As many of you know I was in India last week so there was no report.
Weekly conference calls of BA's and Coordinators began last Friday. Several points were brought up on the call. The New York point is a big issue as it appears United is contracting work to Timco in the area. Legal is involved with this as well as the Local. A grievance has already been filed due to work being performed by an outside vendor at the point. Also it was requested that everyone continue to fill out the surveys regarding outsourcing. The survey can be found at "http://www.teamster.org/landing.aspx?id=454" about halfway down the page. A weekly newsletter with updates from the Airline Division will be going out to everyone that has their e-mail on file with the Teamsters. Next week in ORD there will be a meeting of BA's and Coordinators on Wednesday. We were also reminded to let you know of the physician of choice letter. Article XX J. on page 79 describes what you need to do. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Because the layoff date has been moved back one month new WARN notices will be given out. For us that will affect the guys in BAL. That was about it for the call.
The GQ/PV manager approached me today to let me know there was a theft in the autoshop. Because of that they are going to start cracking down on access to the shop. He informed me anyone parking there without a pass would be towed.
On a positive note it appears the company is serious about the possibility of moving into the old ACA hangar. The hangar needs some improvement and they have contractors giving bids now. As far as the annual rent it looks like it would be close to cost neutral. We have all seen this before but it does look somewhat better because the new VP is very interested in doing the 767 a-check work here.
For MM I met with Ron Buetenmuller this week and we began discussions on vacation rules for the upcoming year. As you know with people coming in after the beginning of the year the liability will change and we need a common sense way to deal with the increase.
For GQ the ten hour day bid has begun according to Greg Pinelli. Also vacations will be bid beginning on Nov 15th. According to Joe Filice because of the ten hour schedule coming into play for next year the company has agreed to continue the rule from last year to move days to wrap around your vacation.
For PV I talked to Mark on Friday and we are tentatively going to sit down on Monday to discuss vacation rules. I also plan to address the discussed use of emergency overtime in the shop.
For BAL the company has refused to listen to any suggestions regarding keeping our members employed there. I am very disappointed but not suprised. This is the way they are dealing with us systemwide.
With that said we need some relief. The only way I see to get that is with a change in our government. The company is not listening because frankly they don't have to. So please on November 4th exercise your right to vote. My suggestion is to choose the candidates that have pledged to bring outsourced work back and strengthen the labor movement. For President only one candidate has made those promises and that is Barack Obama.
That's all for this week,
Bob
