Just the facts

This morning there is a meeting down at the Union Hall. I recommend you go if you want to express your ideas to the committees before the negotiation period begins. Lots of things are on the table today. RONA, 9/80s, Medical, & Pay are a few. Ask a Steward to bring this page up before the meeting at Union Hall.
While I did my morning chores, I took advantage of an old contract I found laying around and used it to illustrate the differences in pay growth over the past decade & 1/2. To those who called me selfish, read it and weep. These are the cold hard facts. Everyone didn't get a fair shake over the past 16 years. Some fared better than others, some faired quite poorly.
Look at all the trades that got 150% increase or less, while one group stands out. I would like to say that Jeff's idea of everyone getting equal growth would have prevented a large part of the rebellion. Jeff is for Equal growth. What says he now? Does anyone dispute these numbers? Is the Union willing to rectify this problem, or perpetuate it?
My request is to adjust raise in pay of all classifications until the growth rate of each of them is equal on the far right column. Percentage of growth is the true measurement of how the Union treats all of its workers regarding pay. When one classification runs away with all the profits, it leaves the rest of us with a bitter taste. Let the numbers speak for themselves. I want no more, nor no less than whatever is needed to balance the percentage of gains throughout the entire labor force. I feel all would agree that is fair. Mr. Watson, can you return the relative pay to the way it was back in October of 1993?
Of course, these are not the only gripes I had with the Union over the past couple of years. But since there is an important meeting today, I decided that this is a good place to start. Now is the time so the truth can be discussed in an open forum with the leadership of the Local Lodge.

Hat's off on Labor Day

Congratulations to the IAMAW Local Lodge 933 for winning this week’s Decertification Petition. A proper salute, in all fairness goes to the Union. Have your party now. Dance, drink and be merry. There is no hate. Today we are celebrating Labor Day where I respectfully take my hat off to Jimbo and the whole team he leads and offer congratulations.
As we have finished our campaign messages, we will continue to observe and comment on the direction the Union takes our labor force. We will criticize if we feel it’s needed. We’ll compliment when it’s appropriate. We’ll take on the role of watchdog for now, so we are not going away. As this entire campaign has been political in nature, we hope that nobody had their feeling too hurt. I plan to put my political hat in a corner for now and let the negotiation process take place.
Thank you Jeff, for an excellent debate. I read the comment section and do not feel an apology is in order. Congratulations are in order for your contribution to IAM933’s cause. Your constant arguments were in the best interest of your side and you represented your position very well. Although I don’t agree with you philosophically, I gather from your passion that you truly believe you work in the best interest of others. I wished that I had the chance to debate with members of the local at the level that you brought here to these pages. You truly are a champion of your cause.
Keep your eyes on November. If Jimbo takes our messages seriously, he will fix the problems that caused this rebellion. So enjoy your victory. Majority rules, remember? We'll kindly remind you of our ideas in October if we feel the need. For the next two months, your team can feel free to tell us what positive things your side is doing for the entire labor force. Lead by example. We’re all eyes and ears.
As a final comment, I present a challenge. A very important comment was made this weekend anonymously. A couple hundred signatures are not enough someone said. You're right. But it's a start. Welcome to your new reality. There are hundreds who voted against you. What are you going to do to correct the problem? We will not hate. In this pluralistic society, there is room for differing ideas. But with the helm of an organization responsible for the well being of all the labor force, you have a big job ahead of you. I offer to answer in good faith any serious questions you may have that would lead to the resolution of the crisis you face.

For the past three years a patriotic group of employees has informed the workers of the big swindle on Ajo Way. These freedom fighters have collected lots of signatures despite the fear of violence and vandalism from thugs. Unfortunately we couldn’t collect enough to rid RMS of the entire group, but hope lives on in a small fight living within the Cal-Tech petition.
On August 31, 2009 a notification was sent to the union from the National Labor Relations Board that a significant group of Calibration Technicians are attempting to win their freedom from oppression by disassociating themselves from the Labor union that has failed to represent their skills for the past decades. We believe this action is legal because the majority of Calibration Technicians have expressed a desire to not be controlled by the union.
The union hopes the NLRB will toss aside this band of freedom fighters, but the problem they have is there is one small instrument of law in the way. That will be tested in the coming weeks, and we'll see if the group is as insignificant as the union claims. Regardless of the outcome, the Decertify Committee plans to continue on our quest to remove the entire bargaining unit from RMS, not just the Cal-Techs. If the Cal Techs succeed, they will be an example to the rest of us on how to finally defeat this goliath that has held us down for so long.
If you know a Calibration Technician who is in the union, ask him why he pays an organization that systematically reduced his earning power by over four thousand dollars a year, while raising other classifications six to eight thousand dollars beyond their skill value. If you know of a Calibration Service Technician who is not in the union, thank him for resisting the onslaught of brainwashing propaganda and for standing up for what is right. When you see union members who have expressed hatred for non unionized employees, let them know that this is one of the reasons you don't support them, and that their attitude is unwelcome.
The only way for the union to quench the flames our quest is to rectify the injustices in pay in writting. Also they must provide reparations to all RMS Employees whose cars were damaged during a period after the strike where a spike in reports of vandalism occurred.
They officially open negotiations with Raytheon on the 5th of October, 2009. Anyone dissatisfied with the union may at that time submit resignation paperwork to both the Company and the union so they may free themselves of the financial burden of the ridiculous dues they charge the working man. It only gets worse in January.

