Been a while

Hello Everyone,
It's been a while since this blog was updated. For United Mechanics and Related the parties return to the table this coming week in Las Vegas followed by a week apart and then returning the week of August 10th. Good progress was made in the last session and it is my hope that continues. I will try to start this blog back up, as time permits, to use as another communications tool.
Take care,
Bob

Sepecial Update

SPECIAL UPDATE

January 14, 2014 

On Monday, January 13^th, the TSA released its finalized US based repair station security rule. Significantly, because of the release, the moratorium placed by Congress on new certification of facilities has now been lifted. Lobbyists for the MRO industry including ARSA are now pushing for the FAA to quickly certify new facilities. 

As reported previously in the TAMC newsletter and the Mechanics Dispatch the Airline Division is strongly opposed to lifting the moratorium, especially in regards to foreign repair stations. The reason is clear; two previous and the most current DOT IG reports have shown that the FAA “Does not have an Effective Oversight process for Foreign and Domestic Repair Stations.” This is troubling given that there are currently 4700 domestic and 750 foreign repair stations. The TAMC has been on the Hill lobbying for some time that the moratoriums remain in place until the FAA has the ability to do what it was designed to do.

On Monday, the day the new rule was released a letter was sent to Administrator Huerta outlining our objections to any new certifications. That letter is attached for your review. In our view it is inconceivable that the government would further risk the lives of the flying public by burdening a system that historically has not been able to police itself. For ten years the Inspector General has been ringing the alarm bells about this oversight issue and that warning should not be ignored.  

What can you do about this? Get the word out, share this on social media, share this with your friends and family and finally ask everyone to write or call their members of Congress. We do not need more regulation in this industry paid for by the blood of the flying public.

Letter to FAA Administrator

Labor Day

My wife passed an article on to me titled “Combatting Negative Views of Unions: A Defense of Labor Studies”. The article was written several years ago by Victor G. Devinatz a professor of management in the Department of Management and Quantitative Methods at Illinois State University. He taught courses in labor relations and human resource management at the time this article was written. Here is a link to the article.

Professor Devinatz opines that it is time the history of the labor movement as well as what unions currently do should be taught in schools. This is a proposition I wholeheartedly endorse. The declining middle class can be linked directly back to a decline in the unionized workforce in this country. As the professor explains why this type of education is needed, he spells out why unionized workers are mostly thought of in disparaging ways. He points out that given union density it is unlikely that people learn about unions at home. For me that wasn’t true as my father was a Teamster for most of his working career and many of my relatives were also in unions. One of my early memories of unionism is when the janitors in my elementary school went on strike and the teachers supported them by refusing to clean the classrooms. I asked my father about it and he explained that all the janitors were trying to do was to improve their lives and the teachers were helping because in the future they would rely on support from the janitors when it was their turn to bargain. My dad went through a couple of strikes while I was growing up and he did very well for his family. I learned that it is much better to stick together than to stand alone, but to the professor’s point I didn’t really learn what unions do until I became a member in my late teens.

Well what do unions do? For all of my adult life I have been a member, steward or officer of various unions. Some of them were effective and some less so. What unions do of course is provide a sense of balance and security to the workforce. They do this by maintaining a grievance system that allows workers the right to a voice in the workplace that they normally wouldn’t enjoy. In addition they bargain collectively to provide fair compensation and benefits for work performed. Unions that vigorously protect their members rights through contract enforcement and negotiations while progressively attempting to ensure that they are ahead of technology are obviously more effective that those that do not. But that’s not all. As pointed out in the professor’s article unions also provide benefits to companies. Specifically the benefit of a happy secure workforce will produce more than one that is less happy and less secure. 

In an interesting aside the professor points out in his article the use of the word workforce can even come with negative connotations. After all who wants to be considered a worker, especially amongst college grads or professionals?  Well the truth of the matter is doctors, lawyers, teachers and nurses among other professions have organized segments. And really when you think about it why not? You do not need to be a professor of labor relations to understand that we all do better when we strive to achieve similar goals. Working together provides far more benefits than going it alone. Many of us would like to believe that’s not true but it is all the same. 

I applaud the professor for his insights in this article and hope his idea comes to pass. 

This Labor Day please take time to reflect on the real meaning of the holiday. A stronger labor movement ultimately means a stronger economy and a stronger country as a result. Never forget – ours is a noble and patriotic endeavor!

Happy Labor Day Brothers and Sisters.     

