A Christmas Story

"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!" - A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

It's a nice comparison to what happened here. While summer broke into fall, I found the events that unfolded on both sides of the dividing line were quite unpredictable to me, and most, if not all of the Ousties.

After our campaign was over, some things transpired that were unexpected. A Union Steward invited an Oustie out on the Rally Line before the contract was up. Since then, I've read that some positive conversations are happening between the Oustie and the Union steward. I haven't been able to see this for myself because he works in another building, but the way he's been writing lately is encouraging. The rest of you stewards can learn a thing or three from this guy. The blog entries have changed. The new argument has peaceful rational. This sets up the blog for a good debate between free individualists who ultimately control their destiny, and those who want everyone to pull together for a collective good deal. Those well schooled minds can play here to argue, and since we have "John the Steward" as one of the main bloggers, the readership has spiked! To the others; learn from him. Cooperation is in vogue.

One of the things “Steward” writes about is the different types of workers we have. He speaks of varying degrees of union membership, or non membership, ending in traitor. Talented activism is a gift that can achieve big goals for those people willing to sacrifice their personal quiet time to struggle for whatever cause they support in this free society. However, no meritorious cause, no public benefit, nor victory in a negotiating room is worth giving up your right to choose. Your sacrifice is yours alone. You can’t force your values upon those who do not share them, regardless of the benefits you think you showered them with as a result of self denial. For the haters, I pity you. The benevolence you show strangers contrasted against the contempt you show your coworkers means your charity is null. I whisper to the Lord that people like you could use a dreamy night like Ebenezer’s to show you a better way. I offer a candle.

Now that the Contract is negotiated, and the Union Elections are over, we have a pretty good view of the coming three years. There was a turn-over of a Negotiating Committee spot to a gifted master craftsman from 811, and if John predicts right, there will be a 2nd slot open soon. Jimbo explained a process to John in order to fix the pay disparity issue. I don't care what they call it (level adjustment), if after all is done, the workers with the talent are compensated fairly. In the past I've known this could be done, but doubted it based upon history. With the surprising chain of events over the past two months, I am not sure anything can't be done anymore. The steward asked the Oustie if he could borrow some talent from the Ousties for a project that will benefit both sides. “But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change.” For the better.

May you all have a Merry Christmas this year.

Are you Happy?

The contract is sealed now. What have you got to say for yourselves? Are you happy? Did it work out as you thought it should? Here is a picture of the population chart at RMS. Does it make any wonder who got what around here? RMS gave us quite a generous offer considering the economy. But no effort was taken to repair the wages of the most skilled workers at the plant site. I just can't swallow that 9-80s were denied the work force. The Union Constitution doesn't want it. The members did. Can you live with that? If not, what are you going to do about it? As a non member, I am free to speak out against union policy, without any legal constraints that their constitution places on the members. I have done what I could. Now is the chance for Union members to make a difference. There is a Union Officer election soon. Are you happy with their performance? Make an appointment with yourself to vote for the people who fight for you. Dump those who perpetuated the same old BS. Send a message to the top. Did Jimbo get you what you wanted? Let him know. Did Ed do what a President should? Vote on it. Take command of your Union. Right now, they have command of you.

Hope

You can Hope all you want, but Swanson is going to loosen his belt for the fatted goose this Thanksgiving. Big Daddy Warbucks can sleep well tonight knowing his minions have hashed out a paltry portion for those who actually make the product that makes him his big profits. All I can say is shame on Raytheon for pinching pennies and keeping the best of the golden goose to themselves. I mean really is 0.25% THAT important? We went from 3% to 2.75% "raises". The truth is we haven't gotten ANY raise. It is not even close to a cost of living. Raytheon's position: Be glad you scum gots a job, get back to work morons and stop whining! They'll make great Communist sweatshop overlords for Obama's national CHANGE to Facism! Congratulations, heil Swanson!

A picture speaks 1000 words

Fellow RMS workers, I write tonight to illustrate what I’ve been talking about for a long time. Our pay at RMS is way out of line with what our union should be doing with wages. I got this e-mail attachment a few hours ago. I was told to expect something big on Saturday, but this is great! When I wrote “Just the Facts” on Sept 13th, I wrote about unfair wages and I added a simple chart showing big difference in pay. This paints a much better picture of what I was talking about.
As you have seen over the past few weeks, we’ve taken a conciliatory position with the Union, in an effort to help them get the best bargain possible. Echoes abound with invites to the Rally for those Ousties who feel the desire to join forces with the Union in a demonstration of loyal opposition to the Company’s perceived tight fist over the coin box. Are we really welcome out there IAM933?

