How will Boeing react to our effort to form a union?

Corporations know when employees join together to negotiate, they are often successful in improving their pay, benefits and working conditions. That’s why it is common for employers to resist employees’ efforts to have a real voice in decision-making.

Unions improve employee-management relations in the long run. Aerospace professionals represented by SPEEA are able to collaborate with management to achieve results that benefit everyone.

We know from workers who organized at Boeing what to expect:

Management will hold meetings to dissuade employees from forming a union. The company will share a lot of information with employees in an effort to keep us from working together. The company will likely call our union, CREATE, a “third-party” instead of the truth - the union is us.  We contacted SPEEA to help us bring together the collective voice of professionals at Seal Beach, because management doesn’t hear us as individuals on important issues.  

Don’t be surprised if the following happens as we move forward:

·         Higher level management/HR/VPs will try to engage with us more

·         LOTS of meetings on work time with management/HR trying to build more trust

·         Temporary fixes to some of our issues (let’s get them in a contract!)

·         Requests for a “second chance” on some of our longstanding issues

·         Lots of FAQ/handouts/website updates meant to confuse or create doubt

As we move forward and build support, there will be misinformation and confusing information circulating.  Boeing will probably spend money on expensive firms to attempt to keep us union-free. These firms have playbooks for how to convince employees they don’t need a union.  We want Boeing to save their money by not hiring outsiders and spend it on us, the employees who are asking for a seat at the table.

We encourage our peers to get the facts and not let Boeing divide us in the process.  Ultimately, the decision to form a union is made by us, not managers.