I would like to continue to encourage you to contact your representatives if you have not done so regarding the moratorium. Many members have already contacted their representatives and have received positive responses. Unfortunately this provision did not make it into House Bill HR-1, but there are still two more chances for it's addition. First the Senate could add it to their version, or it could be added when the House and Senate meet in the Conference Committee. So if you haven't already acted please do so this week. One piece of positive legislative news can be found here.
In MM this week Brian Botje and Jay Koreny volunteered to take the vacant afternoon shift shop stewards spots. All the new mechanics have reported and will be begin working their assigned shifts this week. There was a problem with the way the shakedown occurred and I will be meeting with Nina and Dave Nash early Monday morning to resolve this issue. It looks like this mistake will change about five or so mechanics shift assignments. After talking to the company they are still working on securing the Hangar facility as well as potential outside financial assistance for the new addition.
For both GQ and PV this week the company newsreel addressed possible farming out of this work in nine line stations. Airline Division Director David Bourne wrote a letter that was attached to the Teamsters week in review regarding this matter. If you don't get this important update let me know and I will forward you one so you can sign up. When I know more about this I will pass it on.
In GQ this week the company came up with an idea of providing a truck equipped with a compressor and stocked with fluids for ramp personnel to service equipment instead of the normal user checks. On Friday I left messages with management to let them know I feel this is a violation of Art. II of the contract as this would be performed more than occasionally. Also we have mechanics on layoff that could do this work.
In PV this week I addressed the Lead opening grievance with the manager. Steve thought my interpretation of the language was unfair and would like to research this issue further. Article XI, I is very clear on how this grievance should be resolved and I will continue to pursue it.
Many members had questions regarding the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Fund. Here is their webpage. Of note is the level of funding from the last auditors report. The WCT was funded at 99.3% in March 2008 up from 95.8% the previous year.
On our conference call this week we addressed several items. The report from TAMC was that they will be starting a regular news letter soon. Recently the TAMC have been involved heavily in lobbying for mechanic issues and organizing mechanic units in the industry. Also the Panasonic greivance will be heard towards the end of February. We were informed the ARSA will be lobbying for expanded overseas outsourcing in the coming months. For those that weren't present last year when this group presented at the Teamsters outsourcing summit, they are the enemy. Here is their website. I would guess if they are on the Hill we will get the call to be there also countering ARSA's positions.
Just a couple of other issues. The first one is, based on member requests, that I will put another jacket order together. If you are interested please e-mail me the size you need as well as the name if any you would like put on it. Then please fill out a check for thirty five dollars made out to the local and I will send them in. For the laid off mebers I am getting ready to send in another batch of withdrawal cards. If you haven't yet filled one out you can do so and give it to someone to bring in and I will send them off. For the previously laid off members have you recieved yours yet? If not please let me know and I will call the local to check your status. As far as Continental news there was a small article on when they will join the Star Alliance. It can be found here.
That's all for this week,
Bob
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Weekly report 1-25-9
Hello All, This is going to be a relatively short report.
Last week the Steering Committee met in San Francisco to discuss contract proposals. This meeting was hosted by Locals 856/986 in San Bruno. There were representatives from all over the country present. As you can imagine there were many proposals and many different ideas on how to move forward. I was pleased with the process as each proposal was thoroughly vetted before moving to the next one. The committee attacked each Article line by line with the goal of tightening and clearing up language that dates back to 1947. While we made progress more work is definitely needed. We will meet again in the beginning of February to continue this work.
We were informed that an official negotiations progress website will be set up. This website will be interactive and will include the current update as well as a link to communicate with the Negotiating Committee. When the website is up and running I will post a link on the blog as well as the website.
I did talk to local management this week about the hangar and it is still in the works.
Last week I forgot to mention that the PV grievance for the lead opening was rescheduled for tomorrow January 26th at 3pm.This was due to an unexpected event that the new manager had to deal with.
