Weekly report 2-14-09

On Monday, as I reported earlier, the shakedown was completed. After returning early Friday morning it appeared that the new members finished vacation bidding.

The Steering Committee met in San Francisco this week. We made significant progress in this latest session. No members proposal was dismissed or accepted without a thorough vetting. There was intense, respectful debate on each line of each Article we addressed prior to committee consensus. The committee decided we need a longer period for our next session so that we can finish this process. To that end we are meeting for five days in the middle of March. I feel based on the progress of the two previous sessions we will be able to finalize our non economic proposal at the next session. After this proposal has been submitted to the company it will be online for everyone to view in the same manner as the Continental unit. Here is a link to the current Continental Negotiations if anyone is interested. The pictures are of the Committee at work in San Francisco and they can be enlarged by clicking on them...

There is still time if you have contract proposals to make. While we are through about half of the CBA if there is a compelling proposal on an Article we have already finished I'm sure the committee would discuss it.

Many members have asked how long I think negotiations will last. Based on the current state of the agreement and the amount of changes needed I would be surprised if we were finished earlier than two years after the start of negotiations. A standard negotiating cycle is about eighteen months. We are far from standard and that is why I feel it will last much longer. While this may seem like a long time, it is a decent amount of time for you to prepare for a possible strike action on this carrier.

There is not much local news for me to report this week, however there have been several items of note. The IBT filed for a representational election with Horizon mechanics this week. Here is a link to their site. The FAA shut down an AAR landing gear shop in Miami. There is a link to that article on the previous blog post. Also as reported earlier on the blog the Moratorium was stripped from the stimulus bill. However I feel this is a temporary setback as the IBT is very devoted to this issue.

There are a couple of new contracts added to the website and new links on the blog.

On another note Mikey Albertin from San Francisco has made 14G buttons to protest the company's ludicrous and arbitrary policy of discipline for sick leave usage. If anyone would like to purchase one let me know and I'll have him send some out here.

That's all for this week,
Bob

Moratorium

We were informed today that the Teamsters Moratorium language has been stripped from the stimulus package because it was considered "pork" even though it was presented as cost neutral. This does not mean this item is dead, only that we will now be looking for another Bill in which to attach this provision. There is strong opposition on the Republican side of the Aisle regarding this issue due to their relationship with big business in this country. The ARSA is lobbying hard against us as I've reported previously.

Along this line I'm sure you've all seen this article on the FAA shutting down the AAR landing gear shop in Miami.

That's all for now. The weekly report will be out later.

Bob

Weekly Report 2-7-09

This week a problem was reported with continuing insurance while on lay-off. According to ADP members need to fill out the paperwork and make payment prior to the end of the month in which laid off for insurance to continue. This issue was reported with an earlier group of furloughees but I thought it had been resolved. I contacted Bob Luciano as well as Labor Relations and we are working on a resolution. The important thing for furloughed members is that you get your paperwork in quickly while we work through this.

A Station wide grievance on physicians certification has been filed in the first step. Essentially the company, through Corvel, is asking your doctor to certify that he or she will comply with the law prior to allowing you to use your personal physician instead of the Workers Comp panel doctor.

As for the rest of the grievance report the committee has the following outstanding and resolved through this week,
1 second step PV on a lead vacancy waiting hearing
1 grievance pending appeal to second step in GQ regarding bidding procedures
1 grievance for discipline in MM pending appeal to second step
2 second steps in MM for discipline
1 OT 2nd step resolved this week in MM
1 pending IRH for a Level 4 in MM
1 third step waiting on possible resolution in MM

I received notice that our TAA case was denied. It is case #64524 and I received forms from DOL to appeal that decision. I believe we will need some legislative help to get this through as I have previously reported.
 
Monday I went through the shakedown with Nina and Dave Nash. There were several errors and I believe we have now corrected most of them. I say most because I know of a couple outstanding RDO issues that I will address tomorrow.
 
There were many questions from the new arrivals regarding vacation and the one over rule in Art XIII H. When the planned vacation board is exceeded for employees entering a new work group they are required to add one extra slot by seniority to accommodate previous vacation awards. As usual the company severely limited the number of slots which did not help matters.

I continued work on non- economic proposals for the upcoming steering committee meeting. If you see an area that you feel needs addressed there is still some time.
 
