Recently, your Negotiating Committee completed their week-long Bargaining class in preparation for the Boeing contract negotiations that will happen next year. A major takeaway from this training is the importance of the role you, the membership, will play throughout the coming year. Your negotiating committee can only be as effective at the table as the membership’s solidarity is on the shop floor. We know that a majority of the membership have never been through a Boeing contact negotiation in St. Louis and therefore many may not know how the bargaining process is accomplished. Over the next year, your negotiating committee, […]

Most Essential Wednesday, June 10, 2020 Dear Brothers and Sisters, As our communities and our states begin to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Boeing decided to make the wearing of face masks in the workplace a requirement across the enterprise beginning, June 15, 2020. I encourage all members to adhere to this policy and use common sense, social distancing practices. Please address any safety concerns you may have with your manager and union representative. For over two months IAM 837 members have continued to come to work as designated “essential workers”, making a profit for the Boeing Company during […]

Back To Business Tuesday, June 9, 2020 Dear Brothers and Sisters, Last week during a (3) hour conference call with GKN leadership, the Union discussed many topics. One was the continued efforts to keep employees safe despite political decisions to open up our state for business. We encouraged continual cleaning practices, access to sufficient safety supplies, and improved communication about COVID-19 related incidences in the shop. We discussed current grievances and the need to select arbitrators on multiple grievances where we are unable to reach an agreement. As a result of the pandemic, all arbitrations have been postponed until it […]

Dear “Essential” Machinist Member, We continue to see progress being made with regard to the company providing adequate safety supplies, however, your union continues to press for more improvements. I am frustrated by the company’s refusal to relax attendance and LOA guidelines and its practice of forcing employees to quarantine without pay or forced to use available PTO. Common sense dictates that employees should not have to choose between potentially exposing coworkers and getting a paycheck. It ‘s already stressful enough to be forced to be working in a potentially unsafe environment because of strict attendance and LOA rules. The […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters, With every day that goes by it seems the world changes before our eyes. Right in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, District 837 members must still go to work. On one hand we still have the opportunity to earn a paycheck, while on the other is the need to be safe and the fear of contracting a potentially fatal virus. Never before have we faced such a stressful dilemma. This pandemic has raised known and unknown issues of safety and company policy that need to be addressed and/or negotiated. While both companies portray an image […]