This is not a pleasant update. The company has determined there are currently no openings in MM until possibly December 5th. As a result we are losing 5 mechanics effective 10-19-08. At this point due to the severe economic conditions it would not surprise me to see some if not all of the potential openings to disappear for the next round. Please prepare for this possibility if you are lower on the seniority list. Hopefully I am just being an alarmist, but this seems to be the way things are going.
In MM this week the survey I have been working on is taking longer to put together than I thought. Today's announcement caught me by surprise. I have talked with everyone I can think of to resolve this but to no avail.
In GQ I have been given no new information on the ten hour day schedule.
In PV Tom has been working with the group on several safety issues primarily in the bag room. The company has listened to the mechanics and the union and found it is cheaper to paint lines on the ramp in house.
Nothing new to report in BAL.
This week has been a roller coaster in the financial world. We have witnessed first hand that deregulation does not work in the airline industry. Now we know it doesn't work for trucking steel ,financial, or insurance industries either. The unfortunate part of this story is that you and I pay for this. Catfish in MM brought up a good analogy. A football game has rules to follow and referees to make sure the teams follow those rules.This keeps the outcome as fair as possible. If you take the referees out of the game it becomes chaotic with everyone trying to do whatever they can to succeed. Take the rules away as well and it is no longer even a game. Greed and might rule the day. That's exactly what we are witnessing now.
That's all for this week
Bob
