Focus remains: improve contract

Rich Delaney, April 23, 2010 — This week’s activity centered on swirling rumors of mergers, and their possible impact on United Airlines negotiations.

The concern of District 141 has been, ever since the first mention of merger, that our negotiations with United Airlines continue without taking a back seat to outside influences.

District 141 has reaffirmed with United early in the week that our goal of reaching an agreement, one that addresses District 141 Member’s issues of job security and compensation improvement in a timely manner, would not change. With that in mind District 141 returned to the issues that have been on the table for the past sessions.

Follow up discussions regarding our quality of work life issues were held, focusing on work area bidding in all classifications and increased flexibility in trading schedules.

United convinced consolidation ‘inevitable’

In between United negotiations sessions, a meeting was held with United’s Airport Operations management. This is a regularly scheduled meeting between IAM representatives and senior management.

Again, one of the main topics was the potential merger of airlines. The company produced no information of any substance, but what became clear was that United, and the other named carriers, believe consolidation of the industry is inevitable.

While we were meeting, US Airways announced that they had stopped their discussions with United, leaving Continental as the alternative partner for UAL.

141 View of Mergers Unchanged

Regardless of how long those talks last, and whether or not the talks are successful in the company’s mind, District 141’s view of possible mergers remain the same. Namely, if there is no benefit to the security or value of District 141 Members’ jobs, then we are not interested in mergers.

SOSAP grows from ‘Trial’ to ‘Continuing’ Program

Our discussions with Airport Ops also involved an update of some of the initiatives we have been working on jointly. Most important among those initiatives is safety.

Data shows that we are making significant progress in all areas of safety, notably in lost time injuries and in aircraft damage. District 141 attributes this, in part, to emphasis placed on safety by both District 141 and the company. New programs like SOSAP (Station Operations Safety Action Program) have been introduced to improve safe work habits, and lower the risk of serious injury. The programs appear to be working.

A review of the (SOSAP) shows that as a result of approximately 3500 reports submitted by Members over the past twenty months, improvements have been made in working with tow bars, dangerous goods, and early brake releases.

The real benefit of our SOSAP program is that District 141 Members can now report — are encouraged to report — potentially unsafe conditions or actions, without fear of discipline. We are convinced that as more District 141 Members learn about this critical safety information gathering system, that more reports will be filed and our jobs will become safer.
The IAM, United, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have now signed an agreement that changes the SOSAP from a trial program to a continuing program.

What’s Next

Negotiations will not be held next week due to the scheduled Staff Conference of our International, which requires the attendance of several Members of our negotiating team.