In case you have not heard, Terry Chura's dad passed away and I'm sure all of our thoughts and prayers are with Terry and his family at this time. Here is a link to the guest book if you would like to send your condolences you can do that here. Also last week Gary Berrian's mom passed away. You can find Gary's mom's information here to send condolences.
Just a reminder that the open enrollment period for benefits closes on November 19th.
This week a round of surprise layoffs occurred. This is due to the north american division not coordinating it's reductions with united services for the January 11th system layoff date. There are a couple of issues with this reduction and the application of the Washington Area Seniority Agreement. I spoke with labor relations in San Francisco late Thursday night and will try to resolve these issues this week. This affects the BAL shop as well as the IAD GQ and PV departments.
There have been many questions regarding the testing committee. The committee is working on a fair way to ensure all members are allowed to excercise their rights under the agreement. I know this is a very serious issue and there are many opinions on how members are selected to take the test as well as what the test should look like. If you would like your concerns addressed let me know and I will pass them forward to the committee.
For MM this week it still apears the company is serious about the hangar. There are a couple of different scenarios they are looking at including a complete new hangar. Also I met with Ron and Stuart regarding vacation selection for the upcoming year. We are going to try to finalize them this week.
For PV a meeting is scheduled tomorrow for vacation rules. Also the second step for the lead opening has been processed. This grievance has not been heard but I will pass on the results when it is.
For GQ the ten hour schedule has been delayed to the first of the year due to concerns from several members regarding holiday plans. This will make for a smooth transition at the beginning of the year to the new codes.
I have begun working on contract proposals. There is much that needs to be addressed in the upcoming negotiations. I have sent most of the industry contracts to the Stewards for review to see if there is some language from those agreements that would be a benefit to us. If you would like copies of these contracts let me know and I will send them to you. There are several CBA's and the files are large so they will be sent in three e-mails. Thanks to Bob Luciano for providing the agreements I didn't have.
There was a conference call on Friday and we discussed several things. Among them was our responsibility to diligently look for items completed by outside vendors which are a violation of our Agreement. This includes work accomplished in the New York point as well as Philadelphia.The reducing of work from our one and three service was also discussed. Remember even though the forms do not say to look at things such as tires and brakes if you see something that is out of maintenance manual limits it needs to be addressed. The FAA will not ask United Airlines why an obvious defect was missed. They will ask YOU! And when they ask more than likley they will incude a citation for not performing your duty. Don't fall into this trap.
That's all for this week,
Bob
