Progress Continues in UAL Mechanic Talks
The language subcommittee for the UAL mechanics met on Thursday and Friday in Washington DC to edit articles to be passed to the Company. Next week the full committee will meet with the Company in San Francisco to continue negotiations and try and finalize an agreement.
FAA Reauthorization Debate Continues as Mica introduces amendment attacking Labor
With the Senate awaiting the final resolution of the House FAA Reauthorization Bill, the debate on the House version continues.
The latest wrinkle, fresh on the heels of the union busting drama playing out in Wisconsin, is an amendment attached to the bill by Congressman John Mica (R-FL). The Mica amendment would nullify the new NMB rules, which state that union representation votes would be based upon the number of employees voting, instead of the total number of employees involved.
“Make no mistake, there will be a floor fight on this,” said Jack Albertine, a lobbyist for the Airline Division. “It is absolutely critical that Airline Division members contact their Congressional representatives and make it clear that this is just as critical as stopping the union busting in Wisconsin. We have a chance to win this fight in the House if everyone gets involved.”
“Jack Albertine’s analysis is absolutely correct,” said Airline Division Director David Bourne. “As we watch the attack on public sector labor unions in Wisconsin; fully funded and supported by the conservative, far right groups who seek to kill all of organized labor, it is imperative that each and every Airline Division member contact their Congressional representatives immediately and tell them that Congressman Mica’s amendment is unacceptable.”
“Make no mistake; we expect to see this attack on labor continue with every piece of legislation that comes out of this Congress. Again I urge every member to contact their legislators to tell them that the Mica amendment on union busting is unacceptable,” Bourne concluded.
“Once the bill is voted on in the House, it will go to conference committee for reconciliation with the Senate version,” said Albertine. “We are working with the Senate leadership who has communicated with the House that the amendment is totally unacceptable and that if it remains in the House version, it will not be part of the final conference bill”
Senate Bill on MRO’s Loses Language on Drug and Alcohol Testing, EU Cited as Problem
Citing a concern by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee over conflicts with EU (European Union) privacy regulations, the Senate Commerce Committee has dropped language from pending legislation that would require foreign MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) facilities used by US airlines to adopt the same mandatory drug and alcohol testing rules required for US workers in the same sensitive jobs here in the US. “Sadly, we anticipated this,” said Jack Albertine. “We had people like Senator Warner (R-VA) telling us that he was, “worried that those provisions violated WTO (World Trade Organization) regulations on privacy.”
“Quite frankly, the concern is over privacy rights in Germany and France. While we understand that, they already have rules. We are more concerned about the MRO’s in third world countries. Our belief is that US airline passengers are more important and if they want to take it to the World Court, fine. We’re confident the US can prevail.”
“While we can and will ensure the language is included in the upcoming TSA authorization later this spring,” said Airline Division Director David Bourne. “We believe that the Senate Commerce Committee has a responsibility to the American traveling public and to or members who work on and operate airliners to include this language now and help provide a higher standard for everyone.”
“This is another very serious matter that each member must voice their views on. Just as with the attempt to bust unions by trying to overturn the voting rules of the NMB, there are Senators whom; armed with campaign contributions of the ATA are pushing to make sure that airlines can outsource work to cheap, non union, largely unmonitored facilities offshore making profit more important than safety,” continued Bourne. “Again, I urge our members to contact their Senators right away and tell them that these foreign facilities must be held to the same standards as the hard working Americans who work on those planes.”
Boeing Selected to Build New Air Force Tanker
The Air Force awarded a $35 billion contract to build the next generation of air refueling planes to the Boeing Company on Thursday. Hopefully ending an almost decade long struggle and often flawed procurement process to replace the Air Force’s fleet of tanker aircraft that began flying in the Eisenhower administration, the winning design is a variant of the Boeing 767, one of the world’s most popular commercial airliner platforms with millions of hours of service with airlines around the world.
"What we can tell you was that Boeing was a clear winner," Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said in announcing the decision at the Pentagon.
The decision was a surprise to many defense analysts and some lawmakers who had expected European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. to capture the contract. It was a blow to Alabama, which had been counting on EADS to assemble the aircraft at a long-shuttered military base in Mobile.
Production will occur in Everett, Wash., Wichita, Kan., and dozens of other states, with the first aircraft to be delivered to the Air Force before 2017. Boeing has said the contract will mean some 50,000 jobs.
Week In Review News Items
Labor Developments
British Airways cabin crew members will again be balloted on industrial action following the collapse of the previous poll over legal concerns. The ballot, the fourth by the Unite union in the last two years, will start on 1 March and end on 28 March. Unite claims that systemic anti-union activity and “the vindictive removal of staff travel concessions” is preventing headway in negotiations.
Legislative, Safety & Regulatory
Air travel marked its safest year on record last year, with one accident for every 1.6 million flights made in Western-built jets compared with one per 1.4 million in 2009, industry association IATA said on Wednesday. The global accident rate for 2010 equated to 0.61 aircraft hulls lost per million flights, an improvement from 0.71 in 2009 and beating the previous record of 0.65 set in 2006, the International Air Transport Association said in a report…runways at Libya's Benghazi airport have been destroyed in the violence that has gripped the country and passenger planes cannot land there, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Tuesday.
The most important consideration relating to airport passenger screening is which Transportation Security Administration model performs best. From covert testing, anecdotal information and independent evaluation, utilizing private screening professionals under federal regulation and oversight is a better security option, according to John Mica (R-FL)
Airline Industry Finances & Structure
European airlines reported single-digit growth last year – a welcome improvement from 2009's depressed level – but 2010 was a lackluster year overall. Full year data has been released by the Association of European Airlines, the European Low Fares Airline Association and EUROCONTROL.
Southwest Airlines said the FAA accepted its plan to combine its operations with those of AirTran once its proposed acquisition of that carrier is completed. The discount airline said the plan provides that AirTran pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and other flight-related workers will keep their AirTran employment status at least until a single operating certificate is issued for the combined entity.
Airline passengers should prepare themselves for sticker shock this year. As the carriers have tried to keep up with rapidly rising oil prices, they have already increased their fares four times since the start of the year, compared with only three increases for all of 2010.
Miscellaneous
We are entering the endgame for the proposed passenger rights regulations and for Congressional action to mandate airline fee transparency. Nothing is set in stone at this time. DOT activities with the rulemaking evidently have been moved from the depths of the department to the Secretary’s office and will be sent to the Office of Management and Budget…Gtrot, a social travel planning service started by a couple of Harvard College students, just received $560,000 in funding, according to a financial filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actually, the funding goes to the site operator, Get Out of Cambridge, which is headquartered in Harvard’s shadows.