This picture illustrates my conviction that many of us have been short changed over the years. I’m not placing blame this time. It is what it is. Just look at the picture and decide for yourselves. Word has it that this same picture, together with others was sent to a union steward. The desire to help is balanced with the reality that our union has its goals different from ours. But if they take these charts and make adjustments to the negotiations necessary, they could earn a lot of members. Time will tell.

So I ask that steward to act promptly and get the charts moving upward today while the money is on the table in the negotiations. I don't think these charts do enough. There is not enough pay directed where I want it to go. But it is moving in the right direction. The biggest impact is for all those jobs that sucked with 46% raises over 16 years.
The other list I read has 34 of 38 classes getting at least a 65% pay increase over 1993 by 2012. That is, IF the Company will give the average sum amount listed in the chart to correct the pay problems. Some workers won’t like it if they are the ones who have enjoyed generous wage increases in the past, at the expense of the rest of labor.

I ask both the Union and the Company to look these charts over well, and come up with a solution to the basic problem that has demoralized RMS workers for many contracts. Lets raise the pay of those fields that we can’t fill because of under pay. And lets raise the pay of the workers who have taken it in the shorts all these years. Technical fields need a boost. We need to recapture the incentive to promote ourselves within Raytheon by making higher skill jobs attractive again.

Poor Lifestyle

This quote appeared on the IAM933.org website: "When challenged as to why the Company is proposing these high rates to our members they say we are 14% higher in utilization, which according to the Company, is related to our poor lifestyles and practices."

I really appreciate "the man's" perspective on my poor lifestyle and practices. Unlike those white collar workers who rarely use their health benefits, I might tend to use them just a bit more. You see I didn't have health care growing up, my parents weren't college educated, so a few health issues had to slide occasionally, poor practice on my part right? Or how about how I did dirty jobs these cuddled, manicured, starched, poised poker faced Daddy Warbucks would run from with their dainty hankies pressed against their Arbonne coated faces?

I got the privilege of cleaning some special juice growing in the bottom of a drink cooler at a restaurant once. Oh yeah that was minimum wage and of course no health care provided. The only thing I could recognize in the special juice was mold and the restaurant didn't have or believe in rubber gloves. I later discovered while reading Science Digest that such water was an ideal breeding ground for tuberculosis, Yeah!

After several more minimum wage jobs for another 7 years and cleaning toilets, grease pits, fryers and mixing Clorox and drain cleaner in confined quarters on an off shore oil rig "under orders" from macho bosses, I finally landed a "good job" in the military! Finally a job with health care. So yeah, I got some things fixed. My teeth really needed some help, they yanked 5 wisdom teeth - no wonder I'm not as smart as when I was a teenager, LOL. Okay the 5th tooth was actually just growing sideways against my wisdom tooth, but I digress. Well the nice thing about working for the government is that they would never violate the law, right? Sorry, but the military is exempt from such b.s. as LAWS. Standard practice at my first duty station was cleaning gage blocks with a super cool substance we called "trike" it really cut the oils especially when your hands were coated in oil. My next duty station actually had MSDS's, so I did a little reading. It seems the cool "trike" stuff was actually trichloroethane and is some pretty nasty stuff "health-wise". Prolonged exposure to the skin can cause kidney damage 10 years AFTER exposure. Try making a worker's comp claim on that stuff - 10 years later! Gotta love the military.

Then I tried to find a job doing what I learned in the military, but no one gives up those cushy jobs, so back to the rat race. I worked for a place making Craftsman tools. Almost every process involves some kind of noxious smell of awful chemicals. I got assigned to work on the primer machine where every tool gets coated before having the handles dipped with that cool soft rubbery stuff. The old primer machine was huge, complicated and costly to maintain, but management had a plan. So they rigged up a really cool 50 gallon bucket of primer. I'd put the tools in a basket, open the door on this metal box, slide the basket onto a spinny thing and close the door. Then the magic happened. The 50 gallon barrel of primer would move up and coat the tools, then it would move down just low enough and the basket of tools would spin and the excess primer spray would go back into the barrel.