MX Dispatch 3-2-2013

Negotiation Update
March 2, 2013
Phase 1 Now Complete in Principal
The parties have now reached conclusion in principal on the entire agreement for non-economic Phase 1 issues. The work of crafting language will continue in parallel with the negotiation of Phase 2 economic discussions. The process of crafting language has been slow to this point and is a concern due to the fact we don’t want to end up in the same process as the pilots, where it takes several months after reaching a TA until all Articles are finalized. The Phase 2 economic discussions begin with information being exchanged between the parties’ actuaries regarding pension and health care solutions next week. The full committee will meet in Chicago next week, March 11th -15th.
Report of the Committee
This week’s meeting in Chicago found both sides able to find some room for further discussion on some of those issues that the sub committees previously determined to be Phase 2 items. In addition, the LoA subcommittee began discussing the Letters of Agreements with the assistance of NMB mediator Michael Kelleher. Long discussions between the Union and Company representatives found agreements to changes in many of the letters. It was determined that some LoA’s should be combined where the subjects were similar. It was further determined that some LoA’s were better suited in the main body of the Agreement and should be incorporated in corresponding Articles. Other LoA’s were determined to be an accurate reflection of the operation and should be kept in their entirety. Finally, some LoA’s were seen as no longer applicable and both sides agreed they could be omitted from the final agreement. The beginning of this time period saw the parties apart on several points, but by week’s end, the company moved towards understanding and agreeing with many of our arguments closing out the phase 1 LoA discussions.
Many of these letters of agreement offer further definitions or explanations to applicable articles, and some are stand alone agreements made for specific work groups or certain working conditions. It is the recommendation of the committee that when the tentative agreement is eventually complete, each member take a close read of these back of the book LoA’s when contemplating the CBA.
Benefits
Representing the Unions interests, the Actuaries from Cheiron along with Professional Economist Dan Akins met with the experts who will be advising the company on the benefits
packages including pension and medical plans. These talks were attended by representatives of management and the Union and included the attorneys from both sides. More information was exchanged and explained between the parties in an effort to lay some solid ground work once formal benefit discussions between the parties start the week of March 11th.
The full negotiating committee was updated on the information and subjects discussed by our attorney and all the outside experts of the subcommittee. It is the opinion of the Union professionals involved that there is a genuine interest by the company to come to an agreement and get this TA complete in the time frame suggested. While this opinion was indeed encouraging by the committee, some of the information shared was a little more disheartening although not necessarily completely unexpected. Negotiating economic packages which have several major components can be a frustrating and daunting task. With diligent preparation, however, surprises can be mitigated. The Committee is taking all the information offered and attempting to simplify the choices before them in an attempt to provide the best possible deal for the membership. We remain hopeful that our goals will be met.
Seniority Integration
A formal report of the rank and file seniority integration committee was prepared and signed by mediator Ralph Berger. This report will be used by the rank and file negotiating committee during phase 2. The report can be seen at the following link:
http://www.teamster.org/sites/teamster.org/files/IBT-United-SIC-RR_3-1-13.pdf
Furloughed members urged to update their addresses
Members on furlough are advised to keep their addresses current with the company while on layoff. It is predicted that there will be many movements this year and there have been several members that have been removed from the seniority list because old addresses were on file when notices were sent.
If you are in touch with a furloughed member, please forward this information to them. Updates may be emailed to: ESC@united.com . The ESC will provide a fax number and ask members to send the address change accompanied with a signature.

MX Dispatch 1-25-13

Negotiation Update

 The third consecutive week of meetings between the parties began on Monday January 21, 2013 with an internal union caucus. The purpose of the caucus was to discuss the activity of the previous two weeks and to assess the progress made to date. In addition, the negotiating committee discussed the recommendation of the seniority integration committee (SIC) and how that committee’s findings would impact bargaining moving forward. Once consensus was reached on how to proceed with the findings of the SIC the committee, the negotiating committee moved to preparation for this week’s session.

The parties worked on the following articles over the course of the week with the assistance of the NMB; Seniority, RIF and Recall, Field Trips, Overtime and Training. An Agreement in Principal on Phase 1 items was reached on Training and significant progress was made on the other articles. The parties were assisted this week by mediator Andy Nordgren. While not as many articles were agreed upon this week, a review of the progress shows that the parties have concluded Phase 1 discussions on approximately one half of the full agreement.

In attendance for the Union were rank and file negotiators Allen Cosides, Steve Olsen, Vinny Graziano, Jay Koreny-(Local 210), Anthony Ybarra, Joseph Prisco, John Pangelinan-(Local 986), Mike Moats-(Local 964), Mike Pecoraro-(Local 781), Paul Becerra-(Local 769), John Laurin-(Local 856) Mike Nerren, Jack Harran-(Local 19) and Mitch Hunt (Local 455). Business Agents Angel Cantu, Dave Saucedo, Ralph Salzano, Justin Muraki, Dave Elmore, and George Graham were also in attendance, with the Airline Division represented by Clacy Griswold, Paul Alves, Bob Fisher and attorney Ed Gleason.

