Cog in the machine...

A respected coworker answers Wichita Eagle reporter Molly McMillin's question asking why any employee would want to decertify SPEEA, a union protecting a good portion of Wichita's workers:

----- Original Message -----
From: [anonymous]
To: "Molly McMillin"
Sent: [datestamp]
Subject: Re: Fw: WTPU Decert Drive Access

I have no idea. I continue to be amazed ANYONE trusts Boeing or Onex enough to not at least want a contract. While not necessarily being a strong union person originally, I really wanted and valued having a contract. The problem is that Jeff Turner and some of the top leaders like an environment where the ones under them do as they say ... because they are under them. It really is a bully environment. If a decree came from the NW or Chicago, then Turner wanted lots of leeway to immediately meet that demand. He is very good at smoozing but is definitely not creative or interested in others.

Turner looks for the easy answer. I have always said that if Turner read a book that said pole vaulters made the best managers, he would decree in annual performance measures that his execs become 18-foot vaulters. Come September, he might ask one how he is doing. After a quick stammer, he would hear that exec is clearing 18-feet. The one next to him would be at 19-feet ... and so on, until most are vaulting over 30-feet ... without ever having to prove it. That is how many of the metrics work at Boeing. It is the facade of saying you are meeting them without really getting the job done. This applies mostly to the internal metrics, but can be seen even at the higher level ones, like Quality. And if a measure ever does come in under, then Turner has a team of folks working a story to say that (a) it was impossible to achieve, (b) the changes in the year caused the miss and without changes they would have made the target, or (c) come up with a different way to measure. Should be real interesting to see the numbers when they try an IPO.

It should be fairly obvious that Turner's objective is to bust the unions ... IAM, SPEEA, and the rest. The IBEW caved because they were at real risk of being completely outsourced to contract companies, similar to the way Eby has worked the construction needs of Boeing.

Many of the non-engineer office workers are sycophants or scared they cannot find anything better. They are more adept at pleasing their superiors than actually getting the job done. That is how they have survived that last decade of RIFs. Those who try to change the culture/systems are met with strong opposition from those in charge (and have done well in the old system). Quite Machiavellian. If Boeing leaders were so good, then why are they not courted to go to other companies ... similar to GE or P&G? They could make more money, there would be more career potential, and the stock options would be much greater.

-- Bill, who's still too busy to write his own material...