Convention

This week I am attending the 28^th Convention of the Teamsters as an elected delegate from Local 210. I will try to give updates as the Convention progresses but I will at least make a final report after its adjournment.

I look forward to this process which will nominate candidates to run for all positions of the General Executive Board. Each nominee will then be elected by the membership this fall.

EDIT: Here is the press release from the IBT on the opening of the convention. There have been several interesting aspects but one that really impressed me was the serious work being done with Unions around the globe. These Unions are thinking strategically about globalization and how best to use their respective resources to combat the world wide war on workers.

EDIT 2: The current election results can be followed here and clicking the "What's new" link

Final EDIT: Here are the results of the delegate votes for General President and General Secretary Treasurer; In order to be considered on the ballot for either position, a candidate was required to receive five percent, or 81 of the available votes. The voting for General President yielded three candidates; James P. Hoffa (1,326 votes), Sandy Pope (137 votes) and Fred Gegare (141 votes).
The balloting for the office of General Secretary/Treasurer also yielded three candidates; Ken Hall (1,269 votes), Jim Sheard (156 votes) and Gary Marquart (143 votes). In addition George Miranda our Principal Officer was nominated for and received over 1300 votes for Vice President at Large. All results can be found here and clicking on "Whats New". More information on voting will be conveyed to the membership prior to the vote, which is scheduled for later this year.

Doubt?

I received a copy of this email today. The email speaks for itself and answers the question from the company perspective for those that doubted the IBT was committed to securing a standalone United agreement prior to amalgamating. In my opinion the original author was hoping for a different answer to add fuel to his arguments. The only thing removed were the email addresses but it's interesting to note that the author of the original email included his web address (perhaps to show the company there is no solidarity which begs the question, is he an agent for the company working against the mechanics or perhaps not very bright? I leave that for you to decide). Email follows;

From: Keenan, Jim [SFOVO]
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2011 9:04 AM
To: 'GT Davis'
Subject: RE: Amalgamation Negotiations

GT,

Thanks for your note. I'm happy to help clear this up. Not only is it NOT true that I said the IBT expressed the desire to pursue amalgamated negotiations, but that is the exact OPPOSITE of what I said. The Company pushed hard from the beginning to negotiate an amalgamated contract, but the IBT held firm that we needed to first negotiate a UA-only agreement. The Company agreed but stated that if we were unsuccessful we would push to file with the NMB for mediation on an amalgamated agreement.

Jim

From: GT Davis
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 7:11 PM
To: Keenan, Jim [SFOVO]
Subject: Amalgamation Negotiations

Mr. Keenan. I am a UAL Mechanic out of Denver and I have heard you made a statement in Chicago to the affect the IBT expressed they wished to negotiate an amalgamated contract and not a single UAL contract. In order to stop false rumors I would appreciate it if you could confirm or deny this. Thank you.

The-UALMechanics.com

GT Davis

NMB Update

This was posted this morning on the Seattle Blog and it is copied here;

The Mediation Board has assigned Jim Mackenzie as the mediator for United Airlines and the IBT that represent the mechanics and related. Case number A-13605, here is MR. Mackenzie's bio.
Jock

Jim Mackenzie joined the National Mediation Board as a Mediator in March, 2009. In this capacity, he serves as a mediator in Airline and Railroad cases.
Prior to joining the NMB, Jim completed 31 years as a commercial pilot for a number of major airlines, retiring from Northwest Airlines in 2006 as an Airbus Captain. Following retirement, Jim was a Captain B-777/787 Instructor pilot for Alteon, a Boeing Company and an aviation consultant.
Jim's labor relations experience included 30 years working in various positions for the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). During his career with the airlines, Jim served as Chairman of the NWA Pilot Retirement and Insurance Committee and was successful in maintaining the pilots defined benefit plan though Congressional legislation. In addition, he gained bankruptcy and workout experience serving as a member of the NWA Unsecured Creditors Committee. His extensive labor relations experience also includes being elected to the Master Executive Council of Braniff International Airlines, Co-Chairman of the Peoplexpress Pilot Merger Committee and serving on various ALPA committees at the local and national level. In addition, he served as President of the Board of Directors of the Air Line Pilots Mutual Aid Association, which provided disability benefits for all ALPA pilots.
Jim's military career with the United States Navy included 5 years flying the A-4 Skyhawk on active duty in the Western Pacific and 9 years in the Reserves as an adversary pilot.
Jim is a graduate of the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

Source:
http://www.nmb.gov/activ-rpts/od.html#1
http://www.nmb.gov/directory/dirmed.html

Air Canada strike to be outlawed

Here is an article from AVweb describing the situation. And Canada is supposed to be labor friendly.

Further misinformation and insanity

The following post was sent to me this morning from a mechanic in SFO. He was reading it on GT's site. It is quite obvious that the poster knows nothing about the RLA. The fact is EITHER SIDE has the UNILATERAL RIGHT to invoke mediation. In fact during the road shows members were demanding that the Union demand mediation so we could get to a PEB. Now that, as the Union explained many times, the possibility of a PEB has been revealed to be non-existent in the near term and several years at best in the long term, this poster cries foul. Was it underhanded to explain the facts as they were on the road show? Was it underhanded to explain if this TA was rejected we would be years in negotiations given what the NMB said to the parties? At this point the NMB sending us back to the table outside the purview of mediation is as much a possibility as seeing Santa Claus in the flesh.

Here, I'll type it out, "has argued that the agency must proceed with mediation on a single contract basis involving only the UAL mechanics and related."
Of course the Teamsters deliberately ignore other possibilities, deliberately mind you, like the mediation board rejecting United's request and the mediator sending the company back to the bargaining table. Sending us back to the bargaining table is a legitimate possibility, yet the Teamsters don't even mention it. Instead they virtually support the company's request for mediation, going so far as to say "it MUST proceed" into mediation, but in a underhanded way, by saying that the issue is one contract group at this time and not amalgamation. Why is the union pushing for mediation in their statement? The union's response and letter to the mediator should say, "The company's request for mediation should be rejected at this time because they are asking for mediation on the amalgamation issue, and they haven't settled negotiations with the mechanics and related at UAL yet." That's what the Teamster's response SHOULD say, but what they actually said in fact supported the company's request for mediation. The mechanics and the company don't NEED mediation at this time. United's use of mediation is a stalling tactic. It's punitive. It's bargaining in bad faith and it is a slap in the face to the mechanics. In the old days mechanics would know how to respond to such a slap in the face.