That's all for this week,
Bob
Last week the Steering Committee met in San Francisco to discuss contract proposals. This meeting was hosted by Locals 856/986 in San Bruno. There were representatives from all over the country present. As you can imagine there were many proposals and many different ideas on how to move forward. I was pleased with the process as each proposal was thoroughly vetted before moving to the next one. The committee attacked each Article line by line with the goal of tightening and clearing up language that dates back to 1947. While we made progress more work is definitely needed. We will meet again in the beginning of February to continue this work.
We were informed that an official negotiations progress website will be set up. This website will be interactive and will include the current update as well as a link to communicate with the Negotiating Committee. When the website is up and running I will post a link on the blog as well as the website.
I did talk to local management this week about the hangar and it is still in the works.
Last week I forgot to mention that the PV grievance for the lead opening was rescheduled for tomorrow January 26th at 3pm.This was due to an unexpected event that the new manager had to deal with.
That's all for this week,
Bob
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Weekly report 1-19-9
I would like to thank all of you for your participation in the contract proposal process. There are several hundred forms covering a wide range of deficiencies with the current agreement from a large majority of our local membership. As I'm sure you could guess the great majority of these proposals dealt with pay, pension and benefit issues. There were also many other proposals dealing with grievance time lines, discipline issues, adding a definitions Article, and scope language. Many proposals asked that we start by demanding all concessions made during bankruptcy be returned. I will bring all of these proposals forward to the steering committee next week. The Teamsters break up negotiations into two distinct areas, and they are non-monetary and monetary. A large majority of our proposals fall into the latter category and will be discussed during the second half of negotiations. In addition to proposals from the floor there are also quite a few proposals from the committee office. I'm working up a more detailed report of all of the proposals and will try to post it next week or most likely the last week of January because of the limited amount of computer time I will have as a result of traveling. I would expect the steering committee proposals will be posted similar to the CAL team on the Teamsters website. Here is the Continental proposal.
For MM this week I talked with Don about the hangar and it still looks like they are moving forward with their plans. I asked Don if anyone from legislative affairs had asked if there was money available, State or Federal, to offset the initial cost of construction of the hangar and he said he would look into it. I also asked our Local if we might be able do the same thing on our side. George Miranda e-mailed me tonight and we will discuss it further next week. The company was going to deny GQ tests to three individuals because they felt time lines had been violated. Labor relations felt differently and told the company to review the files of these three individuals to see if they had the background that would afford them the right to test. There were a couple of issues with the new transfers regarding off station training that I believe were resolved but I will check on Monday. If any of you have rooms to rent I think there are still a couple folks looking for places.
For GQ this week one of the MM guys passed the test and will be reporting to that shop around the 26th. There was an answer on the bid form grievance and it was denied. I'm going to talk to Bob Luciano in San Fran next week about this issue to get direction moving forward.
In PV this week I received a denied grievance on the vacation rules. As I agreed to the rule that was grieved I don't believe it can be moved forward into the second step. It is my opinion that this was a very good set of rules for the shop, but I have asked Bob to look at this issue.
I'm told the overseas outsourcing issue will be added to the Teamsters Take Action page soon. For those of you that read the 258 page stimulus package, you did not see our issue in there. This is because what is on the internet is the spending package from the Appropriations Committee and not the full bill. Here is a copy if you have not seen it. The Speaker should add our provision as the bill hits the floor of the House. Jack Albertine provided that information when I asked him after not seeing our provision in the bill.
Both the company and the Union have provided briefs to the Arbitrator regarding the twenty percent grievance. They can both be found here about midway down the page. I know it's a long dry read but there is alot of good information in them.