FAA Paper Certificates Expire March 31 – Get Your Replacement!

For those of you who still hold a paper license, stop procrastinating. Your paper license will no longer be valid on March 31, 2013. That means you can’t work! The good news is that it’s easy FAA Paper Certificates Expire March 31 – Get Your Replacement!

For those of you who still hold a paper license, stop procrastinating. Your paper license will no longer be valid on March 31, 2013. That means you can’t work! The good news is that it’s easy and painless to replace and it only costs $2.00.

Click here to get your FAA Paper License Replacement.

All paper certificate holders cannot exercise the privileges of their PAPER certificates after March 31, 2013. This includes all certificates that are issued under 14 CFR Part 63 and 65.

14 CFR 63.15(d) and 65.15(d) reads:
Duration of certificates. Except for temporary certificates issued under §63.15 and 65.15, the holder of a paper certificate issued under this part may not exercise the privileges of that certificate after March 31, 2013.

Get your paper license replacement today.

If your airman certificate was issued after July 2003 and is a plastic certificate, it already meets the paper-to-plastic rule as specified in 14 CFR Parts 63 and 65 and you may disregard this notification.

For more information, contact TAMC Chairman and Airline Division International Representative Chris Moore at 202-409-6038.

Negotiations Update 1-18-2013

The following update was sent out on Friday. Look for all future updates to be both posted on the Airline Division site as well as through email via the Mechanics Dispatch.

The parties met for a second consecutive week of bargaining this week in Chicago. We tackled some of the more substantive phase 1 portions of the agreements. The articles discussed were Article 3 - Covered Crafts, Classifications, and Bid Areas; Article 4 - Seniority; Article 13 - Training; Article 7 - Hours of Service; Article 17 - Overtime; and Article 18 - Union Security and Representation.
Agreements in principle on non-economic issues were reached on Articles 7 and 17, and progress was made on the other four subjects. Also present at the start of this week’s session was Peter Hardcastle, a Cheiron actuary hired by the IBT to assist in these negotiations. Mr. Hardcastle was on hand for continued preliminary discussions on pension and other benefit-related matters.

Discussions will continue with the remaining articles when bargaining reconvenes on Monday for the third consecutive week. Originally this third week was going to be done without the aid of the mediators, however, considering our progress and at the parties’ request, a schedule change was managed and the NMB will be present during next week as well.

We will keep you updated as progress continues.

Seniority Integration Committee

The Seniority Integration Committee was called together to finalize the draft of suggestions for the Negotiating Committee. As we have made faster-than-expected progress, the Committee was called together to vote on and discuss any final remaining issues on the draft that has been building over the last few months. This draft will be a template to be used by the Negotiating Committee in resolving the many differences on the subject of seniority within the three groups. Discussions with the company on the seniority article began immediately after receiving the final draft.

One of the long anticipated information items, the combined Teamster Roster, was delivered from the company to the SIC during the meeting. The final task for the SIC is to look over the roster and make any necessary corrections. Some of this can begin immediately while other changes will require agreements in principle between the company and the union Negotiating Committee. It should be stressed that any of these changes or corrections will not be valid without a fully-ratified agreement voted on by the membership.

Negotiations Update

The negotiating committee began year 2013 with formal meetings the week of January 7^th. These meetings started off with a day and a half of training courtesy of the National Mediation Board. This Board required training for the expedited facilitated problem solving,  or FPS,  process placed the company and the union in the same room listening to course instruction lead by senior mediator Pat Sims assisted by mediator Michael Kelliher. The purpose of these exercises was to get negotiators familiar with facilitated problem solving. Training was well received by both parties and all participants including upper management and union leaders took part. 

 

The first step towards beginning the process is for the parties to come to an agreement of guidelines. This Protocol Agreement was completed by the parties just prior to the start of negotiations. The full protocol agreement can be found by visiting www.Teamsters.org and tabbing to the Airline Division section.

http://www.teamster.org/content/united-mechanics-negotiations-update-protocol-and-other-agreements-made

According to the agreement, these talks will be divided into two phases. The first phase is the reconciliation phase and will be the process of taking the differences in the contract books for the three companies and amalgamating them in to one. It is this first phase that will consume the majority of our initial meeting time with the company. To accomplish this phase, we have divided into small groups of negotiators and Business agents who are tasked with certain articles. These small groups meet with similar company groups and the two parties run down the entire article. In many cases the language is taken as is and agreements can be made immediately. Combining three contracts, however, will obviously bring about some points of disagreement.  

