Last fall, the SPEEA (Seattle Professional Engineering Employees Association) contract with Boeing expired, and a new contract was negotiated . The Union is divided into two parts, the Professional contract, and the Technical contract. The two are separate and distinct. In December Boeing made a 'Best and Final Offer" to the union.
The Profs accepted it and the Techs rejected it. I thought it was a fair offer, so I voted for it.
The second part of the vote was to authorize a strike. I voted against that. Much to my consternation, the contract was voted down by a slim majority of the Techs.
Boeing and the Union went back to the bargaining table.
I have been saving money in a "Strike Fund" for about a year just in case. I had more in there than I felt I would need, but I am pretty conservative with my money.
So Mrs A and I have been anxiously awaiting a settlement, not wanting to commit to anything until there was a signed contract.
The Techs were in a sticky situation, since the Profs had accepted the contract, and would not be going out to support the Thechs if we went on strike. That means we had no bargaining strength.
To make a long story short, Boeing made the exact sae offer to the Union, and the Tchs had to swallow their balls and get back to work. The voted in the exact same contract that they had turned down a couple of months ago.
No strike translates into me paying off a chunk of mortgage and a chunk of credit cars and a great feeling of relief.
Retirement just became a little bit closer.
2 comments:
I'm so glad that it worked out!
Thanks Renn. We were sweating it for a couple of months, but reason prevailed. How often can you say that?
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