President’s Report
United Update 12/12/10
Insourcing: United finally figures out the advantage
A-14 in "pay raise" perspective
Let's survey away some travel benefits?
Profit Sharing: Something new again | top
Dragging its feet on money,
even as ‘hand-selected’ contracts move forward
Limited negotiations were conducted this past week between District 141 and United Airlines.
The first topic of discussion was the recently announced tentative agreement reached between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and a combination of United and Continental management covering the Fleet Service employees of Continental. No discussions were held regarding the economic provisions of the agreement.
The wage improvement and retroactive payment, while possibly acceptable to the IBT and a majority of their members, was not at a level that needed to be commented on.
Our concerns were more directed at the limited job security this Tentative Agreement included and whether United anticipated the same type of proposal. The IBT agreed to a single year of protection against the contracting out of FSE work. All protections are agreed to cease on December 31, 2011. Since our current contract provides different levels of security – either by Date of Hire protection or the protection of specifically named stations – we were concerned that United may want to use the Continental agreement as a pattern for the future. The Company did not indicate that was their plan.
Since there was little else in the Continental/Teamsters agreement that had any value for our negotiations we resumed focusing on the issues we believe must be addressed in order to reach a full agreement.
We were again disappointed by the Company’s lack of a full economic proposal.
Remaining non-economic issues have been repeatedly discussed, and there was little reason to continue to review them. Negotiations ended with no new agreements being reached and no new topics being discussed.
There is currently no schedule established of when talks will resume.
In other meetings with United during the week we were informed that negotiations with other groups were progressing and full settlement offers were being presented. It is expected that tentative agreements will soon be reached for those classifications that have employees at both United and Continental but are represented by the same union. top
After much resistance, company finally recognizes value of union work by insourcing some UAX customer service
United announced late last week that IAM represented Customer Service employees in SFO will begin handling the UAX operation.
This good news comes after many discussions with District 141 and delays in the awarding of the UAX contract. This addition of work in SFO will require the hiring of approximately 70 CSR’s, both full time and part time and is scheduled to begin April 1, 2011.
This type of insourcing of work has been a major issue for District 141 for the past 2 years and is one of the most serious areas of negotiations. The recognition by United that our Members can provide the highest level of service to customers and do it efficiently within the requirements of our contract, is a huge step forward.
While SFO and California requirements presented unique opportunities for us, we are encouraged that the discussions and decisions reached in this example can be used in other locations for the securing of UAX work.
We were not successful in obtaining the SFO UAX work for Rampservice.
United determined that the continued use of SkyWest as a vendor was more economical than employing United RSM. By continuing with an outside contractor, United avoided the start up costs of equipment purchase and is able to continue to have replaceable or disposable workers at minimal cost.
Our experience over the past two years regarding our push for UAX work has shown that there can always be another criterion thrown in our way trying to prevent us from securing this work. We will take what we have been taught in the SFO experience and continue to promote the hiring of United employees for this work in stations like DEN, IAD, and LAX.
NMB reassigns mediator from US to Continental
USAirways grievance mediation was scheduled to be held next week in PHL, using a mediator from the National Mediation Board. This is a program we have been working on for almost a year and next week was to be the first series of hearings using the NMB.
Unfortunately, we have been notified by the NMB that due to the large number of contract negotiations needing mediators’ help, the grievance mediation program must wait. The mediator originally assigned to our cases has now been called in to the Continental Flight Attendant negotiations.
Those talks have resumed after the recent rejection of a tentative agreement and it is hoped that with the additional assistance of the mediator a new agreement can be reached quickly. We have already committed to future dates in February for the grievance hearings. top
To put pay in perspective of a pay raise
Since United was ranked #1 for the month of November for on time arrivals, eligible employees will receive an A:14 bonus payment again this month.
United did not reach their goal regarding United Promoter scores so the payment will be $65.00 per person. This is the 21st month out of the 23 months this program has been in existence that employees have received a cash payment.
The IAM was the first union to agree to this program. To put this payment in perspective, November’s payment is the equivalent of a 38 cent per hour increase for full time employees and a 75 cent increase for part time employees.
United has indicated they are in the process of establishing the goals and payments for 2011. As long as the goals are realistic and our Members have an real opportunity to receive additional money for the work they perform, we will again agree to the continuation of this program. top
Something old, something new: Profit sharing
IAM Members are also entitled to Profit Sharing payments in 2011, based on the success of the airline in 2010.
The calculation of this payment will be determined in February 2011, after the annual financial information has been announced. The payment will be made no later than the end of April. United has been earmarking money in their quarterly reports to account for this contractually required payment.
This will mark the first such payment since 2007 for United employees. United’s fourth quarter statement will include, for the first time, the combined earnings of the merged airline. top
United ends funnel survey;
Let’s be happy to board last?
The United/Continental Pass Travel survey ended last week.
It was reported that over 67,000 active employees and retirees responded to the survey. It is believed that almost all 67,000 were frustrated and disappointed by the structure of the survey.
The corporation’s response is that they will develop an employee pass policy that no one will be happy with.
This approach to an employee benefit is curious, especially for a corporation trying to convince half of their population that they are “employee-centric” and want everyone to be happy to come to work. Unless the idea is that you will be happier at work than when sitting in a gate area seeing who gets boarded before you. top