In the Spirit of Liberty,
Superbia Parti

The American Way

The union has outdone itself to blow smoke up your posterior with an onslaught of bogus American themed flyers. Any true American would see this is the same propaganda that Stalin would pass on to the Soviets in his era. These are nothing but patriotic sounding ideas combined with work messages designed to confuse workers and take the bait. The Machinist union has removed your freedoms and is endangering your jobs.

While looking at comments under the previous article here, I looked at some statistics and found there may be a reason jobs can leave out plant. Already NAPI and Camden are taking increasing roles in Missile Systems. Why? One reason is the belligerent union has forced the Company to reduce risk from this bunch of militants. Jobs might go away because the union squeezed the Company so hard they have to look elsewhere for a dependable and loyal workforce. The union will bring a self-fulfilling prophecy to themselves if screw up as bad as they did in '06.

The American Way Flyer by the union is a silly propaganda rag. Are you dumb enough to fall for the "You don't have rights on the job" line? Those Constitutional rights are written to protect individuals from incarceration, not job loss. Ask anyone in jail if there is a difference between the two. Maybe we could get opinions from Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail residents to get a clue. If you sell your freedom for security, you deserve neither.

It goes on to say "you don't have a say or a vote on your working conditions" Yes you do! You have feet. Use them if you're not happy! How about that unforgettable gut wrenching line "...without a contract you are an at will employee.” There they go stirring the pot of fear again. But what does the union do for you? I know workers in the union who have been lobbying for and voting for good changes for their whole career, and they get ignored. What I can't figure out is, why they keep paying dues? No wonder, these same guys signed my petition last week.

With or without a union contract, this defense contractor will treat you fairly. How many salaried types are fired unjustly? Compare that to how many stupid crooked unionists keep their job and add to the dead weight around here after the union brings those losers back! More unionists are angry that so-and-so kept their job after a major screw up than any rumor of someone getting unjustly fired. It just doesn’t happen.

Now the union wants to give a black eye to our friend and colleague, Gary. The fact is that he wasn't fired, and didn't use their help. He rejected it. He is a guy that fought the system and won all by himself! Who needs the union? Go ahead and speak up! No retribution happens. I see engineers and salaried folks bringing up safety & quality issues all the time. So far, ZERO firings. So their argument doesn't hold water.

Their sheet of paper isn't worth the ink that's on it. You don’t give up your rights except by joining the union. Don’t give the union exclusive representative rights over you. Quit the union now and go back to the way true Americans do business. Go to the petition page and take back your rights!

BOHICA!

Yesterday I got a nice letter from our union DBR, Mr. Watson. "As you know, we will be entering negotiations very soon with Raytheon, and I wanted to contact you and ask you to be a part of the IAM team, to gain a voice and a vote on your future."
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Whew! What a line! Let me see if I got that right. You want me to pay three hours a month of my labor to get a voice? A Vote? Regarding MY future? I invite all of you to read the letter for content. Does it make sense? He wants to protect our jobs, pay & benefits. It goes on and on…yea...OK, that's why the skilled trades at RMS have pay below par. It sounds like he is protecting his job, pay and benefits. IAM is an extremely profitable company. Did any of you know about the IAM Golf Course they own and operate at the Wipisinger Center that is paid for by your union dues? There is more. Since most Americans have tired of union games, it leaves fewer and fewer of you to carry the increasing burden of their luxurious jet-setter lifestyle.
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Jimbo, we understand the game. You make more than double the average pay of the RMS Worker. And as you go up the IAM rank and file, you'll get even more than that! To fund this increase, the union is raising the dues again this year. What was two hours of pay per month in December of 2008 will be three hours a month this January. BOHICA! *