That's all for this week,
Bob
For MM this week I talked with Don about the hangar and it still looks like they are moving forward with their plans. I asked Don if anyone from legislative affairs had asked if there was money available, State or Federal, to offset the initial cost of construction of the hangar and he said he would look into it. I also asked our Local if we might be able do the same thing on our side. George Miranda e-mailed me tonight and we will discuss it further next week. The company was going to deny GQ tests to three individuals because they felt time lines had been violated. Labor relations felt differently and told the company to review the files of these three individuals to see if they had the background that would afford them the right to test. There were a couple of issues with the new transfers regarding off station training that I believe were resolved but I will check on Monday. If any of you have rooms to rent I think there are still a couple folks looking for places.
For GQ this week one of the MM guys passed the test and will be reporting to that shop around the 26th. There was an answer on the bid form grievance and it was denied. I'm going to talk to Bob Luciano in San Fran next week about this issue to get direction moving forward.
In PV this week I received a denied grievance on the vacation rules. As I agreed to the rule that was grieved I don't believe it can be moved forward into the second step. It is my opinion that this was a very good set of rules for the shop, but I have asked Bob to look at this issue.
I'm told the overseas outsourcing issue will be added to the Teamsters Take Action page soon. For those of you that read the 258 page stimulus package, you did not see our issue in there. This is because what is on the internet is the spending package from the Appropriations Committee and not the full bill. Here is a copy if you have not seen it. The Speaker should add our provision as the bill hits the floor of the House. Jack Albertine provided that information when I asked him after not seeing our provision in the bill.
Both the company and the Union have provided briefs to the Arbitrator regarding the twenty percent grievance. They can both be found here about midway down the page. I know it's a long dry read but there is alot of good information in them.
That's all for this week,
Bob
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Unification
Hello Everyone,
At the craft meetings today we talked about the possible re-unification of the Labor Unions in the country. Here is a link to the story from the New York Times.
Bob
At the craft meetings today we talked about the possible re-unification of the Labor Unions in the country. Here is a link to the story from the New York Times.
Bob
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Weekly report 1-10-9
Hello Everyone,
This will be a long update. Please bear with me as there is alot of information this week.
Friday we had the Business Agents and Coordinators conference call. We discussed the layoffs and the need for updated clear language to guide the layoff process. There were a couple of seniority issues discussed including the proper application of the Consent Decree among the various classifications covered by the CBA as well as the continuing problems with testing for the different skills within our Agreement. Both issues are being researched further. We are meeting in San Francisco the week of the 19th for the purpose of discussing contract proposals.
On Thursday a delegation including the Albertine Lobbying Firm, Pilots from the APA, Pilots from IBT Local 1224, and myself, spent all day on Capitol Hill discussing the addition of a one year moratorium regarding the overseas outsourcing of aircraft maintenance. We met with several Congressional Staffers for Senators and Representatives, as well as the Chief Counsel for the House Committee on Labor. There is an opportunity for you to help in this effort. I would ask that you please call your Senators and Representatives regarding this issue and ask them to support the addition of a moratorium to the stimulus package. Several of our members have already done so and have received positive responses from their Representatives. Here is a link to find all of your Reps on one page. Here is a link to a Lou Dobbs report on overseas aircraft maintenance outsourcing. Please pass this link on to everyone in your contact list and ask them to support us in this effort by contacting their Reps to request the addition of the moratorium to the stimulus package. We also discussed the inclusion of our members into the Trade Adjustment Act, and I was informed this measure passed the House in the last session and they expect it will again, but it doesn't hurt to remind them of this issue when you are the phone with your Representatives. Unfortunately this did not pass in the Senate last session but there is hope it will pass in this session. If this can be passed it would include members laid off up to one year previous to passage.
In MM this week I talked to Don Burbank regarding the hangar and he tells me it is still in the works. He has several sets of plans regarding the addition of a two bay wide body hangar to the existing ACA hangar. The company is in the process of trying to secure the lease on the hangar at this point. Of the current 4 second steps I was able to settle two regarding bypasses and securing of the exceptions for holiday reductions. The other two will be scheduled soon. This week after reading Article X of the Agreement I informed the midnight shift that the people bumping in would be forced to the vacancies or to bump to the positions of the people displaced. After further review I found that this was an incorrect interpretation and that the people coming in will be able to utilize their seniority upon arrival, bumping to the shifts they can hold. This was an issue of literal interpretation vs the intent of the language, and what I found was that some stations did it per the literal interpretation in the eighties. A few of those situations were grieved and the resulting decisions were in favor of the intent of the language instead of the literal interpretation. I apologize for any confusion on this issue.
