Our union is growing!

10th Anniversary Organizing ‘Oz’ success - ‘Harry says vote NO’
WICHITA - In the largest successful organizing drive of white-collar workers in decades, technical and professional workers voted June 29, 2000 to join SPEEA. The victory might not have happened without the help of Boeing executive Harry Stonecipher. Scared of losing the election to SPEEA, Stonecipher visited Wichita to personally tell employees not to vote “yes” for the union. The meeting inspired union buttons that read “Harry says vote NO.” “Nobody forgot what Harry said in that hangar,” said SPEEA Midwest Vice President Earl Carter, who was active in the SPEEA campaign known as organizing ‘Oz.’
The visit and Stonecipher’s advice turned the tide, not to Boeing, but to SPEEA. The final count was 1,924 voting “yes” for SPEEA and 1,859 voting “no.” By a margin of less than 1% of the votes cast, the Wichita Technical and Professional Unit of SPEEA formed. Boeing filed objections that the election was not fairly conducted. On Aug. 7, the hearing officer recommended the National Labor Relations Board deny Boeing’s objections and certify SPEEA. The bargaining unit consists of planners, designers, drafters, general office, technical, computer programmers and includes exempt and non-exempt employees. At the time, they all worked at Boeing (before the company sold its commercial manufacturing to Onex Corp., which spun off Spirit AeroSystems). For Carter, SPEEA made a difference. “We know what tomorrow will bring in terms of benefits and pay. Who knows where we would be without SPEEA.”

SPEEA member comments

“If a union contract is the fortress that provides protections for workers, organizing is the foundation on which that fortress is built. Brick by brick, friend by friend, signature by signature, organizing is the only way to bring about the representation that all workers need.”

Bill Hartig, SPEEA Secretary and Organizing Committee member in 2000

CAMP chooses affiliation with IFPTE

Members of the City Association of Management Personnel (CAMP) voted to affiliate with IFPTE Local 21. CAMP represents approximately 410 managers (Senior Analysts and Program Managers) for the City of San Jose in California. Read the release. (1/5/10)

TVA scientists, engineers and technicians represented by the engineering association affiliate with IFPTE

Download the IFPTE press release and read the news stories announcing the affiliation of the Engineering Association (EA) with America’s fastest growing union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. (11/12/09) Members of TVA-EA joined IFPTE in the following states: TVA-EA/ IFPTE affiliation brochure   AFL-CIO blog SPEEA assists with TVA-EA affiliation/organizing: Read SPOTLITE Magazine Dec 2009

Landslide victory!
Legal Services Corporation workers join IFPTE despite union-busting campaign by management

The professional non-managerial oversight staff of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), a federally funded corporation charged with providing legal services to the poor, has voted by an overwhelming margin to join IFPTE. Read IFPTE's press release. (9/21/09)

Analysts Vote by better than 2 to 1 margin, 897 to 445, to be represented by IFPTE in first-ever union election at the Government Accountability Office (09/19/07).  Today, GAO analysts make up IFPTE, Local 1921 and have a vibrant membership and are “banding together” all over the country.  

• News Articles on historic victory at Legal Services Corporation.

Want to learn more? Contact SPEEA today!

Contact SPEEA Headquarters at 1-800-325-0811 and ask for April Rebollo, Director of Organizing, or email an inquiry at aprilr@speea.org. We recommend contacting us from your personal email or personal phone. Your email or conversation is confidential and we will walk you through the steps towards negotiating a contract with your employer.

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