Several questions were asked this week regarding the secondary bump in GQ and PV due to Baltimore being closed. These questions are pertinent to the rest of the local membership due to the possibility of secondary bumps in the January round.
In no particular order of how they were asked the first question answered deals with insurance on layoff. A call was made to the benefits center and an incorrect answer was given. Per the CBA Art. XXIV A. 5. page 95 states that insurance will continue for 90 days after furlough if premiums are paid. After this COBRA availability kicks in. Another question on insurance was whether the IBT carried a plan for furloughed members. The answer appears to be no. There was a question regarding protection within a shop due to skills or certifications. Article X goes into detail of how seniority works within and between classifications. This is further discussed in the Consent decree on the last two pages of the Agreement. I did discuss this particular issue with Bob Luciano and he was going to discuss it with Labor Relations.
Outside of the Agreement a question was asked as to why the company would not keep people until the January date to see if all positions were filled and layoffs could possibly be averted. After discussions with the Station Manager, Sherry Kawell, it was evident there will be no movement on the date because of budget issues. It was explained to me that if more money were to made available the first priority would be ramp personnel followed by customer service people. Mechanics are not on the Managers list of groups to be increased. When the Manager was presented with plans and ideas to pay for the increase in the budget she reiterated her priority for people needed at the station and stated that any increase in money coming into the station would be spent on those areas.
This week in PV the vacation rules were finalized. While a concession was made on DAT selection on holiday weeks it was offset with better language on DATs between shifts as well as an increase in the total number of slots allocated for vacation. In addition a joint review, two weeks prior, between the company and the union will occur to evaluate the availability of these DAT slots.
In MM this week several grievances were filed because of a glitch in the ESS program. Many members were left off the list and bypassed. These grievances were returned to the Union because of paperwork discrepancies. There were 24 from the afternoon shift and as of Friday 6 on the Day shift. We will review these on Monday and re-file them once the paperwork has been corrected. The paperwork problems are not major issues, and have been accepted in the past, but due to the large amount of money the company is looking for any out. Vacation bidding should start this week. The rules are very similar to last year with some minor exceptions to the DAT process. We agreed that it is premature to discuss the people coming into the station in January as to the total liability added to the vacation list. The reason for this is while the company does have a number they are working with, we are not sure how many people will elect to come to Dulles and what their vacation liability will be. The hangar is still a focus for the company but there is a potential roadblock to the old ACA hangar. The floor is not thick enough. An engineering firm is currently looking at this.
Thank you to all that have written letters regarding the TAA/ATAA. Anyone that would like a sample letter or need help with web posting a letter to your Representatives or Senators let me know. To the people that volunteered to lobby we should expect to be getting requests soon. Thanks to Bob Luciano for helping in this regard. Anyone else interested in fighting for our jobs through lobbying please let me know and I will add you to the list.
That's all for this week,
Bob