For GQ this week Al Ritenour moved to dayshift creating an afternoon shift Steward vacancy. Robert Lavenuta volunteered to take this spot, and after conferring with Bob Luciano, Robert was appointed to the position. Al will remain a Steward on dayshift along with Joe Filice. Robert filed a grievance this week on the shift bidding process that recently took place and we are waiting on an expected denial.
For PV this week I got in touch with the new manager. We will be discussing the lead opening grievance on Thursday at 1pm.
The craft meetings will be this coming Wednesday the 14th in the Airport Managers Office Conference Room B. Contract proposal forms can be found here.
That's all for this week,
Bob
This will be a long update. Please bear with me as there is alot of information this week.
Friday we had the Business Agents and Coordinators conference call. We discussed the layoffs and the need for updated clear language to guide the layoff process. There were a couple of seniority issues discussed including the proper application of the Consent Decree among the various classifications covered by the CBA as well as the continuing problems with testing for the different skills within our Agreement. Both issues are being researched further. We are meeting in San Francisco the week of the 19th for the purpose of discussing contract proposals.
On Thursday a delegation including the Albertine Lobbying Firm, Pilots from the APA, Pilots from IBT Local 1224, and myself, spent all day on Capitol Hill discussing the addition of a one year moratorium regarding the overseas outsourcing of aircraft maintenance. We met with several Congressional Staffers for Senators and Representatives, as well as the Chief Counsel for the House Committee on Labor. There is an opportunity for you to help in this effort. I would ask that you please call your Senators and Representatives regarding this issue and ask them to support the addition of a moratorium to the stimulus package. Several of our members have already done so and have received positive responses from their Representatives. Here is a link to find all of your Reps on one page. Here is a link to a Lou Dobbs report on overseas aircraft maintenance outsourcing. Please pass this link on to everyone in your contact list and ask them to support us in this effort by contacting their Reps to request the addition of the moratorium to the stimulus package. We also discussed the inclusion of our members into the Trade Adjustment Act, and I was informed this measure passed the House in the last session and they expect it will again, but it doesn't hurt to remind them of this issue when you are the phone with your Representatives. Unfortunately this did not pass in the Senate last session but there is hope it will pass in this session. If this can be passed it would include members laid off up to one year previous to passage.
In MM this week I talked to Don Burbank regarding the hangar and he tells me it is still in the works. He has several sets of plans regarding the addition of a two bay wide body hangar to the existing ACA hangar. The company is in the process of trying to secure the lease on the hangar at this point. Of the current 4 second steps I was able to settle two regarding bypasses and securing of the exceptions for holiday reductions. The other two will be scheduled soon. This week after reading Article X of the Agreement I informed the midnight shift that the people bumping in would be forced to the vacancies or to bump to the positions of the people displaced. After further review I found that this was an incorrect interpretation and that the people coming in will be able to utilize their seniority upon arrival, bumping to the shifts they can hold. This was an issue of literal interpretation vs the intent of the language, and what I found was that some stations did it per the literal interpretation in the eighties. A few of those situations were grieved and the resulting decisions were in favor of the intent of the language instead of the literal interpretation. I apologize for any confusion on this issue.
For GQ this week Al Ritenour moved to dayshift creating an afternoon shift Steward vacancy. Robert Lavenuta volunteered to take this spot, and after conferring with Bob Luciano, Robert was appointed to the position. Al will remain a Steward on dayshift along with Joe Filice. Robert filed a grievance this week on the shift bidding process that recently took place and we are waiting on an expected denial.
For PV this week I got in touch with the new manager. We will be discussing the lead opening grievance on Thursday at 1pm.
