Future of AEE

Greetings,

The Association of Engineering Employees of Oregon (AEE) is facing a serious obstacle that requires your immediate attention. The future of AEE is in your hands.

If AEE still exists as we currently know it, November will mark the 75th anniversary of the association. This milestone would not have been possible without the thousands of hours of support our dedicated volunteers have given, committing their time and energy to make the work we do a priority. In the interest of transparency, the membership needs to be aware of the immediate challenges the Association is facing that impact us as a bargaining unit.

You’ve likely seen all the emails from both AEE and the Agency since the pandemic started – in addition to the normal functions the association performs for the membership, the modern work environment has at once both distanced us and created many new topics that have sparked a multitude of questions, lengthy bargaining sessions, individual and group grievances, and resulted in a number of disciplinary issues – all of which have depended on the volunteer commitment of your board of Directors.

We currently have multiple vacant leadership positions on the AEE Board that all contribute to running the business aspects of the association, representing members and serving on AEE committees. Without members serving in these crucial positions, AEE is struggling to continue to meet the needs of our membership. We are urgently looking for members to participate by stepping into these vacant leadership roles:

  • ·  First Vice President

  • ·  Second Vice President

  • ·  Assistant Headquarters Director

  • ·  Assistant Mill Creek Director

  • ·  Assistant Region 2 Director

  • ·  Region 4 Director

  • ·  Assistant Region 4 Director

    The membership has three choices in determining AEE’s future:
    Option A: Continue AEE’s legacy as a volunteer led organization with the membership

(you) stepping up and committing to the association, filling these vacancies on the Board and participating in the business aspects of AEE. Board members are expected to be actively engaged, attend monthly staff and quarterly board meetings, serve on committees to create process improvements and meet deliverables needed to efficiently and effectively run the association, participate in organizing members, liaise with management, and grow in experience and knowledge to eventually become executive board members. This structure depends on having membership volunteers and strong succession planning.

Option B: AEE will contract for paid services to make the work manageable without the support of having key leadership positions filled and commitment of membership participation to fill the other vacancies on the board. If we are to rely on paid staff, AEE will have to make the difficult decision to increase membership dues (up to $35) in order to keep up with the increased cost to acquire and maintain these services.

Option C: Should the membership decide against Option A and Option B, we will need to consider joining another union such as SEIU or AFSCME to continue to be
represented. This option would also result in increased dues (1.7% of your salary plus $2.75 a month for SEIU. 1.27% of your salary for AFSCME) and would group engineering employees with the rest of the other union’s membership instead of having an association just for you.

In order to continue on, AEE needs volunteers to represent the interest of State Employees working in ODOT, ODF and OPRD to maintain a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that protects our rights and safe work environment. The association's work cannot be placed on the shoulders of a few dedicated volunteers. This vision has to be shared and achieved together.

If you are interested in volunteering for one of these positions, please reach out to the AEE Office (office@aeeo.org) and your AEE Director (Board of Directors contact list). A

survey listing these options will go out to the membership next week. Please take some time to think about our options as a membership and respond accordingly to the survey coming soon.

In Unity AEE

AEE Oregon