What have SPEEA members done to be proactive in relation to layoffs?
Problem:
Employees wanted to know what skills Boeing might value more in the next 20 years to help inform career decisions of SPEEA-represented employees.
Solution:
Boeing and SPEEA have chartered the “Everett Roundtable” which is a quarterly forum to enhance and sustain employee/management relations by cooperatively identifying issues and opportunities, promoting improvements, and strategically aligning on key imperatives. The Everett Roundtable brings together elected workplace SPEEA-representatives, HR and site managers.
SPEEA leaders brought the concern about future skills to the Everett Roundtable and were successful in having a conversation with management to ascertain what skills Boeing values over the next 20 years. Working with Ed Wells Partnership, management was then able to help employees obtain and/or hone their skills to be able to find jobs easier in the face of layoffs and some were able to avoid being laid off.
“Being involved as a SPEEA representative on the Everett Roundtable, I have direct access to executives and can bring concerns and opportunities to improve working conditions and know that I will be heard.”