Secret Ballot Determines Nominees for General President & General Secretary/Treasurer
This past week in Las Vegas, delegates to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters convention met and cast secret ballots to determine who would run in the upcoming elections for the offices of General President and General Secretary/Treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
In order to be considered on the ballot for either position, a candidate was required to receive five percent, or 81 of the available votes. The voting for General President yielded three candidates; James P. Hoffa (1,326 votes), Sandy Pope (137 votes) and Fred Gregare (141 votes).
The balloting for the office of General Secretary/Treasurer also yielded three candidates; Ken Hall (1,269 votes), Jim Sheard (156 votes) and Gary Marquart (143 votes).
More information on voting will be conveyed to the membership prior to the vote, which is scheduled for later this year.
Management Attempt to Block Vote Count Fails; RAH Holdings Pilots Overwhelmingly Choose Teamsters
Despite a last minute attempt by Republic Holdings management last week to stop the counting of the ballot on union sucessorship; the pilots of RAH Holdings, comprised of Republic Airlines, MidWest Express, Lynx and Frontier Airlines have overwhelmingly voted to join their Republic brethren and become members of the Teamsters Airline Division. With 2946 eligible members, 1692 voted for the Teamsters. RPC; a group formed by members of FAPA received 643 votes, while the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) got 87. Additionally, 24 votes were cast for “no representation.”
“I welcome all the pilots of MidWest, Frontier and Lynx to the Airline Division,” said Division Director David Bourne. “As members of Local 357, they will find a very talented leadership under Pat Gannon, who has my full support. I am confident as the groups move forward together; the talents and expertise of the MidWest, Frontier and Lynx pilots will join with the Republic pilots to form an even stronger local that responds to the needs of all their pilots.”
Week In Review Industry News
Former Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher still offers his advice when asked…Boeing's 747-8, has completed some of its function and reliability testing, but its progress has been hindered by its complex flight-management system…In a recent column, Fred Barnes wrote; "You might suspect [President Obama] aims to change the Democratic party into the Labor party."
The AFA won out over the International Association of Machinists for the right to represent United Continental Holdings' 25,000 flight attendants…Air Canada's call center workers and airport customer service agents have approved a new collective bargaining agreement that will remain in effect until February 2015. The agreement provides wage increases of 9% over four years.