More merger speculation from our CEO

An interesting story interviewing UAL CEO Glenn Tilton regarding industry consolidation in the London Financial Times can be found here. According to Mr. Tilton the airlines have raised sufficient capital to weather the roughly 18 months a merger requires to become profitable. He also speculates on the future price of oil. It's an interesting read. If you want to open the article more than once you will have to register, but it's free.

No weekly report

As I was out of town in negotiations there will be no weekly report.

I was approached in San Francisco and asked if the jacket order was systemwide? The answer is no this is just for members of Local 210. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

In a related story to the last blog post here is an article from USA Today on 401k plans. Like the one from Time it is worth the read.

Another article I read on the USA Today's website dealt with the state of the travel industry. The premise of the article was there seemed to be a bottoming of travel and a slight increase in travel spending. Here is a link to that article.

Make sure you read the negotiation update by following the link at the top of the page.

That's all for now,

Bob

Interesting 401k article

My wife bought an issue of Time© Magazine recently because she believed I would be interested in the 401k article it contained. She was correct and this is definitely an article of interest to us all as we strive to regain a defined benefit pension plan. For those that believe the 401k is the best option I suggest you read this article found online and titled "Why It's Time to Retire the 401k".

Outsourcing

This article was passed on to me this afternoon and I know you will be interested in it. It is a fantastic article from NPR on aircraft maintenance outsourcing. It shines a light on the problems with outsourcing our work overseas and part two is scheduled out soon.

Oil speculation

In yesterday's weekly report I wrote about my concern with the oil market and the speculation that was causing a bubble. On CNBC this morning an analyst was predicting that oil would rise to $109 a barrel soon on dollar fears. Here is an article describing the problem. As I stated last night it is well past time to regulate these transactions. Here is a link to the House of Representatives and here is a link to the Senate. Please write to your members of Congress to express your concern that this speculative activity will kill any recovery for the airlines.

Weekly report 10-18-09

General Items

As reported last week I will be doing a jacket order soon. If you are interested please e-mail me with the name you would like embroidered on it, your size and then I will need a check for $35 made out to IBT Local 210. I will also do a t-shirt order if anyone is interested.

Oil continued its upward climb last week with no fundamentals to support it. I have become increasingly worried that a bubble in oil similar to last summer is brewing. Apparently the OPEC's Secretary General feels the same way and here is an article on the issue. Last year we saw lobbying efforts from many different groups trying to regulate the speculation of commodities and I believe it is time we get active again. Please write your members of Congress asking for help with the regulation of commodities speculation or I fear we will see the same detrimental effects on the airline industry.

On Friday the IBT filed for an election on the Continental Fleet Service group. This group is unrepresented and a couple of Unions have attempted to organize them in the past several years.

One of our members had his badge deactivated in a dispute with a local security officer. This member is still out waiting for resolution. Tom Reid made a call to a friend we have in MWAA but that call has not been returned as of the writing of this report. A ramp person in the same circumstance was recently fined $100 and made to report to SIDA training after being out of work for several weeks. My advice would be anytime you are flying on a pass to get TSA initials on it showing you've been through security. I understand after talking to the midnight shift that the TSA will not validate your pass even if it's within 24 hours if it is the next calendar day. I would recommend in this case getting a ride back to the main terminal and going through security again prior to your flight to ensure that you are legal. I do not recommend going upstairs without having initials on your pass. I understand this is an inconvenience but it is better than being held out of service for several weeks or more while the TSA and MWAA sort out if what you did was proper.

The Company made changes to its procedure regarding harassment and discrimination. You will now be required to call the hotline as local management has been taken out of the process. A quick word of caution here as I've seen this process play out before. If you are going to make a claim like this make sure you have proof as filing false claims led to one discharge that I am aware of. The Union was not successful in getting this member returned to work afterwards. Also please be aware that these types of charges generally lead to others being caught up as people begin to turn on each other in an effort to either save themselves or to justify their actions. By no means am I telling you not to avail yourself of your rights but please if you go this route have your facts in order.

The next report will likely be short as I leave Tuesday morning for continued negotiations with the Company. As I've stated previously I believe this process will be extended, perhaps as long as two years from the beginning, based on previous sessions. The big reason for this is the Railway Labor Act. Here is a detailed description of how the Act affects us.

Dan Johnston SFO Coordinator sent me several old Arbitration cases regarding dependability which I am in the process of reviewing. We are slowly reclaiming our historical record. In addition the local IAM committee allowed us to scan their old cases onto disk. I appreciate this very much as past cases help determine future presentations in the grievance process.

MM

There was one RDO change that occurred this week as result of the Company missing a bid. The bid was in before the move and the Company fixed it without a grievance.

There is a question regarding the Leads on the midnight shift as to whether they are a special shift or simply another start time covered by the hours of service provisions of the agreement. I am researching this through our records and in addition I will also meet with Labor Relations to discuss the situation this week. If this is a special shift it will require a bid as a premium shift which could cause some forced changing of lead assignments.

Local management has agreed to tentatively have second steps the first week of November. There are four grievances waiting to be heard at this point.