Then some 'bean counters' got involved and decided that the door on my metal box was slowing things down. The next day I came to work and the door was gone, I went through my same routine, and now when the basket would spin all those nice primer fumes went into my face instead of being trapped in the metal box. I worked that job on the graveyard shift so I didn't think much about why I started to feel tired at 4:30 in the morning. Then my mom started complaining of headaches from her security guard job at Ulta cosmetic shop, and my lightning fast mind said the reason I was tired and totally exhausted after work was "chemicals".

The next day I checked the MSDS for the primer and discovered all the symptoms I had were exactly the same as overexposure to that primer stuff. I was tired, had heart murmurs, dizzy and had headaches. So I called in sick the next day and went to that company's worker's comp doc and he confirmed that I was overexposed to primer fumes, and my EKG proved heart murmurs, YEAH! I quit that job, that day. I didn't want a respirator, I was tired, really, really tired and not just from primer fumes, but from bean counters. Those measly little penny pinchers who think a person's health isn't as valuable as their bottom line.

Now you know why I'm a Zone Safety Specialist. I care, I really care. It's also why I want strong representation not some ho, hum, yeah we are a brotherhood. Don't give me some gangland mentality. I want 1,000 men with the passion of Sir William Wallace, you know the Braveheart movie character to stand strong against tyranny. Tyranny starts in the boardroom when good men secede their good principles to bad morals by counting beans. If they like beans so much let's mail them some!

So you see the thing I love about working at Raytheon is knowing that sometimes after they make numerous speeches about safety they will actually do something every now and then to back up all those pretty words. And the other thing I like is knowing that if they miss a few "safety things" like non-ionizing radiation, fall or slip hazards, that I have the assurance of knowing that when I'm just following the orders of some macho boss man, I have a good health care plan to back up their stupid, gotta get it done now attitudes.

Sometimes they are the victims too man, y' know that Arbonne stuff is a chemical, and probably goes to their brain, and have you ever sat in a manicure room at Wal-Mart?. Chemicals, dude and not the good kind. So be patient with the starch shirts, but don't blame me for a poor lifestyle. I was just following orders. Poverty and being a single parent will make you do stupid things, and when you have to choose between getting a testicular checkup or putting Ramen noodles on the table, the kids come first. So yeah, the poor workers may not be able to afford those healthful lifestyle choices and gym memberships, but cutting off our health care isn't going to fix our lifestyle, but a living wage could help. I'm sorry Raytheon couldn't find pampered healthy people to do assembly work, but would they be willing to do the work? Not likely. You'll have to settle for the huddled masses, the tired and weary who need to put food on the table, and who's health leaves a little to be desired, because, hey, LIFE happened! Dude did you get run over by a bus? Nope just life. So as long a Raytheon RESPECTS me I'll work for them, but as soon as I feel dissed I'll quit in a day. Been there done that, got the tee shirt.

God bless the negotiating committee on both sides of the table and help them to work TOGETHER for all our good, so we can focus on those we love who need us most. Let them not be petty or small, but RESPECTFUL. AMEN.

Get Off The Fence

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of this contract!

When I look at the crap this company is trying to shove down our throats it reminds me of the tactics of Obama. You hit people with so much bad that any good that gets salvaged seems like a blessing from above. The last contract wasn't too much to give up, but this is insanely rude. Aerospace workers are few and far between, there are a lot of better places to live than Tucson. I got my sights set on Texas and Monster.com, I'm really tired of working for such horrible wages, plus it would be a great time to transfer my worthless 401K to an IRA by quitting this place.

I didn't start the decertify movement to weaken the union. I want a strong truly local union that isn't sold out at the national level (unfortunately the NLRB rules require me to decertify a perfectly good union -for some people- in order to start another union). It is obvious after 3 years of opposing this union that it is not going away any time soon. The union leaders have finally grown 'a pair' and I am proud of them.

I'm not willing to join the union, but this package is so bad I'm ready to walk the strike line and even almost willing to wear their tee shirt, not because I like the union, but because the company's offer is so bad! It's like the company is saying 'we don't need you just go away'. I for one want to take them up on their bony finger pointing at the door. I've been pro-Raytheon up until now, but enough is enough.

