Cog in the machine...

My friend, SPEEA ExecDir Charlie Bofferding, was joking with me just about all afternoon about how I looked like a mama duck today, leading (at our peak) a few dozens of our coworkers, in a casual "Picket Practice" stroll in front of Mr. Turner's office, during our lunchtime session today.

I got to lead the pack and chose a path that just happened to include the Oliver crosswalk at the Plant 2 Admin entrance.

As there’s no traffic control there, and as Kansas Law seems to give pedestrians pretty much unlimited Right Of Way, this meant that,for several orbits, we were able to block far more cars than we had picketers, merely by "working to rule," well within traffic law.

(Man... imagine the fun we’ll have if we can get a few HUNDRED to show up for our next practice session!... )


-- Bill, who’d bet we get cross-walk signals on Oliver and MacArthur real soon...

// posted by workerunit @ 9:38 PM (0) comments

>> Your tactic of chanting while marching through the Admin and Cafeteria buildings was both disrupting and unprofessional... I am embarrassed to say the least that a Professional committee that is responsible for negotiating a contract with the company would think this is appropriate. How do you feel this strengthens our position? <<

I’d suggest that it’s just one of a series of rapidly escalating tactics leading up to, if necessary, the full-blown strike.

Look... for some reason the Company’s negotiation position apparently is that we either don’t have the power to confront them over the unjust offer or don’t have the will to confront them: this act of "civil disobedience" (for want of a better term) helps demonstrate the latter.


-- Bill, who hopes they’re already aware of the former...

(Answering for only myself, of course...)

Question: Why all the delays between negotiations meetings? Why aren’t you working around the clock to get this settled?

1) How do you know we’re not? Heck, best I can tell, most of the delays have been due to the Boeing-Wichita negotiators having to call about 3,529 Executives all around the country to convince them and get unanimous "buy in" to any contract improvement our counterparts would like to make. And then there’s playing all the "phone tag" when The Boss is never in.

2) Some of the major players have other, long-standing important engagements, both personal and work-related, that had been planned with the "good faith" expectation of being long done with negotiations for a contract that expired in February. And, speaking of schedules, we can’t seem to convince the Federal Mediator that we’re the Center of the Universe, so he goes off to work other mediations he and his bosses think equally important. In any event, the only downside I see to letting the process take the time it needs is the delay in merit distribution, which just means a bigger "lump" in the first retroactive paycheck. On the upside, of course, all the folks in Traditional Med aren’t yet paying huge premiums.

3) Oh, these negotiations over the past 6+ months have been such an enjoyable time that I just want it to never end. And, next, a monkey flies out of my butt.


-- Bill, who readily admits that #3 is a far more likely answer for me than any of my cohorts on the SPEEA team...

1. Go to the Salaried Job Classification website (link available only inside Boeing’s firewall) and click the first two letters of your SJC job description. Then select the last two. When you’re done you should be at a page that looks like my "UANR" jobcode.
   
   
2. Highlight your job description, copy, and paste it into a Word document.
   
   
3. In the Word doc, highlight a few of the important descriptions/responsibilities listed in your jobcode:

   
   Staff Analyst Level 4
   Exemption Status: Exempt
   
   Develops creative and innovative solutions for complex administrative issues to improve organization operations. Acts as advisor to middle management in all administrative decision making. Serves as spokesperson for organization. Functions as advisor on major projects and functions of organization and as technical expert for organization on major policies and procedural issues. Develops new concepts and techniques and exercises considerable latitude in determining objectives and approaches of business operations for organization. Oversees maintenance of operational records to ensure availability of accurate data for planning purposes and participates in analysis of reports and presentations for senior management. Conducts business reviews. Implements long-range strategic objectives and plans, financial and non-financial recommendations, and strategic operating plans. Provides guidance and leadership to administrative staff.
   

   
   
   
4. Go to Boeing’s Policy Plus website and click the Search link.
   
   
5. Do a "Text" search on each highlighted phrase in your job description.
   
   
6. Read every page of every document in the list, if for no other reason than you can then make sure you’re not breaking some obscure rule that they can use against you at their whim. For me, that means, at a minimum, I need to read the stuff covering:
   
   • Staff Analyst: 15 procedures and policies
     
   • Exempt: 70 procedures and policies
     
   • Operational records: 264 procedures and policies
     
   • Business reviews: 2055 procedures and policies
   
   
   
7. Repeat Steps 3 through 6 for every other role/responsibility you believe necessary to assure yourself that your butt’s covered from management’s vindictive retribution.
   
   
8. If your boss gives you a hard time about reading them all, look him/her in the eye and ask ‘em if THEY can tell you which Policy&Procedure documents you should be reading about your job, instead. If they can, start reading those. If they can’t, thank them sincerely and continue reading from your list.
   
   
9. If they continue to give you a hard time, pick up the telephone, call the SPEEA office (682-0262), introduce yourself, tell them what’s going on, answer are few subsequent questions, then hand the receiver over to The Boss, so the union can ‘splain it to ‘em, Lucy...

-- Bill, who would really prefer "partnering" instead...

// posted by workerunit @ 6:50 AM (0) comments

Boeing CEO Upbeat on Programs, Stock Up
Reuters English News Service 06/04/04
author: Kathy Fieweger
(C) Reuters Limited 2004.

[Stonecipher] added one of Boeing's issues right now is figuring what to do with all the cash that its operations are generating.

Feel free to click the "comments" link, below, and post your "Target&Proposal" for Harry's "Situation"...


-- Bill, who, again, couldn’t make this $#!% up if he tried...

Well, I was going to start on the "What I did on my Memorial Day Vacation" essay, relating the past week I spent in Puget Sound, during SPEEA’s annual Leadership Conference and Council Convention/Training Seminars. But what happened on the plane ride from Denver to Wichita today has just got to be The Best Story Of The Trip.

In Denver, we get on some [I think] Canadian "regional jet" that has a 2-2 configuration. I boarded with MW Chair and All Around Dynamite Lady, Debbie Logsdon; we had two adjacent window seats, she in 3-D and me in 4-D. Well, we get to Row 3 and there’s this Old Granny Lady sitting in the aisle at 3-C. Before Debbie can let Granny know that she’s going to be her flight companion in the outside seat, Granny pipes up with "I’m supposed to sit at the window, but I’d rather sit on the aisle."

Debbie, the lady she is, politely ignores Granny’s confusion and says "That’s okay... I don’t mind being at the window." She gets seated and Granny immediately starts up a conversation with her.

I get in behind them, sit down, strap myself in and hear Deb say "I’m not good with ages, so I don’t know I could come close to yours."

Before Granny has a chance to say, "no, really, please guess," I lean forward, between their seats, and state "Twenty seven!" They both laugh, along with Granny’s bowling companions in 3A and B. (There’s some huge women’s bowling tournament in Wichita this summer. But I digress...)

I hear Granny proclaim "No, I’m ninety..." Deb, in honest amazement, states "Really?! What do you attribute your long life to?"

Granny says, without hesitation, "Sex!"


[Wait, wait... it gets better....]

Just a few minutes later, Deb’s got the women across the aisle involved in the conversation and we find out they’re staying at the La Quinta on Kellogg. 3B asks Deb if Kellogg was "Hooker Alley." Deb replies, "Oh, no, you’ll be fine there."

3A follows with "That’s good. We always have to keep an eye on her," pointing at Granny...


-- Bill, who, again, couldn’t make this $#!% up if he tried...