GQ

One issue of equipment demarcation was resolved last week. The Company agreed that ramp personnel will no longer paint markings on equipment.

PV

There was much discussion within the shop as to whether last year's vacation rules should be renewed or a new set of rules negotiated. A Steward started a petition to change the rules but this is not needed. If a majority of the shop feels the rules should be changed they need to let the vacation committee know. The Committee consists of Bruce Wade, Brian Jensen, and John Jenkins.

That's all for this week,

Bob

 

 

Weekly report 10-11-09

General Items

A jacket order is being put together at this time. Anyone interested in ordering one should contact me with the size, embroidered name desired, and a check for thirty five dollars to Local 210. I will also order t-shirts if anyone is interested.

There are not a lot of department specific items to report this week as every day except Friday was spent in DC lobbying and negotiating. I felt both the lobbying effort and negotiations were productive. We achieved a major goal this week with the temporary implementation of a Board of Adjustment in place of the traditional third step of the grievance process. The idea is that this will facilitate the clearing of the approximately 300 backlogged grievances in a fair and expeditious manner. Instead of having one person from Labor Relations preside over the third step decision a board of four members, two from the Teamsters and two from the Company will control the process. Several other Teamster carriers use this process with great success. The official negotiations update can be found at the top of the page. The previous blog post deals with the lobbying efforts put forth.

The Negotiating Committee was scheduled to meet with President Hoffa on Thursday, but that never transpired. Instead President Hoffa was called to the White House on urgent business. It is refreshing change that the IBT has that type of access.

Bill Wilder is an attorney with the firm Baptiste&Wilder and he does some work for the Teamsters. For those that remember, Bill did the work on the 20% outsourcing grievance, and here is a copy of the brief he submitted on our behalf. The reason I bring this up is Bill also has an RLA blog that is quite interesting. He explores topical issues dealing with the RLA including his most recent piece on a possible substantial change in the election process governed by the NMB.

MM

Some items were brought to my attention on Friday. Among other things, there were problems with RDO choices and discipline was issued to one member with no actual violation being recorded on the form. The administrative problems were mostly cleared up and I have a meeting with Stuart on Monday to go over a few more.

GQ

I spoke with Greg at some length on Friday regarding the shop. They are reviewing the equipment and staffing similar to the process all hub stations are currently performing. At this point it's too early to make any reasonable guess as to the outcome, but I will keep you informed as we move forward.

PV

I met with the new Manager, Brandon, and we are trying to schedule a meeting to discuss open items in the shop.

That's all for now,

Bob

Lobbying on the Hill

Yesterday several members of the negotiating committee spent time on Capitol Hill talking to members of Congress. We were accompanied by Jack Albertine our lobbyist. Our main issue was the overseas outsourcing provisions in the House and Senate FAA Reauthorization bills. This trip was much different than previous trips as far as support for the single standard for aircraft maintenance. This is needed to create a level playing field for our profession. Every Representative was very supportive of this and understood the need for these provisions. The hope now is that the Senate will pass this bill prior to the end of the year and it can then proceed to a conference committee. The hope is that once it reaches the conference committee the House provisions will prevail as that version is viewed as a better provision by the IBT.

We also discussed the Express Carrier provision and found support for that as well. The final piece of legislation discussed was the Pilot Duty time safety bill introduced by Rep. Costello. This bill would limit duty times for regional pilots with the hope that this would reduce fatigue.

In the previous meetings there was a need to educate these Representatives on what we do and why we need this relief. It is obvious that the IBT spent a lot of time crafting our message and presenting it in a manner Congress could understand. Without the continual lobbying by the Airline Division I suspect we would not be as close as we are to final passage. Please take the time to contact your Senators and ask that the FAA Reauthorization bill is passed.

That's all for now,

Bob

Point system

I'm sure many of you have seen the details of the point system the IAM agreed to, but if you haven't here is a link to the LOU. In addition, there is much more information found here on the left side of the page. Of particular note is the Company's ability to opt out with notice to the Union, but there is no reciprocal agreement for the Union. This is understandable given that the Union conceded this language to save several hundred jobs in Chicago. It remains to be seen if this language will save that number of jobs systemwide however. The reason for this is simple. If you take all the people currently towards the upper end of discipline and give those members very narrow parameters to maintain employment then it is conceivable the job loss could be spread over the system as opposed to one large group from the Chicago Local. In short this letter was negotiated to save the Company money. That money must be saved in some manner and this would lessen the sting in Chicago. As you know the Union agreed to this without a vote of the membership. The goal of any Union is to preserve jobs with the best wages and work rules possible and we should expect or Bargaining Agent to do what it can to achieve this goal. However, when there is a concessionary fundamental change in the Agreement, especially something that has been continually ratified since 1982, the members should decide if this is in our best interests through a vote.

Area jobs

For anyone interested in employment in the Hagerstown area here is a story about the Sierra Nevada Corporation hiring 100 people. I don't know the scale of the salaries being offered, but according to the article "They're good paying jobs." They are looking to attract talent from around the country as they have just secured a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to retrofit high tech electronics on the Customs and Border Protection multirole aircraft.