Pension Petition

Yesterday an e-mail was forwarded to me by a friend with an author by the name "Horse Tayles". The body of the text was a poorly researched piece on the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Fund with an attached petition demanding that the IBT never look at this plan for the membership.

Initially I was wondering why it was unsigned, but after reading the whole thing along with the attached petition, I understood this was purely an act cowardice as I first assumed. Karl Rove would be proud of this guy using falsehoods with small bits of facts to deceive trusting fellow employees.

Let's break it down and get the facts out of the way first since there are few of those. Each member currently receives roughly four thousand dollars per annum per the pension replacement LOA so we can accept as described "Doing the rough math, that is about $20,000.00 per mechanic or $100 million for our class and craft over the five year vesting period."

Before the rest of the e-mail is debunked I think the motive should be addressed. Is this an altruistic ploy or something else? This quote from the petition sums it up for me, "This gives the appearance of complicating, to the point of restricting any other union from organizing." The author appears to be afraid that if the membership is allowed to vote on the plan it will pass, and that will severely limit his opportunity to change unions. While that is a motive, it certainly doesn't appear to be in the best interest of the majority.

OK now that we're done with the facts we'll move to some outright misrepresentations (lies). The first "This plan is severely underfunded and our money will be used to prop up those currently collecting." Here is the letter from the WCT Actuary certifying the "Green Status" of the fund.

Next, "This is a classic pyramid scheme. Those new to plan pay for those currently in the plan." Here is a definition of an actual pyramid scheme from Wikipedia, and here is a link from The Free Dictionary, legal section on multi-employer pension funds. Reading the two definitions it is clear multi-employer pension funds are not illegal pyramid schemes. Calling it a scheme is a deceptive ploy to fill the reader with unwarranted fear.

Further down, "The Teamster Pension funds are suffering losses and they need to recoup those losses by fast tracking United mechanic contributions from our 401k. These plans are continually subject to criminal influence even today." Please refer to the Actuary's letter above regarding funding levels. As to criminal complaints against the WCT I was unable to locate any on the Department of Labor Website or using a Yahoo! search. In addition these funds are governed by ERISA enacted originally in 1974 and designed to protect participants funds through various measures.

In addition, "This fast tracking is causing our contract negotiations to be put on the back burner as well." Being a member of the Negotiating Committee, as well as the Pension Committee I can attest that this is not true. Sub-committees are typical in negotiations and this is no different.

Then "Remember the organizing promise of 10 years for 5? Like all the other Teamster promises, this to was an outright lie to get your vote during organizing. Ask any Teamster rep if that promise will be acted upon and the response goes something like this: We said you COULD get the 10 for 5, not that you WOULD get it." Please follow the above link to the WCT and read the Contribution Account Benefit tab. About halfway down it addresses the Non-Contributory Service Benefit. This is as described during the campaign and the WCT people that addressed a Steering Committee session in February told us we would be eligible for this.

I'm getting tired of writing this and if you are this far I'm sure you are tired of reading it so I will address the last paragraph in its entirety. "The Teamster negotiating committee is comprised of members with little or no experience. They do not have our interests at heart. This is nothing more than a money grab. Instead of funding Teamster pension plans they need to take care of our pay, job security and benefits.They should be working to increase the amounts the Company contirbutes to the 401k plan." As I've stated before we have an Attorney at the table with us at all times, our Chief negotiator as well as our Co, and Alternate Chairs have many contracts under their belts. As far as the 401k the author must have done much better than me last year because I was certainly far in the red. I make the same money as all of you and if I don't have your best interests at heart, I must have an IQ well south of 70. I could go on but I'm sure you get the point.

That's all for now,

Bob

Weekly report 5-31-09

General Items

Because of negotiations last week there is not much to report.

If you haven't already seen the update here it is. Also here is the Unions Non-Economic Opening Proposal. Many proposals that were made by the mechanics at Dulles are addressed with this proposal, such as Field Service language, updated Grievance processes, and improved Layoff and Recall language. I encourage you to take the time to review the opener and ask questions or provide feedback. There is a link to e-mail the Negotiating team here.

A former ALPA Attorney, Steve Nagrotsky, has been named as Deputy Director of the Airline Division. This was addressed in the Week in Review on Friday. If you don't already get the Week in Review you can sign up to receive it electronically on the link above.

MM

All the recall letters have gone out and for those on layoff if you haven't received yours yet please contact me at the office.

