Welcome!

The Aerospace Professional Staff Association is a private labor union representing all level I, II, and III non-supervisory members of the technical staff at The Aerospace Corporation.

Over the last decade, many states and corporations have moved to an employment model called "At Will Employment". At will employees are simply employees who can be fired for any reason at any time without reason except in a few cases such as involving protected groups (race, religion, gender) or if an employee is a witness to illegal activity. At will employment basically negates an employees right to be fired for a reason that involves performance, insubordination or other situations where an individual would expect loss of their job.

Most at will employees in the United States are the rank and file employees. Unlike many senior and junior executive level employees, rank and file employees typically do not have a negotiated entrance into a corporations labor pool. Such bargining is common for executives and higher level employees who seek to protect themselves from unfair treatment by their portential employer. So how do rank and file employees get the same protections many executives have? Rank and file employees need to unionize to level the playing field between them, executive and senior ranks and unfair treatment by the corporation.

As a member of APSA, you are no longer an "at will employee" but rather you are a "just cause" employee. An employer has to have an actual reason for your dismissal that is fair ("just"). There are typically 7 tests that are looked at to determine if the reason a reason was fair and just:

• Was the employee adequately warned of the consequences of his conduct?
• Was the employers rule or order reasonable related to efficient and safe operations?
• Did management investigate before administering the discipline?
• Was the investigation fair and objective?
• Did the investigation produce substantial evidence or proof of guilt?
• Were the rules, orders, and penalties applied evenhandedly and without discrimination?
• Was the penalty reasonable related to the seriousness of the offense and the past record?