As for the conference call update we discussed several issues including the upcoming steering committee meeting, future lobbying efforts and current organizing campaigns.

For those that do not believe we should be involved in lobbying efforts here is an interesting article.

And for those that would like more information on the Employee Free Choice Act here is a good website.

Seattle has started a blog and it can be found here.
It has now been added to the useful links.

That's all for this week,
Bob

Weekly report 1-31-9

I would like to continue to encourage you to contact your representatives if you have not done so regarding the moratorium. Many members have already contacted their representatives and have received positive responses. Unfortunately this provision did not make it into House Bill HR-1, but there are still two more chances for it's addition. First the Senate could add it to their version, or it could be added when the House and Senate meet in the Conference Committee. So if you haven't already acted please do so this week. One piece of positive legislative news can be found here.

In MM this week Brian Botje and Jay Koreny volunteered to take the vacant afternoon shift shop stewards spots. All the new mechanics have reported and will be begin working their assigned shifts this week. There was a problem with the way the shakedown occurred and I will be meeting with Nina and Dave Nash early Monday morning to resolve this issue. It looks like this mistake will change about five or so mechanics shift assignments. After talking to the company they are still working on securing the Hangar facility as well as potential outside financial assistance for the new addition.

For both GQ and PV this week the company newsreel addressed possible farming out of this work in nine line stations. Airline Division Director David Bourne wrote a letter that was attached to the Teamsters week in review regarding this matter. If you don't get this important update let me know and I will forward you one so you can sign up. When I know more about this I will pass it on.

In GQ this week the company came up with an idea of providing a truck equipped with a compressor and stocked with fluids for ramp personnel to service equipment instead of the normal user checks. On Friday I left messages with management to let them know I feel this is a violation of Art. II of the contract as this would be performed more than occasionally. Also we have mechanics on layoff that could do this work.

In PV this week I addressed the Lead opening grievance with the manager. Steve thought my interpretation of the language was unfair and would like to research this issue further. Article XI, I is very clear on how this grievance should be resolved and I will continue to pursue it.

Many members had questions regarding the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Fund. Here is their webpage. Of note is the level of funding from the last auditors report. The WCT was funded at 99.3% in March 2008 up from 95.8% the previous year.

On our conference call this week we addressed several items. The report from TAMC was that they will be starting a regular news letter soon. Recently the TAMC have been involved heavily in lobbying for mechanic issues and organizing mechanic units in the industry. Also the Panasonic greivance will be heard towards the end of February. We were informed the ARSA will be lobbying for expanded overseas outsourcing in the coming months. For those that weren't present last year when this group presented at the Teamsters outsourcing summit, they are the enemy. Here is their website. I would guess if they are on the Hill we will get the call to be there also countering ARSA's positions.

Just a couple of other issues. The first one is, based on member requests, that I will put another jacket order together. If you are interested please e-mail me the size you need as well as the name if any you would like put on it. Then please fill out a check for thirty five dollars made out to the local and I will send them in. For the laid off mebers I am getting ready to send in another batch of withdrawal cards. If you haven't yet filled one out you can do so and give it to someone to bring in and I will send them off. For the previously laid off members have you recieved yours yet? If not please let me know and I will call the local to check your status. As far as Continental news there was a small article on when they will join the Star Alliance. It can be found here.

That's all for this week,
Bob

Weekly report 1-25-9

Hello All, This is going to be a relatively short report.

Last week the Steering Committee met in San Francisco to discuss contract proposals. This meeting was hosted by Locals 856/986 in San Bruno. There were representatives from all over the country present. As you can imagine there were many proposals and many different ideas on how to move forward. I was pleased with the process as each proposal was thoroughly vetted before moving to the next one. The committee attacked each Article line by line with the goal of tightening and clearing up language that dates back to 1947. While we made progress more work is definitely needed. We will meet again in the beginning of February to continue this work.

We were informed that an official negotiations progress website will be set up. This website will be interactive and will include the current update as well as a link to communicate with the Negotiating Committee. When the website is up and running I will post a link on the blog as well as the website.

I did talk to local management this week about the hangar and it is still in the works.

Last week I forgot to mention that the PV grievance for the lead opening was rescheduled for tomorrow January 26th at 3pm.This was due to an unexpected event that the new manager had to deal with.

That's all for this week,
Bob