What do you see as the primary challenges SPEEA faces in the near term and what are your solutions?
Membership Direction. Many members regard SPEEA with apathy and skepticism. SPEEA is viewed as a big, expensive, remote organization, imposing its decisions from the top down. We must return SPEEA to Membership control. This requires opening our publications to critical dialogue. We need to restore SPEEA to its role of mediator with The Boeing Company, and not seek adventures in the labor movement at large. As VP, I will insist on making expenditures based on a frugal respect for the dues-paying Membership.
Our Future at Boeing. The role and strength of SPEEA is diminished by Boeing’s strategic shift to out-sourced engineering and technical process control. We must recognize there is no spirit of “Partnership” with Boeing. How can there be, if the Company negotiates massive off-loads and divestitures when we are already down-sized? SPEEA cannot ignore this reality. If we cannot persuade management, we need to convince those to whom management listens: the shareholders. At the annual shareholder meetings, we need to clearly explain that only a strong, SPEEA-represented workforce will provide the technological leadership and product quality to compete against Airbus and rival defense contractors.
What would you bring to the Executive Board?
I Pledge: to support the Treasurer and Secretary in opening Board operations and financial data, to vote against any expenditure not directly in service to the Membership, and to refuse any honorarium.
Straight Talk. There is much that needs to be reformed in the management of SPEEA. I am not reluctant to speak the truth to anyone, least of all the members, who most need to hear it.
A Ready Ear. I have learned the value of listening--to those who have complaints, to those who suggest solutions, and especially to those with whom I disagree. Some think the path to SPEEA “solidarity” is to be found in suppression of dissent. I believe it is found in a flowering of discussion, and it is my purpose to be a ready participant.
Open Stewardship. Past Executive Boards have given carte blanche delegation to the Executive Director, and the internal practices of SPEEA have been insulated from effective oversight. As a Vice President, I will be in a position to examine our internal performance. An immediate order of business would be to bring our government filings in accordance with law, and make them freely available to the Membership.
A Member’s Perspective. When becoming active in SPEEA politics, it is typical to become focused on a small society of officers and activists. One can lose the perspective of an ordinary member. That has not happened with me. Every time I attend a SPEEA meeting, I look at it from the standpoint of “How does this advance the members’ standing at Boeing?” I am impatient with boondoggles and inefficiency, and I do not “go along to get along.”
How will you represent the NW region as a regional Vice President?
Accountable. Historically, Vice Presidents often act as if they were independent of and unaccountable to the Northwest Council, or to the Membership. However, the regional VP is supposed to be the Northwest Council’s directed agent, representing the region’s members in Board deliberations and providing full information to the regional Council. In particular, the regional VP should promptly inform the Council of Board actions, so the Council can, if it so chooses, exercise its veto power against Board actions. My first loyalty will be to the Northwest Council and the regional members I represent.
Obey Governing Documents. In the past, the Board frequently operated as though the Governing Documents of SPEEA were irrelevant, making decisions without regard to Constitutionality--or encouraging the Councils to pass unconstitutional motions. I will insist on strict observance of our Governing Documents, and will respect the limits on Board power.
Openness. Past Boards have denied members access to our federal IRS and Labor Department filings, even though these are public documents. Secrecy and stonewalling are the order of the day, when it comes to requesting access to our business information. I will support member access to information that is theirs by right.
Describe your level of SPEEA activism and your accomplishments?
My campaigns for office have brought more financial information to the Membership than they have received from SPEEA. I have reached out to you by direct mail and the Internet. I have not rested on promises of what I will do when elected; I make good on them in advance.
Why are you interested in the Vice President position?
Good Citizenship. For 20 years I was simply a dues-paying member of SPEEA--until I was called to picket duty in the 2000 Strike. This awakened me to a sense of responsibility for SPEEA, so became a Council Representative. Once in the Council, I discovered it was disconnected from the Membership. Public financial information was concealed behind a stonewall of “confidentiality.” SPEEA publications were organs of top-down propaganda. I saw this as an abandonment of the ideals of unionism, and I have been working to bring SPEEA back to the Membership.
Reform. As Treasurer in 2002, I began to investigate our IRS form 990 filings, which had been prepared in secret without Treasurer participation. I subsequently discovered a decade-old pattern of potential felony violations of the Internal Revenue Code. Only recently has the Board admitted a legal responsibility to allow Membership access to our federal financial filings. But the general behavior of the Board has been to conceal, stonewall, and obstruct inquiries. I ran for President in 2004 and 2006 as a reform candidate, and am running now because reform is still needed.
Membership Contact. The Northwest Region is more than just Boeing Puget Sound. It includes employees in Oregon, Utah, and California, as well as Triumph employees in Spokane. It may be to hard to respond to all these Bargaining Units, but that is my duty.