Thanks
to the efforts of Union Steward Terri Myette, the Renton plant
will soon have ten additional Inspector Customer Coordinators.
Communication between members at various plants was a key reason
for the additional coordinators. When Customer Coordinators from Renton transferred to Everett because of surplus action, they were surprised to learn that their job duties also included significantly more inspection work than they had been performing in Renton. Similar work in Renton had been performed by salaried personnel in the Customer Quality Support job classification.
Immediately upon learning of the discrepancy in responsibility from one plant to another, Terri launched an investigation and began inquiring as to why these duties in Renton were not performed by hourly employees. Her case became stronger when she recruited airline customers, who agreed that hourly employees should perform the work. After gathering proper documentation, Terri presented the case to Renton management. Once they reviewed all the facts, management agreed the hourly Customer Coordinators in Renton should be performing the work. The salaried personnel were notified of the change and paperwork to increase Renton Customer Coordinators was submitted. The additional Customer Coordinators should be in place early in March.
The addition of ten Customer Coordinators will hopefully trigger some recalls for line inspectors that were surplussed after coordinators bumped into that job classification.
Terri noted, "Our job was hit hard when the airplane rates slowed. We used to have 33 Customer Coordinators in Renton, but had been trimmed to eight. By taking on this additional work, we will be back up to around 18 Customer Coordinators in Renton. I want to thank my co-workers for alerting me to the differences between work assignments in Everett and Renton. By questioning this, we were able to save 10 hourly jobs in Renton. Every job makes a difference."
"I was surprised to learn about the variations in job duties between the two plants," Terri stated. "This is one instance where the surplussing action actually ended up creating more jobs for our members."
"As Customer Coordinators, we have developed close working relationships with the airline reps, and they trust our work. When they learned about the duties, they insisted that hourly workers in Renton should perform this function, as well. I appreciate their vote of confidence and the opportunity to provide these inspections," added Terri.
Renton Union Business Rep Larry Brown applauded Terri's efforts and noted, "Stewards are trained to question things out of the ordinary and always be cognizant of work being performed and the various job classifications. Terri went above and beyond what we would expect of our Stewards. Because she continued to question things, we now have additional IAM members performing these tasks, which results in more jobs."