The points that are not immediately agreed to are worked out using the process taught through the training earlier in the week with the goal of resolving the differences. Each of these sub-committee meetings have been presided over by members of the Board to help move the process along. The specific articles discussed this week were Articles 2, 8, 9, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and the Savings Clause. 

In phase two of the negotiations the parties will discuss new work rules as well as the entire economic package. 

The progress that was made in these last few days ordinarily may have taken months and we look forward to continuing the sessions next week.  One Teamster resource that should not go unnoticed is the legal department. Our IBT legal representative, Ed Gleason, has been personally on hand and available during the entire process to help us when needed. The entire negotiating team has progressed with the help of his expertise and dedication.

Agreements in principle of non economic issues were reached on Definitions, Holidays, Vacations, Grievance Procedure, Arbitration, General and Miscellaneous, Apprentice Mechanics and Transportation. Negotiations are scheduled to resume next week in Chicago followed by the week of the 21^st. The week of the 28^th will be used for internal committee work. For the entire month of February the parties are scheduled to meet every week in Chicago. 

The negotiations update and protocol agreement have been posted on the Division page and the UAL/CAL/CMI Mechanics Weekly Update page:

http://www.teamster.org/content/ualcalcmi-mechanics-weekly-update-january-11-2013

Mechanics Dispatch 1-6-13

Negotiations Begin This Week

The negotiation committee will be in Chicago the week of January 7th to begin the

required training provided by senior mediator Pat Sims and mediator Michael Kelliher.

We will be employing a new process created by the National Mediation Board in 2010

called Expedited Mediation. This process uses the Interest Based Bargaining model

rather than the more traditional Collective Bargaining method that has been the norm for

most of our past agreements. The goal is to assist in shortening the time normally taken

to negotiate contracts under the RLA as has been written about in past issues of the

Dispatch.

Immediately following the training Wednesday January 9th the process will begin to

create a new amalgamated contract for the Mechanics and Related at United Airlines.

The rank and file steering, seniority integration, benefits, and negotiating committees

have worked hard to prepare for these upcoming negotiations. A final report of advisory

recommendations from the seniority integration and benefits committees will be

provided to the negotiating committee shortly in order for the negotiating committee to

develop proposals to the company.

This negotiating process is different from previous contracts in a couple of ways. First

language is not passed back and forth, rather concepts are discussed and when

agreement is reached on a concept language will be drafted to capture the intent of the

parties. Second the negotiating committee will be broken down into several sub

committees that will each have areas of responsibility to discuss with the company. For

instance the committee dealing with the Seniority article will most likely also discuss

Classifications, Vacancies, RIF and Recall and the Consent Decree. And lastly because

of this structure a detailed written opening proposal will not be provided to the company.

Negotiation updates will be provided at the end of each session of bargaining so please

look for them in the Dispatch on your local bulletin boards and on the Division and Local

websites.

Renew Your License

As stated in a previous Dispatch paper A&P certificates will no longer be valid after

March 31st 2013. If you do not change your paper license to the new credit card type by

this date, you will have to make your license active again by taking the written and

practical at an approved FAA training center. If you don’t want to try to study and retake

these exams it is advisable that you renew your certificate now.

TAMC

We have begun our new season with the Teamster Aviation Mechanics Coalition. The

TAMC is a non partisan group formed to address the needs of all mechanics in the

aviation field. With over 18,000 aviation mechanic members, The Teamsters have

dedicated resources and funding to our cause. Our goal is to take a stand and create a

collective voice to government processes that affect our industry, careers, and

livelihood. Examples of the types of issues we get involved in are foreign outsourcing,

and new government policies regarding aviation maintenance. While many of our

subjects deal with aircraft maintenance, the issues of GSE and facility maintenance are

an equal concern.

Participation with the TAMC is open to all and only works with member involvement. If

you would like to become a more active part in the TAMC please see or contact your

Local Business Agent or Local TAMC representative. If you would like to follow the

progress of the TAMC and sign up for the Newsletter, visit Teamster.org and tab to the

Airline Division page. Once there, the link to sign up for the TAMC Newsletter can be

found on the right hand side of the page in the “About the Division” information box.

Personal Choice of Physician Form

Please take a moment to ensure your physician is on file with United medical for those

covered by the sUA agreement. Thanks to IAD Steward Larry Bailey for the following links

on the intranet;

California;

https://flyingtogether.ual.com/active/content.jsp?SID=Safety&path=links/documents/PDF/wc_P

hysician_Choice_form_CA.pdf

Rest of the world;

https://flyingtogether.ual.com/active/content.jsp?SID=Safety&path=/links/documents/PDF/wc_P

hysician_Choice_form.pdf

Main page;

https://flyingtogether.ual.com/active/content.jsp?SID=EmplSvcs&path=links/CompBen_

WC_IAM-IBT.jsp