Jimbo, drop the Medical Coverage rants. We've heard that all before. That's why you guys caused the strike last time. You should have asked for a pay raise and let it get eaten up by medical costs back in 2003. If you had done that, the 3+3+3 you got in 2006 would have been 6% ahead of what you gave your workers. You're going to get pass-through language now, just like salary. You just postponed the inevitable, and it cost you 6% in wages forever. Take the medical coverage that salary gets, and shut the hell up! That leaves you in a better position to get wages for the workers. Up until now, you failed us miserably.
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Your ability to bargain is hampered by workers who aren't part of the union. They aren't part of the union, because the disadvantages outweigh the advantages of membership. You caused us to rise up against you. Not only must you face the Company across the negotiating table, but also now you will battle for your right to those negotiations. Some of you claim that if we thought we were so smart, why don't we join forces with you? Some of us have in the past. And we collectively discovered that you are not what you claim you are. It's not that we are so smart. It's that your union is so DUMB!
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Nobody will forget the feeding frenzy the union had on the night of 5 November of 2006. We want no part of that. Your performance falls way short of "protecting our jobs, pay, & benefits."
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"If we stand together we can do better." BOHICA! *
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The union has systematically ripped us all off. If you had not, you would have more loyalty from us. But since before I joined the Company, you guys have fought to reduce the wages of skilled labor in exchange for increasing unskilled labor.
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You violate union ethics to forget the trades that gave you your beginnings. Since the early 90's, wages for all skilled trades have suffered, while a select group got a huge boost. You lie when you blame the company. YOUR union did it. You negotiated it away, just like you did RONA and everything else. The cold wolf makes cute videos of a couple of our supporters, but it still doesn’t change the facts. Your members know this to be true.

Soon the Company is going to drop a nuke on the union when it begins to fill Tester slots with salaried workers this fall. Go ahead and strike. Since your selfish union has seen to keep the Tester Profession pay low, there is a cost to you. The Company can't hire enough to do the work, so they are going to roll you over the log and "give it to ya". You better get generous with the Company and let RMS pay the technical trades what they are worth. I'm really going to enjoy the show when the union goes bezerk over this!

Quote: "And as someone said earlier I have not seen anyone trying to stand up for wips, custodians, material handlers. All these occupations are subject to outsourcing if you lose the union."

BOLSHEVIC! There are quite a few WIPS & Material Handlers who signed the petition. They too have been given the shaft by this union. We know this, and are fighting for them too. Once upon a time, an Assembler could find a better paying job by training up to be a WIP. Thanks to this union, that hasn't been the case for many years. How many red circles did the union cause, and then it lies to cover up deals so they wouldn't complain? The union loves to say, "We'll try to help you, but the Company is greedy". So convenient to say, and so easy to fool the unsuspecting client of the machine that consumes your wealth. Outsourcing won't happen as they claim. There are not enough WIPS & Material Handlers to push the union honchos around. Just like the other skilled jobs, the union has seen fit to screw us. Our movement brings balance to the pay grades here at RMS either by forcing the union to recognize they have to represent, or by removing their right to represent. ALL THE GRADES, not just a couple, deserve fighting representation.
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This means that they will painfully have to undo what they have done, or it will be painful when we undo them. You will put all the wages proportionally back where they were back then, across the entire Plant. Sad to say, you guys are too stupid to understand "proportionally" because you can't figure out "median", so I doubt you guys can fix this problem you created over successive contracts. Separate the skills again! Testers are not EETs! Inspectors are not Assemblers! Bring pride back to your work force again! I'll volunteer to teach you guys what I mean, if you have the fortitude to attempt such an endeavor. Then maybe I for one would lay off your case...a little.

I don't accept the phrase "we will try to do better" from the union. That is a cheap way out. When RMS spends close to 72 Million Dollars a year on labor wages, not including benefits, then you have quite a big pie with which to slice up different ways. It's the union's job to represent skilled labor, the same kind of workers that originally started trade unions so long ago. You guys have forgotten your charter. We're here to help you remember. Because if you won't do your job, other unions are lining up to do it for you. BOHICA! ( Bend over, here it comes again)

If you want to change the union, fight it!

Just the Facts

This weekend I was the recipient of one of these propaganda flyers that the union has been pushing. They must have come by my place and missed me while I was out riding the foothills on Jeff’s 2009 Harley Davidson IAM-Glide Classic. Their flyer has "Just the facts" in bold print on its face.

These "facts" the union is selling is a pack of lies based upon a made up "median" wage for Testers and Assemblers. Either the union doesn't know the definition of "median wage", or they are lying through their teeth. Or worse yet, both. I can’t trust them.

