General Items
The big news this week was in regards to the negotiation session held in Chicago. The official update can be found by following the link at the top of the page. It was good to get that first Article TA'd. Much work went into it by both sides and hopefully real progress will continue.
A three hour tour of the northwest Chicago suburbs was provided after Monday's session. I now understand why that area doesn't have a huge tourist draw ;). Many thanks are due to Paul Stripling for his hospitality and good nature.
Health care reform continues to dominate the news. In a previous blog post I discussed my thoughts on the issue. Since that time I have begun to read the bill posted on the House of Representatives website. I have been approached and told page 5 or page 20 of the bill would require that if you lost your current policy you would be forced into the public option and never allowed to return to private insurance. After reading both pages I found what I originally assumed and that is no such requirement exists. It is surprising to me that "we the people" can be so easily misled. The very same groups that have led us to the brink of a great depression through poor policy decisions, denied us real health care reform in the early 90's, and were summarily removed from public office, continue to control the debate. How can that be? I think the short answer is fear and greed. There surely is more to this but these two emotions seem to drive this country's politics and policies to a large degree. The person responsible in large part for the propagation of the "death panel" argument was recently interviewed on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". Her name is Betsy McCaughey and even though Jon is a comedian this is worth watching. For those that remember Betsy from the early 90's she wrote "No Exit" criticizing the Clinton health care plan. Andrew Sullivan then editor of "The New Republic" stated after this highly acclaimed piece was used widely by conservatives in framing the debate "I was aware of the piece's flaws but nonetheless was comfortable running it as a provocation to debate." The source for this is Wikipedia. As you know reform was defeated and here we are 16 years later trying to repair what should have been repaired at that time. Instead we are listening to the same jackasses that misled us before. They say a lie can travel around the world before the truth has a chance to get out of bed. I believe that and here is a video of the National Health Care Forum discussing the issues in a common sense manner. It is over an hour long but worth watching.
In a follow-up to a report on a discharge from the New York point, Larry Calhoun submitted the case for arbitration. Larry did a great job on the submission and I still feel certain this member will be returned to work. Speaking of arbitration submissions BA Paul Molenberg posted a submittal for discipline regarding sick time usage. It is well written and worth the read.
MM
The Cabin Crew Subcommittee is scheduled to meet with the Company this coming Thursday the 27th to discuss the ten hour day for this group. This meeting will be attended by all L1 managers as well as our committee, several BA's and Intl Airline Rep Clacy Griswold. I'm looking forward to this presentation as I feel we have a good argument for this schedule.
A question arose regarding overtime payment while on field service. The answer to the question can be found in Article IX A, of the agreement. When on field service away from your home station hours worked during your normal shift will be paid at the straight time rate, and hours outside of your normal shift will be paid at the applicable overtime rate.
The Company is bringing in an Inspector from San Francisco in early September to test the senior bidders for the second afternoon shift slot.
GQ/PV
The Outsourcing Committee held a conference call today led by Greg Sullivan from San Francisco. The obvious goal of this committee is to preserve jobs. There was a good discussion from every hub station representative and I will report more on this as it develops.
That's all for now,
Bob
