Update

WEATHER POSTPONES NEGOTIATIONS

Due to inclement weather in Chicago, negotiations have been rescheduled for February 14, 15 and 16.

Latest negotiation update 1-27-11

This week in Chicago the Union and Company engaged in intense negotiations over the remaining open items. The parties made significant progress and have agreed to meet next week in an effort to make a final push to conclude negotiations.

Upcoming Negotiations:

Negotiations will continue February 1, 2011 in Chicago.

 

In attendance for the Union:
Airline Division: David Bourne, Clacy Griswold, Ed Gleason, Paul Alves IBT Benefits Department: John Slatery and Hemant Berry. IBT Actuary: Jim Holland (Cheiron Inc.) Negotiating Team: Kevin Giegoldt, Javier Lectora, Harvey Wright, Dominic Gully, Larry Calhoun, Dion Cornelius, Bob Fisher, George Graham, Roger Apana, Ramon Gonzalez, Ken Meidenger. Business Agents: John Hennelly, Dave Elmore, Dave Saucedo, Ralph Salzano, Rich Petrovsky, Paul Molenberg, Peter Finn

In attendance for the Company: Doug McKeen, Mike Bonds, Jim Keenan, Joe Ferreira, Bob Madigan, Marcel Delhommeau, Gary Kaplan, Kathy Cassley, Paul Darrow, Mark Prpich, Anita Davis, Anil Khorana, Kellee Allain, Anuj Singhal, Clint Stephen, Darren Fehring, Lincoln Lounsbury, Sue Rowan (Towers)

 

Outsourcing goes too far

Here is an article from Daily Finance talking about the continuing problems with the Boeing 787 and the decisions to outsource much of the work on this plane.

In other Boeing news, 1000 workers are to be laid off in southern California. Their Long Beach plant has gone from 20000 employees in 1990 according to the article to 7000 today. Here is the article.

Frontline report on outsourcing

If you weren't able to catch the original broadcast of the Frontline report "Flying Cheaper" it can be found
here. The report is close to eighteen minutes long and it highlights what those of us in the industry already know; and that is outsourcing will cost lives. This is video should be shared with everyone.

Dale Beetler

Jay Obst sent me this email today;

"To all:

Retired UAL mechanic Dale Beetler passed-away this Sunday morning, 16 January 2011 at 12:49am. Details for Dale's viewing and funeral will follow shortly"

When I get more info I'll pass it on.

EDIT: Jay sent the following information today,

To all:

Viewing for Dale Beetler will take place at Adams-Green Funeral Home. Visitation will be on Saturday January 22, 2011 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm. Adams-Green Funeral Home is located at 721 Eldon Street Herndon, VA 20170. Phone (703) 347-1764.

Per Dales’ request all are invited to a remembrance gathering at Omia’s Pub and Grill from 3:30pm until 6:00pm. Omia’s address is: 1015 Dranesville Road Herndon, VA (703) 444-6666.

Congrats Again Pittsburgh!

I have to admit I was fairly despondent at the end of the first half, but WOW what a comeback!

Seniority

In any collective bargaining agreement there are three basic tenets that must be achieved for the members. We need scope to define our work, seniority to award positions, and just cause to protect us from the whims of management. Of course there are many more things to be negotiated such as wages, benefits, and work rules but without those first three, everything that follows becomes worthless. Experienced unionists understand that these three things are the true "meat and potatoes" of any agreement. With that said I would like to take a moment to discuss only one of these, and that is seniority.

I recently received a couple of email trees that included what looks like an original post, followed by a comment by GT Davis, and then further commented on by Horse Tayles. In these messages is a claim that the IBT was allowing supervisors that didn't make the cut to return with "full seniority" and the original poster even added one of the contract provisions to decry the violation. The provision he missed, intentionally or otherwise, was the Consent Decree found on the last two pages of the agreement. In the Decree (which the IAM signed in the 1970's) item 1. d. it talks about promoted employees having their seniority adjusted pursuant to the seniority provisions of the agreement. So for us to believe the ludicrous claims found in the email which follows this paragraph, the IBT would have to change the seniority provisions in article ten, and then have to have the provision reapplied to all members that have had their seniority adjusted after Nov 1^st of 1969 or be in violation of Federal Decree. Of course this makes no sense at all, but there is no sense letting the facts get in the way of a good story. Brothers and Sisters seniority is sacred and needs to be treated as such. I challenge anyone involved in this following asinine email tree to either provide proof what is claimed has happened, or admit you lie for your own political gain. I won't hold my breath for either. Email tree follows;

--- On Tue, 1/11/11, Horse Tayles <horsetayles@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Horse Tayles <horsetayles@yahoo.com>
Subject: Fw: Bye bye seniority
To: horsetayles@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, January 11, 2011, 3:22 AM

Looks like the cheapsters are at it again. Giving away our seniority and violating our contract with another secret deal. This means when layoffs come a supervisor stays and a dedicated AMT or AET hits the street...And those on layoff suffer another organizing lie by the ibt.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: GT Davis <gtd53@comcast.net>
To: GT Davis <gtd53@comcast.net>
Sent: Fri, January 7, 2011 9:13:12 PM
Subject: FW:
Perhaps a closed door deal. What did we give up for this agreement? The ibt at work, and don't forget, don't make the company angry. Perhaps the ibt battle cry now should be, "kiss the company's ass."

To: gt davis
Subject:

Received confirmation the other day by our chief steward and business agent that UAL supervision WILL retain FULL seniority if not selected after their target selection process. They will be offered a position on the floor with FULL seniority. UAL-AMFA contract Article X chapter M paragraph 2 strictly states a mechanic getting a supervisory position will stop accruing after 6 months. Are the ibt letting UAL break the contract again???? It's happening here also.

Dulles report 1-8-11

All

I was finally able to convince the Company that a replacement is needed when I'm out of town. Jay Koreny is the Steward that will be performing this task. Jay has been training with me for a while and is doing a great job. When I'm not in town please direct your concerns to Jay. His email is arcangl7@aol.com.

As far as a grievance report we currently have three grievances waiting for third step and four grievances waiting for second step hearings. These grievances are all language violations and none are for discipline or discharge.

The Stewards had a conference call on Friday and we discussed the Joint Counseling program. If you're not aware, Joint Counseling is discussed in LOA 82-2 and its purpose is to try to address possible member issues prior to discipline being imposed. The idea is that the supervisor will tell the steward the concerns he has with a member, then the steward will talk with that member to determine if there is a legitimate concern and if there is, see if there are any factors that are contributing to the issue. After the steward and the member discuss the issue and determine whether or not there is a legitimate concern they then will discuss the matter with the supervisor. Nothing will be recorded in the member's file as a result of any of these sessions.

The last negotiation session in December went well and I am looking forward to getting back to the table. Like you, it is my hope that we finish soon, and it now seems like that is possible.

That's all for now,
Bob Fisher

AFCN Champs!

Congrats to the Steelers!