Just the idea of having to pay 10% of a hospital bill is outrageous! One hospital visit could easily bankrupt me and I make a good wage, what the hell is a custodian supposed to do if they end up in the hospital? Does this company really want to create a security nightmare? The kind of indebtedness that could occur from this stingy package could cause a lot of people to become targets of foreign spies. They'd only need to get employed at UMC in the financial department and look for Raytheon employees with huge hospital bills and target them.

This company has made really good profits off the sweat and injuries of every Tucson RMS worker both salaried and hourly. And neither the salaried nor the hourly have been justly compensated. Salaried workers should show this company how screwed they feel by having a blue 'sick' day during the strike (not that I'm actually condoning a strike).

This company could pay each of us a $100,000 bonus and not feel a dent in their bottom line, but they would rather play the poor mouth game. I look at how the auto workers got paid $100/hr for a product no one liked or wanted, and here we are with a lot more talent making a product our customer loves and wants, but we aren't making anywhere near the wage of an auto worker EVEN AFTER the freakin' bailout screwed the auto industry!

That's why I want a new union. I want a union like the auto workers have that will totally shut down the factory to get a good wage. We should be making THOSE kinds of wages. It's not like the government could farm out defense contractor work to overseas companies! Like Duh! If I have to work WITH this union to get what I want then I say it's time to hang up our hatchets and pull together. Let's push back hard this time!

It is time for all the free loaders to join the union or get rid of it. And by free loaders I mean all those people who want the union but won't join it and won't sign our petition to decertify it. Those people make me sick. They are totally useless breathers. They want something for nothing. This country wasn't built by sitting on a fence. And it won't be saved by sitting on your butt either. Either join the union or get rid of it, but do SOMETHING! And these freeloaders are probably the one's eating up most of the union's time representing their slacker butts.

If I didn't feel screwed by the union, I'd join it. But now that I feel screwed by the company I may have to join the union and the cause to get what I want. I certainly don't believe the war in Iraq or Afghanistan is justified. I bought George Bush's lie hook line and sinker, but I don't believe we need to "protect the warfighter" by building a product to kill people for profit. We should have left the Middle East a long time ago. The military industrial complex is paying off boys in Washington to keep the war going, so I feel no loyalty to their murderous game. You want me to work for you then give me the butcher's cut of that fat calf you're carving up.

I'd like to take the time to thank Ed and all the union stewards for their hard work on behalf of those who choose to be members of the union. I think the Bargain Union reps have finally grown some balls. I don't feel represented by this union, but they do work hard and aren't appreciated enough. Let's wear union blue (even you salaried guys) on Thursday or wear a union tee shirt if you have one. Viva la Roadside Rally!! Tomorrow!!! Be there or be broke!!

And visit the union's website already: www.iam933.org

P.S. Keep up the good work of keeping us ALL informed on the screwy negotiations, thanks Ed. I will forward any info the union sends me to the Oust membership. oust933@gmail.com

Poker Face

The Game is on! Everyone has on their poker face. I have to crack a smile though. I would like to call everyone to go visit the Union Website once again. My predictions have come true concerning Medical Benefits if the Chart on Update #6 is true. A quote on the page reads; "Today, the Company gave us their Medical benefit rates applicable to both hourly and salary, which are as follows:". I wrote that would happen here. Look around this blog to see how far back I have been predicting that in our upcoming contract. Pass-Through is a fact, get used to it. The good news is that since they posted a few updates to their web site, it looks like they've gotten the word! All RMS workers deserve to hear about what's going on in the Negotiations. I'm glad they posted numbers and charts showing what looks like a good faith effort to inform us what's being debated in there. That's a major improvement.

However, I have a disagreement with something in update seven. The third paragraph says they want us to demand Management for a GWI for all. That's unacceptable, unless it is combined with a wage adjustment for the classifications that have been robbed over the past 16 years. No matter how big of a GWI you get, the fact that our classes are getting ripped off makes it priority one for you guys to fix. Everybody deserves a raise, and we understand the reality of home economics. But taking from one set of workers and giving it to the others has quite a few people at wits end. All workers deserve equal representation. So lets bring all wages back in proportion with what they were back in '93. We want RONA, optional 9-80s, Merit Pay, and of course, the correction of the wage imbalance. Stewards, you have a meeting to go to on Monday. The best thing you can do is to up-channel this info and ask the Neg-Cmte to resolve these issues. Smile! You've got a full-house.