UAL Negotiators Continue Roadshows on Transition Agreement, Vote to Begin May 4th
This past week saw the union negotiators for the UAL mechanics meeting with more of their membership from around the system, providing them details and answering questions about the transition agreement that members will begin voting on this coming week.
“We’re very pleased with the desire of our members to come out and get the facts about this agreement,” said Airline Division International Representative Agent Clacy Griswold. “Once our members have had the chance to see what this agreement gives them; job protections they don’t now have, and immediate pay and benefit protections, all geared to giving their negotiators a stronger hand at the table as we begin to bargain for even more in the combined contract starting in a few days, they like what they see,” he continued.
“Two of the things I’ve seen the biggest a response on our System Bumping Rights and the tougher restrictions on outsourcing,” said Bob Fisher, International Representative for the Airline Division. “For the first time in our careers, we have systemwide seniority that protects us in case a station is downsized. With this agreement, we can go where our seniority allows us, not where the company says we have to go. With outsourcing, we finally have language that really restricts the company’s ability to outsource work and prohibits blended work. If our former union had done this, who knows how many of our over 10,000 fellow mechanics would still be here working with us today,” he continued. “I can’t begin to tell you how many guys have come up after the meetings and said they came in planning to oppose the agreement and now they now understand the significance and importance of this strategic step and have changed their minds and are now supporting this TA,” he concluded.
Additional information about the Transition Agreement can be found at www.teamsterair.org/ual
Balloting will begin on Tuesday, May 3rd and will be counted on Thursday, June 2nd.
In Video Message to UAL Mechanics, Division Director says, “It’s Time to Shed the Past”
In a video message to the UAL mechanics, Airline Division Director David Bourne addressed many of the key points of the Transition Agreement and discussed the gains negotiated by the mechanics union negotiating committee and International representatives.
In addition to discussing increased pay and health care benefits, Bourne also reminded the members of the over 10,000 jobs lost as a result of poorly worded contract language negotiated by their previous unions.
“Today as you listen to this,” he said, “the company can outsource up to 20% of your work annually. And thanks to the weakness of your existing language, they are really able to outsource much more than that. While you have lost over 70% of your mechanic force, under different and stronger language, CAL has increased their mechanic force by 15%. Your committee has negotiated job protection language for you in this Transition Agreement that mirrors the stronger CAL language and also provides point protection for anyone working at the SFO maintenance base,” he continued. “Additionally for the line, this language now only allows an outside vendor a maximum of six hours a day for thirty days on the property for mainline outsourced work. Anything more than that means the company must bring that work back,” he concluded.
The video is available for members to view at www.teamsters.org/ual or on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngBat1AAjp4
Week In Review News Items
Labor Developments
The National Labor Relations Board should “withdraw immediately” a complaint against Boeing that alleges the company retaliated against union employees, attorneys general in nine states said in a letter. The board’s action, citing Boeing’s decision to open a 787 aircraft assembly line in South Carolina, is an “assault” on the ability of the states to create jobs, according to the letter released today.
Legislative, Safety & Regulatory
Federal investigators said Monday that they had discovered flaws in the riveting of the roof of the Southwest Airlines plane that tore open in flight on April 1, a finding that experts said probably showed manufacturing defects. The National Transportation Safety Board, in an interim report, said that a laboratory examination of intact sections of the roof found that rivet holes on one layer of the plane’s skin did not line up properly with an underlying layer. The board also said that it found paint from the exterior of the plane had bled through into the inside. Experts said that suggested the aluminum skin had not been properly bound together, leading to premature damage from fatigue.
Consumer Protections
Last week, DOT issued a sweeping new set of rules expanding the situations in which airlines must provide compensation to fliers and requiring greater disclosure of fees and taxes. While the new rules don't include compensating for delayed bags, airlines do have to pay fliers for baggage that is lost… JetBlue Airways has emphasized that it focuses on identifying revenue streams by offering new products and services to customers like Even More Legroom (EML) seats. In March, the airline implemented a $5 increase on its Even More Legroom product, which the airline says continues to exceed its expectations.
Airline Industry Finances & Structure
With fresh red ink at Delta and US Airways, the five biggest U.S. airlines showed a combined loss of more than $1 billion for the first quarter. Soaring jet fuel prices are the big culprit…however, swimming against the tide of red ink swamping US legacies, Alaska Air and Hawaiian Airlines notched up profits in what is traditionally the weakest quarter of the business cycle…and travellers should expect higher fares and fewer seats in the coming months after Delta and US Airways said they would take steps to deal with higher fuel costs.
Asia Pacific airlines witnessed some “moderation” in passenger and air cargo demand growth in Mar-2011, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, with the moderation in growth partly as a result of the effects of the Japanese earthquake on travel patterns and trade within the region.
The U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has approved Southwest Airlines' acquisition of AirTran, clearing the way for the carriers to merge. Southwest then reaffirmed plans to close the merger on May 2.
Miscellaneous
Denver International provides some unique features. For starters, the new Denver International Airport is the only major green-field airport opened in the US in the past two decades. Equally unusual, when the new field was opened in 1995, one of its long-time airline tenants, Continental, stopped using the airport as a hub. And over time, the new airport has become a hub for a legacy carrier, United, as well as for two low cost carriers, Frontier and Southwest.