether you have 6 months or 30 years’ experience. We all succeed together. If you’re new, be open and take in the knowledge. If you’ve been around, pass that knowledge on. We grow together.
Our second meeting started with questions towards the grievance process and things like penalties towards the company to stop them from violating the contract again. The answer isn’t a defined answer though unfortunately. Different violations demand different punishments/outcomes. In the example of the question that was asked, If the company didn’t provide 2 weeks’ notice before changing your shift, we can ask for overtime pay until 2 weeks’ notice is provided. We can alternatively put in to be paid double the hourly rate until notice has been provided. There is no clear-cut penalty for a violation and each violation can seek a different outcome. The other question to this was if Stewards can settle your grievance without ever discussing it with the grievant. This is not a general practice. If this is the case, you need to inform Richard of the situation and he will look into it. Steward should not settle a grievance without first discussing it with the grievant.
Another thing brought up was what are we doing to try and bring engagement to the new hires. We understand not everyone can get involved, but you can trust us that we are really trying to get as much information to all the new hires. We speak with everyone in on boarding every Monday and it is one of the hardest things to try and do. To speak to every new hire and inform them of their rights, try and get them involved, and try to get them to understand the passion of being involved. Even if it’s just trying to get them to come to a meeting. We incentivize them to come to a meeting by giving them a free shirt once they attend that first meeting, but it is the hardest thing any Union can do. To try and get their members to be involved. If you have ideas, we are always open to the suggestions. Please. If you’re reading this and you are a recent new hire that came through our on boarding process in the last year and you have ideas on how we can do better, please let us know. We are stronger together.
Lastly…
We had our normal closeout with the 50/50 drawing and tee-shirt drawing.
We had our business.
We had a moment of silence for those sick or deceased.
And with that we adjourned Day Shift’s Meeting at 17:30 and our second meeting adjourned at 13:50.
Remember, stand strong and stand together,
In Solidarity,
See you at our next meeting.
E-Board & Communicator