The union claims Tucson Median wages for a Tester is $14.89*. Using a statistics definition, the middle number in a given sequence of numbers, is the median value. Based upon Union math used in the flyer, there are testers working in Tucson for $8.45 if the union wages of 21.33 is the highest in Tucson. Does one of you union guys want to tell me what company pays those wages for testing anything more significant than the taste of a McDLT? *(Wages in May 2007)

Lets look at the claim that Assemblers median wage in Tucson is $10.83*. If RMS Assembly Techs make up to $20.30 an hour, and the Tucson median wage is $10.83, then there are some unhappy souls making $1.42 an hour here someplace. Sounds pretty unrealistic, huh? These are the numbers as the union defines them. Either the union is making up their numbers or they are stu-u-u-u-pid! Do you clowns understand Median Wage?

I don’t think so. They printed a "range of median rate" for both Testers and Assemblers. By definition, median excludes range. It’s a set value, numbskulls. It also seems to conflict with the web page they posted recently. The one I mentioned August 1st. You can visit by surfing below a few entries. I never did get any serious response on that. Just the facts.

I've spent two years answering your silly comments that you say I don't answer. Again I say; Look at the A2 positions across RMS. Look at the Security Guards. There you'll find the answer of "will RMS reduce pay & benefits?" Next time you challenge me on that, bring some RMS Statistics to support your claim that Wages & Benefits go down. Till then, you have no case Jeff, Steve, Smith, etc. YOU are the ones guessing. YOU only take propaganda from an idiot union as biblical scripture. With all the blunders you guys make, there is NO WAY you dimwits have access to more facts than I do. You are just making wild guesses based upon Lenin's theorum.

So if any of you got this silly flyer from the union, look carefully at what they said. Then ignore the whole thing and laugh. These guys are desperate to make you a paying customer. Next year, the dues go up to three hours a month. Assemblers will pay something over 730 dollars a year. Too bad they can’t get my wages to go up by fifty percent over two years.

BTW, I looked up some of my own statistics. In 2008 there were 162,330 Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technicians in the USA with a median wage of $25.60, regardless of union affiliation. Less than 14 percent of them were in a union. Source? www.bls.gov.2008. So if the average union and non union technicians get ten percent more pay than our UNIONIZED workers, it begs the question; What is this union doing wrong? Didn't their flyers say they get more pay? Shouldn’t they get at least “median" wage? Just the facts!


Union Officers won't respond to critisism of their incompetence.
Union intimidates workforce. Whats with the scab list on RMS Computers?
IAM constitution prevents members from making improvements. A disinsentive to join. If you want to change the union, FIGHT IT!

My Turf

It is interesting that the union's national website uses some very strange terms. You can sign up to get a "my turf" account to monitor issues and lodge information. My turf sounds like a gang term. Why is that? Is this the attitude your union wants you to disintegrate to? Or are they already there? The first tab on their website is called "Pick a Fight". Funny but that doesn't sound like activities a professional should be involved in. It sounds like the activity of a "thug". And there is a tab which would sound innocent enough outside of all these thug terms, it's a tab called Territories.
Speaking of thugs, what about their other wonderful idea? You know "Employee Free Choice Act" which totally eliminates "free choice". Genuine "free" choice does not involve coercion. Recently the union didn't think you got the message clearly enough by all of them wearing their shirts daily, because they got scared by a couple of guys with a petition and a dissenting opinion, LOL! Cracks me the hell up.
So since the 60% of you all who don't care to join this union are obviously blind or stupid according to the union's way of thinking they've been upping the ante. They are sending their goon squads around to people's homes to "encourage" them to join. Good thing the National Labor Relations Board says Raytheon has to give them your home address. Yeah!
Now you get an idea of what the Employee "FREE CHOICE" Act is all about. The free choice this act provides to you under force of law is not being able to complain about the union sending its thugs to your home to "convince" you of the error of your ways. But hey why don't you call your local Tucson police and cry intimidation. Oh, yeah they are union members. They will probably have to arrest you for that broken taillight.
That's how thugs roll. It's time to roll up the sleeves on your tee shirt and wear your Aunt Jemima head band so you can fit in with the gang mentality. The truth hurts and yet this union doesn't recognize that we are the BEST thing that ever happened to this union and they still don't get it. We walk by and get the "evil eye", the shun, maybe a grunt. Hell they should be slapping us on the back and sharing their Kool-Aid with us. We gave their gang bangers what they desperately needed most "solidarity". Tee shirts are worn almost daily, the union is more vocal than ever, they almost have regrown their backbone, apathy is waning and they think we are the bloods or are we the crypts?
Well whatever we are, we are certainly the cool ones. We are the ones who truly care about people's wages, and health care. We aren't being paid by anybody to do what we do. We are the ones you see with the really big smiles and the totally cool bandannas. Pancakes anyone?