PBGC oversight lacking

More disheartening news about our retirement security can be found here.

Do you really control your 401k?

Here is an interesting article which discusses 401k theft by employers. There are some safeguards discussed including being diligent in watching your account. No one likes to think this could happen to them, myself included, but the practical side of me thinks it's time to follow the advice in the article.

Airlines may benefit from FINREG

Here is a link to the article. The new law may stop the wild swings in fuel prices by limiting speculators from hedging when they have no intention of taking delivery.

IAD JBA (third step) results

IAD had three cases scheduled for this Friday's JBA and all three have been resolved prior to presentation before the Board.

First was a case of seniority rights during a RIF. There was a question as to whether Art X J 2 was properly applied. After further review with the Company it was clear they followed the correct procedures and the grievance was therefore withdrawn.

Second was a case of bypass for EFS per LOA 69-1. This grievance was in regards to qualifications for a domestic GEM mission and was settled with a stop practice and partial payment.

Last was a case of unreasonable restrictions placed on the Art XX Personal Physicians Certification process by an Agent of the Company. This was the question before the Board; "Did the Company violate Article XX of the Agreement when it allowed its agent to add undue restrictions on the membership by requiring a physician to certify compliance with the law prior to recognizing an employee's physician for on the job injuries? If the Company did violate the Agreement, what then shall be the remedy?" This grievance was settled prior to the Board with an agreement that Doctors would not be required, by the Company or Corvel, to sign a form stating that they would follow the law of the state in which they were certified.

There are still cases on the docket for Friday, but none for IAD. The only cases currently waiting for the JBA from IAD are in regards to outsourcing of PV work. Currently these cases are being held in abeyance. There are approximately seven cases that are waiting second step answers and if denied, they will be moved to the third step.

I'll be in Chicago on Thursday and Friday for the east region JBA, and next week I'll be in San Francisco for negotiations.

That's all for now,

Bob

Ready for space flight?

It looks like a successful test for the first crewed sub-orbital flight by Virgin Galactic. According to the article tourism is the targeted market. From the comments section a person states this mode of transportation puts any destination within 45 minutes and further states FedEx did a study on the package delivery aspect of sub orbital flight. I'm sure this will take several years to get started, and it will probably decades into the future before this is a commercially viable mode of transportation, but I wonder how it this will impact the industry and our careers. After taking the 16 hour flight to Mumbai, I could certainly see why passengers would favor this option.

More 787 delays?

Here is the article. The plane may not be delivered until 2011.

And now for some good news

This is some decent industry news and has been predicted for a while. This is certainly good news for negotiations.

Help for a friend

An old friend emailed me the other day asking for some help for one of his students. She is working on her thesis and the subject is the outsourcing of maintenance. If you could, please take the time to fill out this survey. An excerpt of the email follows;

I was wondering if you can spare a few minutes and fill out a survey for one of my students. She is diligently working on her thesis and needs some feedback from seasoned veterans. The survey contains 22 questions and should take 3-5 minutes to complete. It is related to a topic very close to our hearts . . . . . the outsourcing of maintenance.

Please feel free to forward the link to anyone that may be interested in helping this young lady compile information for her research.

Please keep in touch!

Thanks, I truly appreciate it.

Mitch

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/thesissurvey-peggypierce

Dulles report

General Items

I apologize for the lack of information lately. The work required to determine which provisions we need from our agreement to move to the CAL agreement template has been taking up large amounts of time. This is an arduous process, but I'm hopeful both that we will realize a positive outcome from this exercise, and that it will be completed soon. With that said, this report, for the foreseeable future, will be the Dulles report as opposed to the Weekly report.

Negotiations are continuing and the official report can be found by following the link at the top of the page. Also as we are using the CAL agreement as a template, as well as taking the better clauses from our agreement, I would highly recommend you read both. They can both be found here.

Jock Creach from Seattle posted a very interesting article about 2009 airline employment numbers on the
IBT SEA blog. It's a good read, although it is also depressing.

MM

All open second steps were heard this afternoon. Several of these grievances are to be sustained in bench decisions. There are three third step grievances waiting for the JBA next week and I will report on them after the hearings unless resolution is reached prior to the Board.

GQ

The new manager, Tom Polka, reported this week. I met him Monday. Initial impressions from the floor appear favorable.

PV

There was an impromptu meeting with Brandon this afternoon. We discussed a few open items in the shop such as qualifications, overtime and parking. I would characterize this meeting as productive.

That's all for now,

Bob

Merger Update Page

The Airline Division has a Merger Update page on their site for news surrounding the merger. The page can be found here. Thanks to Local 210 BA Ralph Salzano for sending this information. There is a link on the right side of the page for merger information in the news.

Quick update

We are in negotiations this week until Friday. The official negotiations update will be out at the end of the week, and can be found by following the link at the top of the page.

An interesting side note to these proceedings; I was talking to an official from the IAM last week and he informed me that they had been essentially slowed down by the Company because of the uncertainty regarding the issue of which Union would be representing the ramp employees after the merger. Because our situation is obviously much different, the Company is working with us and we are making progress.

Happy Independence Day

Wishing you and yours a Happy Independence Day. I hope you get to enjoy some time with family and friends today to celebrate the birth of our Nation.