The System Contract Rewrite Steering Committee (SCRSC) met for its first set of meetings in Houston from July 31, 2008 thru August 2, 2008. Representatives from various Stations including EWR, IAH, HOU, MCO, DIA, CLE, ORD, LAX, MSY and HNL attended the sessions. The Committee worked into Article 14 and is scheduled to meet again the week of September 17, 2008.
The International will soon be sending Section 6 notice (conveying the Union's intent to amend the current Collective Bargaining Agreement) to the Company. The SCRSC anticipates finishing the rewrite in the upcoming session. Once the process is complete the Union will be looking for dates to meet with the Company to begin the negotiating process.
Back in April we held a full membership meeting to explain the format and questions on the Contract Proposal Surveys. At that meeting we discussed the chronological chain of events to follow in the upcoming months. We discussed some plans to improve the chains of communication (i.e.: Lead/Steward meetings). We discussed how we planned to take the information from the surveys and members and work them into a local rewrite to present to the full system. Since April’s full membership meeting there have been four (4) local Steward Rewrite meetings, with the latest one held on Wednesday August 6, 2008.There have also been two (2) Lead/Steward meetings held and another is scheduled for this month.
Information gathered via local membership input, Steward and Lead feedback, previous grievance decisions and contract proposal survey results has helped everyone involved to compile a local language rewrite that made us best prepared when we met with the system. It has been very encouraging to see so many of you come forward with ideas long after the contract surveys had been collected. Thank you very much to all who helped with this process.
It is important to remember we are a Local Union that is participating in the process of making proposals to amend a system wide Agreement. It is also important to remember that the bargaining demands and/or requests of the members of this Local Union may be accepted, modified or rejected by the vote of the overall system negotiation committee. Now, more than ever we are going to have to show a unified front. Members have told us they understand that they do not expect to achieve every one of our requests but there are some that are tremendously important to us, and we all know what those are.
Member’s please help to share any information you may receive with your coworkers. Leads and Stewards you are a vital part in keeping these lines of communication open, and we appreciate that. Most importantly, as we move forward, if there is any question about anything you hear or read, either from the Unionor a co-worker, do not join or fuel the rumor mill by listening to or relaying information you are not clear on. Do not hesitate; call to get the answer to your question before jumping to any conclusions.
There was a full membership meeting tentatively scheduled for August 19, 2008. The purpose of the meeting was to share what information our Local members were looking for and how it compared with the system rewrites. That meeting will be postponed until the rewrite process is complete. We will reschedule to a more appropriate date subsequent to the system meeting. In the interim we will continue to hold local Steward Rewrite meetings as well as Lead/ Steward meetings so that we can continue to incorporate as much as possible into the local rewrites prior to the completion of the System rewrite in September. By holding the full membership meeting subsequent to the system meeting we will be able to give you a better picture as to what our local demands were and how they compared to those on the system.
As always, if anyone has any questions, comments or suggestions please do not hesitate to call.