General Items
The big news this week was the decision on the twenty percent outsourcing. I was as disappointed as everyone else in this answer, but I was not surprised. The reason I was not surprised had nothing to do with the facts of the case. To me a major change in the interpretation of the scope of the agreement can never be done by an informal meeting without a signed LOA or some other documentation. This should have been a slam dunk, so why was I not surprised by the decision? Having been involved with several arbitrations as well as attending a Labor Arbitration Institute conference with Ken Bater years ago, I learned that you can never predict how an Arbitrator will rule. At the Arbitration Institute conference there were seven Arbitrators that sat on a panel and they were presented with ten previously ruled upon cases. There was always a split in their mock decisions on these cases no matter how one-sided a case seemed. The closest the panel ever came to unanimous was a six to one split. As to actual cases I have seen cases the Union should have won, yet the Arbitrator ruled the other way as well as vice versa. The point here is that this is an imperfect system and our grievance procedure does not help matters. Our third step is broken in that it only gives the Company one more shot to solidify their case before presenting to an Arbitrator. If we could eliminate the current third step of the procedure and replace it with a System Board of Adjustment that is overseen by a panel of four people two from the Company and two from the Union I believe we could strike a fair balance. I don't see this as a system where the Union wins every grievance, but rather a chance to have four responsible people review the facts of the case before proceeding to arbitration. A case that would have been perfect for the Board of Adjustment was decided in New York this week. This discharge was discussed in a previous weekly report. There is zero chance that four sane people using reason and common sense could come to the same biased decision as the third step hearing officer. In fact the decision was merely a regurgitation of the IRH decision and as stated previously the hearing was done not for the purpose of seeking facts or giving a fair hearing but rather for solidifying a rather poor decision in an effort to get their story straight to present to an Arbitrator.
The twenty percent grievance brings one other point to the forefront. That is negotiations are not just about the money, language also matters. Clear unambiguous contract language cannot be achieved one hundred percent of the time. However, when the membership understands the seriousness of effective language it gives the Negotiating Committee greater power to achieve this goal.
If you receive the Teamsters "Week in Review" you know that the new Airline Division site is up and running. The new forum section is up but still under development and I look forward to using this tool to discuss important issues as well as to provide feedback to our leadership. The site requires a free registration to access all information.
There were a couple of interesting articles out this week. The first deals with Social Security and when to collect, and the next two are about a possible bankruptcy filing at United Airlines. The first of these seems to think it will happen and the second finds it unlikely. All three of these articles can be found in previous blog posts. Speaking of possible bankruptcies in the airline industry the first article in the "Week in Review" talked about attempting to remove us from 1113 of the bankruptcy code so that we can be treated the same as rail workers.
Negotiations will continue this week in San Francisco and next week in Denver.
MM
In MM this week the shakedown for the Cabin Crew occurred. The Cabin Crew Subcommittee is still working on this issue so there may be some changes coming. The committee had a conference call on Friday and we will be meeting with Tim Canavan to show how a ten hour day could work with this crew. There are members from all the Hubs on this committee, as that is where the work will be performed.
GQ
Because of the shakedown two additional spots were created and it looks like there will be two people recalled.
PV
Steve Loughman was on vacation this last week so I will need to meet with him this week to resolve some small issues in the shop.
That's all for now,
Bob
