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
