United | US Airways | Hawaiian
Job Security
Job security has been the main focus of District 141, especially in the
past 2 weeks.
The issue of future security, and most importantly the immediate loss of jobs due to contracting out our work, has involved our Members on all carriers. Whether it is the subject of United negotiations, discussions with US Airways management over the announced closing of IAM stations, or the decision to apply for federal mediation at Hawaiian Airlines, job security is at the top of our list of things to do.
Each airline has a unique set of conditions that impact job security that must be addressed individually but they also have much in common – the loss of a job or the threat of losing that job causes the same anxiety and pain for the families of a Fleet Service employee in OMA, or a CSR in STL, or the family of an Agent in HNL. They rightfully look to their Union for help.
Hawaiian and mediation
Negotiations with Hawaiian Airlines have been going on for over a year with no agreement. A Tentative Agreement that was intended to provide more immediate relief for our Members was not ratified earlier this year. Negotiations resumed but it has become apparent to our Negotiating Team that no real progress can be made by continuing to talk to the company without an outside influence.
Therefore, District 141 applied for the assistance of the National Mediation Board. Mediator Gerry McGuckin has been assigned by the Board to our negotiations. Mr. McGuckin has directed both parties to meet with him to begin this process next week. Mediated negotiations will start on August 6th.
This phase of negotiations, outlined in the Railway Labor Act, has no defined time period and will continue as long as Mr. McGuckin believes progress toward an agreement can be made. top
United Negotiations, mediation
District 141 and United Airlines also applied for Mediation this past week, but for different reasons. As we have noted before, our current contract required that this application be made if no agreement was reached in United negotiations by August 1, 2009. Although United negotiations have not produced an agreement, we believe we can get closer if we keep talking with each other.
In United negotiations, we have jointly sent a request to the National Mediation Board to make sure the Board understands that both the Union and the company recognize our responsibility to the current contract but also share the belief that continued negotiations between us can be productive by themselves. The addition of a mediator might be helpful but is not necessary at this point. We plan to continue meeting with the company in United negotiations to talk about improving our contract and will follow any directive or suggestion made by the NMB when the Board responds to our application.
Our application at this time will prevent unnecessary delay to having a mediator available at the time we need his/her help in United negotiations.
Our talks over the past 2 weeks have targeted the impact of station closings and manpower reductions – both the immediate loss of stations such as STL and the possible loss of the UAX contract work at ORD in the near future. The demands of the current furlough procedure have again been reviewed to see if changes are needed. We have spent a great deal of time talking about the root causes of the company’s decisions regarding the continuing contracting out work. The destructive competition within the airline industry is obviously the main problem.
That industry competition may have been accelerated this past week when Southwest Airlines made a bid to purchase Frontier Airlines. While this announcement is only days old and no one knows if it will be successful it requires us to look at the possibility of increased pressure to United’s operation, especially in DEN. It is important to recognize that the decision to approve or disallow this sale will be made through a bankruptcy court. Their concern is the Frontier Airlines debtors, not the impact on United employees. If the court believes this is a good deal for Frontier they will approve the sale to Southwest. United will then respond to this new competition and we will have to respond to whatever decision United makes that affects our Members.
Talks in United negotiations will resume this coming week. top
US Airways
District representatives met with US Airways management to discuss several pressing issues.
The number of grievances filed as a result of the company-imposed Attendance Control Policy (Point System) is alarming. We have agreed that cases involving the same or similar issues with this policy can be heard as a single grievance in Arbitration. This will speed up resolution of these issues and not require individual cases to be heard.
District 141 and the company talked about ways we could more efficiently address Members’ complaints and grievances and reduce the number of cases that are waiting to be schedule in Arbitration. We will continue to look for different options that will resolve grievances sooner and allow grievances that must be heard by an arbitrator to get there faster.
We also talked about the recent company announcement regarding stations closings. We notified the company of our concern that the protective language of our contract was being violated and that we intended to pursue cases of merit regarding these stations – especially AUS, BUR, ELP, OMA, and MKE. We also wanted to make sure that those affected employees have full use of their seniority when making decisions for themselves and their families to fill vacancies in other stations.
Finally, we talked about the need to have improved and continuing communication between the Union and the company. More in person conversations between the parties on a regular basis is the best place to start.
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