Training Class Set
A grievance preparation and presentation training class for representatives that present cases at the system/joint board level is scheduled to take place April 29th and 30th in San Francisco. The class will be held at Local 856 in San Bruno and will be presented by the Airline Division with the assistance of the IBT Training and Development Department. This class is designed to assist representatives as they build their cases and will include such items as evaluating the case, how to lay out a case in preparation, preparing the grievant for testimony, and presenting the completed case to the board. There will also be an opportunity to present mock cases to a board to hone these skills. It is expected that there will be a wide range of experience in grievance handling among the representatives attending and the class will be interactive to allow the more experienced representatives to pass on their knowledge to those newer to the board. This class is designed to be ongoing to help new representatives learn and to reinforce those skills already acquired by existing representatives. After the class representatives should have a new skill set which will better help the members as far as contract enforcement is concerned. Many thanks to Local 856 and Principal Officer Peter Finn for hosting this training.
Negotiations Update
Although the parties have yet to be given dates by the NMB several members have asked how the process works.
Here is a quick chart showing roughly the steps of negotiations under the RLA and where we are currently.
On this chart, we are in the italicized box. There are a couple of possibilities not covered by the chart, including potential intervention by Congress. As we get closer to that phase of negotiations more discussion and detail will be provided about our status. The NMB or the President could fail to intervene but that is extremely unlikely. In that event the parties would immediately enter the 30 day cooling off period and skip to self-help. Given the size of the carrier and the potential economic impact we could certainly count on Presidential intervention. But as there is no time limit that would likely happen in the distant future.
Furloughed Members Urged to Update Their Addresses
Members on furlough are advised to keep their addresses current with the company while on layoff. It is predicted that there will be many movements this year and there have been several members that have been removed from the seniority list because old addresses were on file when notices were sent.
If you are in touch with a furloughed member, please forward this information to them. Updates may be emailed to: [email protected]. The ESC will provide a fax number and ask members to send the address change accompanied with a signature.