Upon my return last week several mechanics informed me that the Company has taken the position that the new cabin crew will be assigned to an eight hour midnight shift on a separate overtime and vacation list. The Company claims all the other hubs are doing this, so we should as well. When I talked to the other Coordinators none of them agreed to set up the crew this way. Unfortunately for the Company the vacation piece would be governed by the Local Vacation rules and the same is true for the overtime list. In fact there are no Local Overtime rules so the Company has no right to unilaterally make a new rule outside of the agreement. I will discuss this issue with them this week.

A second step for Lead Bypass is scheduled for Tuesday morning.

GQ

There is nothing new to report for GQ this week.

PV

The Labor Management meeting was canceled last week. There are a couple of first steps that will be discussed with Steve this week. In addition some more research will be done on the Jetway grievance prior to filing.

That's all for this week,

Bob

Negotiations Update

The official update from the May 26^th-27^th can be found here. In addition the Union's non-economic proposal can be found at the same site. I encourage you to take the time to read the opener. To read it all you will need some time as it is 103 pages long.

I felt the overall tone of this session was professional and respectful. As I've said before I am impressed with the support from the various IBT Locals, as well as the International that supplies Representatives as well as an Attorney to each session.

That's all for now,

Bob

More outsourcing?

An article in Forbes was pointed out to me at work last night regarding the Star Alliance and antitrust immunity. It is titled "American Jobs At Risk In The Airline Business" and can be found here.

The article is quite disturbing and here is an excerpt "United is proposing another means of off-shoring American jobs beginning in March 2010, this time in a joint venture with Aer Lingus. By 2012, if left unregulated, both carriers intend to form another airline, not based in the U.S., flying international routes from Washington-Dulles to various European destinations. If the DOT approves this new joint venture, it will mean a further loss of United jobs as both Aer Lingus and United have already stated that they will be employing new-hire employees from neither carrier for this venture."

I know David Bourne and the IBT Airline Division have been working on this issue on the Hill. After you read this article I urge you to contact your Congressmen and Senators to let them know what you think about this latest assault on our livelihood.

That's all for now,

Bob

Weekly report 5-22-09

General Information

This was a slow starting week that really had an incredible finish. As many of you know United is recalling Aircraft Mechanics to the hubs. Because of the recall process it is difficult to say how many new Mechanics will be reporting to Dulles, but there are more than enough openings to exhaust the recall list in MM and we will have an additional headcount of 11 to 13 people from the current number.

Last week I talked about Director Bourne's attitude in regards to looking at new ways to secure work, such as attending the MRO conventions. So it was good to see this on Skynet, "The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) approached us to discuss opportunities to efficiently improve the workability of our aircraft, and we are pleased that collaboratively we were able to work out a way to bring these mechanics back," says Jim Keenan, senior vice president-United Services. "It is essential that we make strategic investments in our product, to continue providing our customers with great service."

There are several news items for this week. The first is that the TAMC newsletter "Nuts and Bolts" is now available. Next is the Airline Division's weekly newsletter "Week in Review". This link has now been added to the blog's links section. Attached to this week's newsletter was a bill titled the "Aircraft Maintenance and Security Act of 2009". This is the IBT's current proposal to stiffen rules in regards to outsourced maintenance. If you are wondering "what is the Union doing for me?", these three links offer a glimpse into the effort being expended on our behalf.

For most of next week I'll be in San Francisco for negotiations. Here is the interim update from the negotiations website.

The TAA/ATAA portion of the Stimulus Bill is now law and I will be filing a new petition soon.

For those of you interested in the IAM's pension plan I added a small write-up on the blog about its current funding level. On PBGC news the Seattle blog had this piece on an investigation into possible investment improprieties.

The jackets are in, and I am currently working on a new order. If you are interested please e-mail me with your sizing and name information and I will see you about payment. Several of you have requested t-shirts and I am also working on that order so if you are interested let me know.

MM
Tim Canavan visited Dulles this week. I'm told Tim addressed several briefings but I was unable to attend.

Several small items were addressed with management this week. These items were individual member issues and resolution was reached on most of them. We are still waiting on answers to the previously heard grievances and I expect them soon.
PV
I talked to several members this week and they expressed frustration with the current level of outsourcing in the shop. My advice was to file grievances whenever a vendor was seen doing work that should be done by the shop. The only way to bring this outsourcing to the forefront is to use the grievance procedure.

No one in the shop will be bumped as a result of the recent system lay-off and shakedown

GQ

There is not much to report in GQ this week except that as in PV no one in the shop will be bumped as a result of the recent system lay-off and shakedown.

That's all for this week,

Bob