Airline Division News Items
National Mediation Board Proffers Arbitration for Amerijet and Teamsters
In 2006, the IBT had requested mediation services of the National Mediation Board to help to attain a collective bargaining agreement with Amerijet. On July 7, 2009 the NMB stated, "Despite the Board's best efforts to bring about an amicable settlement through mediation, the parties have failed to reach agreement….In accordance with Section 5, First, of the Railway Labor Act, the National Mediation Board therefore now requests and urges that you enter into an agreement to submit the controversy to arbitration…" The parties have until July 14, 2009 to accept or reject the proffer.
Airline Division Holds Two Safety Meetings with United
On Tuesday Russ Leighton, IBT Airline Division Aviation Safety Cordinator, and Vick Austin and Bob Jenski met at United's Headquarters in Chicago with Jeff Bayless, United's Director of Flight Safety. They discussed United's Safety Management System. Under this system, which United has voluntarily undertaken and is not yet required by the FAA, United takes data from all sources within the company to understand and perhaps project where safety problems might occur.
On Wednesday, Russ Leighton, along with Darnell Redd, James Butler, Jim Prout and Vick Austin attended a warranty investigation presentation in Denver. Mike Quiello, VP Safety at United was there and the presentation was given by Gary Gambino, a United mechanic at Denver. These warranty investigations try to determine whether products and services United received from vendors were safe and satisfactory.
Russ Leighton Assigned Job of Teamster Representative on the FAA Flight and Duty Time Rulemaking Panel
Russ, Aviation Safety Coordinator and Head of Safety for Local 1224, will be the Teamster panel member on the FAA Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) which will develop new flight and duty time rules. The ARC will meet twice a week for the next six weeks. The goal is to have a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking by September 1, 2009.
Airline Division is Assisting in Grievance Cases
IBT Airline Division International Representative Paul Alves has been assisting Local 747 in its oversight of its grievance program backlog. Paul, a seasoned labor representative, has also been assisting at disciplinary hearings.
Horizon Airlines Pilots Section 6 Negotiations Moving Forward
Negotiation sessions were held on June 30-July 2, 2009. Good progress was made. The ambitious schedule to complete remaining open items is as follows: August 19 and 20, October 5-9 and 26-30, November 9-13, and December 7-11.
ABX Pilots Fighting for Promised Severance Pay
A new ABX pilots web site is up and running: www.dhlruinedlives.com. John Graber, President of ABX Air, is holding the severance money that was slated for the pilots and given by DHL. There are many families suffering due to their actions. Please visit the web site and let John Graber and DHL know what you think.
New Feature in the Weekly Update: Constantly Updated News Dashboard for All Teamster Airline Division Airlines
As you will note at the end of this newsletter, you can access news for all Teamster Airline Division airlines at http://netvibes.twi.bz/e.
Week in Review News Items
Labor Developments
Members of Air Canada's biggest union, who rejected a tentative contract agreement with the carrier last week, will vote again on the offer on July 14 (after the two sides talked over the weekend, a union spokesman said Monday. Cabin crew this week rejected BA's proposals for a two year pay freeze, redundancies and new working conditions. The talks, which broke down last Tuesday, will now go before the conciliation service ACAS. Comair expects to lay off up to 100 pilots in wake of capacity cuts by parent company Delta Air Lines, the regional carrier said Thursday. And voting down party lines, the House Homeland Security Committee approved a bill on Thursday that would grant Transportation Security Administration employees collective bargaining rights, and move workers under the agency's pay-for-performance plan back to the General Schedule.
Airline Financials
The next few months will be crucial for United Airlines as it and other U.S. airlines cope with a cash squeeze. The global recession has caused airline ticket sales to plunge deeper than anyone — carriers or analysts — anticipated. Rather than banking cash from peak-season flying this summer as they normally do, United and its peers are paying a king's ransom to borrow. But after leveraging everything from frequent-flier miles to spare jet engines, United is running low on assets that it can use as collateral for debt or sell to raise cash. That limits the Chicagocarrier's options as it faces new requirements by its credit card processors to keep unrestricted cash near the present level of $2.5 billion, analysts said.
Airline traffic fell again in June, providing another sign that most carriers are likely to report large financial losses for the second quarter. A sweeping fare sale by Southwest Airlines this week illustrates the need to generate bookings at the tail end of the busy summer travel season. The low-cost carrier on Tuesday launched a 2-day sale that amounts to one of its biggest ever. And figures from Lufthansa, one of the world's biggest carriers of air freight, a key barometer of world trade, showed the airline slump continuing, while Air France-KLM braced for temporary lay-offs. Continental Europe's largest airlines — Lufthansa by market value and Air France-KLM by revenues — were unable to point to significant signs of recovery in separate announcements on Thursday.
Miscellaneous
Fifteen years ago, Frontier Airlines launched its first flight from Denver. On Sunday, the airline celebrated its first flight July 5, 1994, with events for employees. The original Frontier Airlines operated for 40 years before it was sold in 1986. Chrysler has named two former airline chiefs to its nine-member board. With the appointment of former Northwest CEO Doug Steenland and former United and US Airways CEO Stephen Wolf, the Fiat-run U.S. automaker has picked two men who are arguably considered to bhttp://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=17179)e among the least-popular airline leaders of the past decade. Air France yesterday rolled out its first A380 (, scheduled to enter service in November on a daily Paris Charles de Gaulle-New York JFK service. Powered by GP7200 engines, the A380 will be configured for 538 passengers in a three-cabin layout. That compares with 450 seats on Qantas A380s, 471 on Singapore Airlines and 489 on Emirates.