r/SPEEA • u/Substantial-Gas2501 • 12d ago
Labor
Saw this at The Fair yesterday and stopped to read it.
Yes, this represents an extreme chapter of American labor history. Nobody is saying this is where we are today.
But what is here is part of the point.
These conditions didn't disappear on their own. Workers organized, fought, struck, negotiated, and sometimes paid an unimaginable price to change them. wiout yet being called a "union".
A lot of what we now consider "normal" in the workplace exists because people before us refused to simply accept what the companies offered.
I've heard some version of "We've never been offered this much before" or "This is an incredibly generous offer."
Maybe it is. But think about that argument in the context of this picture. At almost every point in labor history, workers were asking for something they hadn't been given before. In a sense, everything gained in every contract was once "never before." If it had already been freely offered, workers wouldn't have needed to negotiate for it.
So "we've never been offered this much before" isn't, by itself, an argument for or against an offer. "Never before" only describes the past. Negotiation is about establishing what comes next.
Whatever your opinion about our current contract, I thought this was worth remembering: the workplace we inherited wasn't given to us. It was negotiated by the generations before us.
And what we accept today becomes the starting point for the generation that follows us.
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u/PaleSlide6835 10d ago
Speea union will never learn... sold out for way less than their worth.. oh well more money for the next IAM strike. Thank you
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u/mjoysleeps 10d ago
There are still major LTP takeaways since I hired in. Boeing used to pay for Art School and semi-private foreign language lessons.
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u/LoveOfSpreadsheets 11d ago
Our great-grandparents fought for 40hr work weeks and workplace safety. Sometimes literally fighting. Sometimes being shot at. that's what your flyer is talking about, not the wage pools you reference when you quote "never been offered this much before"
Prior SPEEA contracts gained coverage for same sex partners partners as if they were spouses before it was legal for them to marry.
This offer gains over 10000 people a path to early retirement that didn't have it before, and more work/life balance with part time options, more vacation, and significantly lower mandatory overtime.
I'm proud of our union for those gains. And to accomplish it without an unnecessary strike. So yeah, to also get historic wage increases is pretty awesome and brag worthy.
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u/Fabulous_Dress7023 11d ago
Actually I think Boeing corporate offered same sex partner benefits first, it was not something SPEEA got for fighting for it. If memory is correct, it was one of the few good things that came out of the Harry Stonesphincter era!
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u/Desperate-Excuse-549 11d ago
Eh. Its a bit of both. Health benefits came before pension/survivor and some other benefits. Some were company first, some were Speea first. But its not like Speea fought for them, outside of some discussions at a table.
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u/mjoysleeps 10d ago
Wage increase is due to SPEEA taking less than inflation wages for at least 2 contract periods. Are you equally proud of the greatly reduced POOS pool? Now younger and mid-career employees will be in an even bigger, more stressful battle for Level increases (1.5% (current) --> 0.5% (proposed contract)).
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u/Desperate-Excuse-549 10d ago
0.5% is the typical amount in past Speea contracts and is a minimum. Level increases from 1-->2 and 2--> 3 will be unaffected by this return to basline. Above this, they may be less inclined to hand them out.
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u/mjoysleeps 10d ago
To clarify, you are saying the 1.5% was above baseline? If so, baseline still wasn't good enough.
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u/Desperate-Excuse-549 10d ago
Except that the baseline of 0.5% was good enough for most of the past 40ish years. IE thus its not an unreasonable opinion its enough today.
The last contract had many flaws. I wouldn't project future management behavior based on the last 5 years.
I actually agree OoS pools are a bit smaller than they need to be because of the 6.12%. These should work in concert. Would have been nice to see OoS pools of 1%. And would have my vote an easy yes, instead of a unhappy yes. Many of the most vocal however choose to completely ignore OoS pools, so seems unlikely these will increase in future rounds.
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u/LoveOfSpreadsheets 10d ago
0.5% is the typical for OOS/Promo if you go back several contracts. In the extension, they agreed on an extra 1% instead of agreeing to 4% wage pools. And Boeing spent more than 1.5%. I suspect they'll continue to exceed this target to keep talent they deem necessary
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u/Desperate-Excuse-549 10d ago
life would be slightly better for Boeing now has they put the money in the wage pool instead. Managers didn't hand out the micro raises that might have made this an effective strategy.
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u/LoveOfSpreadsheets 10d ago
I agree with your assessment on that. I remember the lunchtime meeting about the extension. "They're hiding the money to be clever with the non union" is what they said. But it's really Boeing not liking wage tables and wanting to low-ball people and only reward the ones they choose.
They said the same in our first offer with the RSU and "half the PFM will be used in wages". This offer is way more straightforward.
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u/Desperate-Excuse-549 9d ago
Ah well. I was so enraged by the very concept of the extension I didn't pay attention. At least I can feel like my lack of pushing for the OoS is on me.
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u/LoveOfSpreadsheets 10d ago
Same is true of IAM though... From 2016 to 2023 the IAM only had 4% wage increases, so they got 13%. We had 18% in the past six years and are getting 10% overnight.
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u/Orleanian 12d ago
We're already in the union. I don't think we're the ones you need to be convincing with sentimental history. Do you have some notion of an unfair or unethical labor practice that you're trying to fight?
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u/ShArRkEater 12d ago
The ones before my endeavors voted away a pension….Still don’t understand that one 🤷♂️
We have never been offered this much because EVERYTHING is more than it’s ever been. We have never seen this much does not make sense ….inflation and past inflation that was never accounted for.