Re-regulation?

Here is an interesting article talking about the possible re-regulation of the airline industry. This is not a new idea and during the Senate hearing on the merger Senator Kohl also brought this up several times.

House Judiciary Committee hearing

Here (outdated link) is the link to the House Judiciary Committee webcast of the hearing on the 16th. You'll have to scroll down a little to get to the link. The hearing will be held at 2pm.

Press conference press release

Here is the press release from Division Director David Bourne regarding Congressman Gutierrez's Monday press conference. The Congressman, a Democrat of the Fourth District of Illinois, will hold a press conference to bring forth several concerns he has regarding the proposed merger of United and Continental Airlines and its potential effect on the employees. If I find a live feed, I'll post it here.

EDIT: I was unable to find a live feed for this press conference. There is no mention yet on the Congressman's website, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter accounts. When taped coverage of this event is located it'll be added here.

Still no video but here is a short piece on the event

Further EDIT: Jock Creach from Seattle posted BA Rich Petrovsky's remarks here. As Jock says in his editorial, it's good to have Rich on our side and advocating for us.

Interesting merger article

Here is an interesting merger article from ATW online.

Weekly report 5-31-10

General Information

Thank you to all the Veterans that served to protect our freedoms. I hope you all had a good Memorial Day.

Last week was very busy. Here is a report on the Senate Subcommittee meeting that I attended on Thursday.

Tom Reid sent me a report of a TIMCO mechanic fatality in GSO. The preliminary report seems to point to an equipment failure of the tail stand possibly having no safety stops on an extension. When the mechanic pulled out the extension it went all the way out, and he went with it. Please be careful out there and check your equipment.

MM

We are still waiting for the Company to fulfill its promise of a local JBA settlement. The Company gave partial settlement but has yet to provide back pay.

I was asked about Inspectors on EFS last week. Without having my CBA available I gave an incorrect answer. I gave the answer as I remembered it from our former local OT rules. However, absent a local rule, and using the plain English translation of LOA 69-1, Inspectors will be asked by the low overtime hours amongst all qualified employees. For Dulles, this is also borne out by the fact that we don't have separate OT lists for the premium classifications. I apologize to those of you affected by my incorrect interpretation.

GQ

There is nothing to report this week for the GQ shop

PV

Several first step complaints are in the process of being paid according to Supervisor Dave Hunter.

There was a Labor Management meeting on Wednesday and I was given a verbal that the outsourcing grievances for the shop will be denied. I was told verbally that a grievance for someone out of the craft doing our work has been sustained. Brandon and I also discussed the ongoing OT and vacation issues in the shop.

That's all for now,

Bob