Today we had our weekly conference call. In addition to all of the system Business Agents and Grievance Coordinators, David Bourne the Airline Division Director and Ed Gleason our Legal Counsel were also on the call this week. David told us there would be a meeting in Chicago next week with the company to discuss the January layoffs. We were also told it appeared there would be Hearings on Capitol Hill regarding the aviation outsourcing issue in Representative Oberstar's committee. A link to this committee can be found here.
A couple of issues came up this week regarding "Consent Decree Seniority". The consent decree was entered in the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division and amended in 1976. This decree was issued because the company and the IAM were, according to the court, engaged in discriminatory behavior that denied minorities advancement opportunities within the company. The result of all of this for us is that Article X dealing with seniority largely no longer applies. The last two pages of the Agreement give a short synopsis of the decree. For most of us,anyone hired prior to July 2, 1965, decree seniority is used for purposes of layoff and recall. This is for both basic and premium classifications. Also adjusted company seniority for people that have worked in promoted positions are covered. I know this may be a little confusing, and if you have questions about it please give me a call.
I talked with Mark Prpich (San Francisco Labor Relations) this week and I will be flying out to San Francisco help with the system shakedown process. This will be on December 30th and when I have an idea who will be affected here I'll call back and let those people know. Mark and I discussed that it would be hard to determine, prior to going through the actual selection sheets, who will be affected here.
In MM today in briefing Supervisor Jim Hagan informed us that core samples are to be taken of the ACA hangar floor to give a better idea of what is needed for the floor upgrade. Also I got word that the ESS grievances that were filed were paid on the first step.
In GQ/PV this week the people affected by the Baltimore bumps will have their last day. I will be sending in their withdrawal card applications on Monday.
For those of you that do not know, I will be on the negotiating committee. With that said when you finish contract proposals you can turn them into the office. The sooner the better as I do not have an exact timeline when proposals are due. If you use the fill in form you can e-mail them to me as well. Anyone that has not received copies of the proposal forms let me know.
That's all for this week,
Bob