The craft meetings will be this coming Wednesday the 14th in the Airport Managers Office Conference Room B. Contract proposal forms can be found here.
That's all for this week,
Bob
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Denver Continental Slideshow
I found this on the Planebuzz blog. Here is a slideshow of the Continental aircraft that slid off the runway in Denver
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Weekly report 1-4-9
Hello Everyone,
This week dealt mainly with layoff issues. As most of you may know we lost 10 people from Dulles through the secondary bumps. These individuals have started to receive their paper package from the company already, and will work their last day on Saturday January 24th. If anyone would like to know how the process unfolded I will explain it to you. There were more questions about the Consent Decree this week. Thanks to Larry Calhoun, IBT Coordinator from New York, there is now a summary of the amended decree on the website. It can be found here.
For MM, in addition to the individuals bumped we are also seeing an increase in manpower of 29 people. From what I understand there will be openings on all shifts so please update your preferences in ESS. Two grievances were elevated to the second step last week and hearings have not yet been scheduled. The third step for improper layoff has not been scheduled despite many attempts, including a face to face meeting in San Francisco. This is an ongoing problem and the IBT lawyer is working to help us remedy the issue. I will review all of our options with Bob Luciano. This is also an excellent area for improvement in the agreement, and I will be making the appropriate proposals, and I hope to see many proposals on the grievance procedure from you as well.
For GQ/PV this week each department now reports to a new manager. I am familiar with the new manager for GQ but as yet I have not met the new PV manager.
For GQ I was told by one of the members on Friday that the company has not lived up to the previous agreement regarding the bid forms. I will follow up on that this week.
For PV I will be looking for the new manager to schedule the open second step. In addition a Steward informed me that the company is reneging on the vacation rules so I will address this with the new manager as well.
This weekend I added several Industry Agreements to the website bringing the total to 34. They can be found here. If you see something you would like to have added to our agreement you can then fill in a proposal form and submit it at the Craft Meeting on the 14th of January in Conference Room B of the Airport Managers Office. You can also drop them off at the committee office located at D10.
I hope you all have a Happy and Healthy New Year.
That's all for this week,
Bob
This week dealt mainly with layoff issues. As most of you may know we lost 10 people from Dulles through the secondary bumps. These individuals have started to receive their paper package from the company already, and will work their last day on Saturday January 24th. If anyone would like to know how the process unfolded I will explain it to you. There were more questions about the Consent Decree this week. Thanks to Larry Calhoun, IBT Coordinator from New York, there is now a summary of the amended decree on the website. It can be found here.
For MM, in addition to the individuals bumped we are also seeing an increase in manpower of 29 people. From what I understand there will be openings on all shifts so please update your preferences in ESS. Two grievances were elevated to the second step last week and hearings have not yet been scheduled. The third step for improper layoff has not been scheduled despite many attempts, including a face to face meeting in San Francisco. This is an ongoing problem and the IBT lawyer is working to help us remedy the issue. I will review all of our options with Bob Luciano. This is also an excellent area for improvement in the agreement, and I will be making the appropriate proposals, and I hope to see many proposals on the grievance procedure from you as well.
For GQ/PV this week each department now reports to a new manager. I am familiar with the new manager for GQ but as yet I have not met the new PV manager.
For GQ I was told by one of the members on Friday that the company has not lived up to the previous agreement regarding the bid forms. I will follow up on that this week.
For PV I will be looking for the new manager to schedule the open second step. In addition a Steward informed me that the company is reneging on the vacation rules so I will address this with the new manager as well.
This weekend I added several Industry Agreements to the website bringing the total to 34. They can be found here. If you see something you would like to have added to our agreement you can then fill in a proposal form and submit it at the Craft Meeting on the 14th of January in Conference Room B of the Airport Managers Office. You can also drop them off at the committee office located at D10.
I hope you all have a Happy and Healthy New Year.
That's all for this week,
Bob
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