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, a long with the shop stewards, will communicate with you on the process, so each and every member has an opportunity to have better understanding of what is happening, while it is happening. During these negotiations, you cannot be a spectator on the sidelines waiting to see what your bargaining committee can accomplish at the table. You must be informed, engaged, and actively supporting your bargaining committee.
Our solidarity is where our leverage begins. One important way to be more than a spectator is to complete the surveys honestly and accurately as soon as they are distributed. By completing these surveys, you are communicating to your bargaining committee your priorities for the upcoming negotiations.
The first survey is currently being distributed, so we ask that each of you do your part to support your bargaining committee by completing and promptly returning the survey.
In Solidarity,
Thomas “Tom” Boelling
President/Directing Business Representative.