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Chair Conference
April 4 through April 7 at Wyndham Playhouse Square Hotel, Cleveland
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President’s Report
District 141 is currently engaged in discussion with United Airlines concerning the evolving workload in stations impacted by the increased integration of the operations of United and Continental.
The company’s intent to take advantage of the two operations, in advance of a Single Operating Certificate determination, requires us to look at how these changes in schedule may impact our Members.
The first concern we have had is the rescheduling of UAX trips between both carrier’s Express operations. The ongoing shifting of Express operations has required a change in daily departure schedule at several stations but has not caused any reduction of manpower in any station.
The second concern is the establishing of a new United designated round trip SFO-IAH-LIM.
This trip has created a manpower issue that is not easily resolved. The addition of the LIM trip, along with the existing operation in IAH, has stressed the manpower assigned to IAH beyond its limits. We have been working with United to resolve this identified situation. Schedule adjustments within the station were studied and modified to the extent that the daily operation would allow. In addition, currently furloughed ICSR’s from IAH have been offered temporary recall to CSR positions. While all furloughed ICSR’s were welcome to return only four were in a position to accept the recall.
The shortfall of manpower that still exists must be addressed. The possibility of temporary transfers was examined and determined to be unworkable at this time since any movement of CSR’s on the transfer list would cause a shortage of manpower in their current station and would just push the problem to another station rather than fix the problem.
Compounding the problem in IAH are the issues of facilities and equipment. Currently, no United gate in IAH is set to accept a widebody aircraft so alternative gate space is going to be used. In addition, United currently does not have the necessary ground equipment in order to properly service a widebody.
This has led to the conclusion by the company that current Continental employees in IAH will be used to perform the below wing ground handling of the LIM-IAH-SFO trip. The use of a single crew of CO employees, limited to below the wing work for this single trip, would require a few hours of work at a time of day in which United employees are fully assigned to other UAL trips.
In consideration of this extraordinary set of circumstances, the company is planning to have United employees perform the necessary work for the Continental operation in several cities in which we have IAM represented employees but the CO work is currently outsourced.
The stations in question will likely include DEN and IAD in addition to other line stations. The increased work in these stations would secure the jobs of current employees, present an opportunity for employees to return to full time schedules, and offer recall to some displaced employees.
District 141 is seriously trying to make this happen. Our goal is provide a maximum amount of security for all Members now as we continue to negotiate future protections and wage improvements.
Since we are convinced that no IAH Members will be disadvantaged by this action, and the probability of increased IAM work across the system exists, we intend to continue to work with United to outline a consistent review process that will not only address the current situation but also develop a set of standards to be used in assessing future decisions regarding stations as this merger continues to go forward.