Airline Division News Items
The FAA Reauthorization Bill May be Put Off for Another Three Months, According to Congressional Quarterly
With a deadline approaching for reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, lawmakers in both chambers are beginning to plan another short-term extension for the agency accordingly to a Congressional Quarterly article this week. The current short-term authorization expires Dec. 31
Though aides said they still hope the Senate Finance Committee might find time this year to act on its piece of a multi-year reauthorization, it seems increasingly unlikely as the Senate focuses on health care legislation. House and Senate aides said the most likely course would be a three-month extension for the agency through the end of March. The House will likely take the lead on an extension. Jim Berard, spokesman for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said nothing has been drafted yet, but acknowledged the tight schedule. “I think we have to be prepared with some kind of extension, and three months is probably the most likely candidate at this point,” he said. “Unless the Senate suddenly kicks into hyperdrive.”.
The Teamsters have lobbied among other things for language in the House and Senate versions of the FAA bill having to do with putting maintenance outsourcing rules for MRO’s in foreign countries on a more equal footing with domestic maintenance rules.
NMB to Hear Testimony Next Monday on Its Proposed Changes to Election Rules
A National Mediation Board proposal, which was announced November 3, would base the outcome of union elections in the airline and rail industries on the majority approval of people who vote. This is the same method used under the National Labor Relations Act and in political elections nationwide. The current union-election system, which has been in place since 1934,
bases the outcome of airline and rail union elections on the majority approval of an entire workgroup and counts those who do not participate in the election as voting against union representation.
This means that workers who do not vote because they never received balloting instructions, have religious objections, forget to vote, are apathetic or make a deliberate choice not to vote, have their votes counted as a vote against unionization. This creates an unfair unequal playing field for workers who want to form a union under the Railway Labor Act. Many commentators have also noted that the unfair voting rules violate airline workers’ freedom of association.
The NMB has established a 60-day comment period on the proposal. On this coming Monday the NMB has provided an opportunity for oral testimony on the proposal. A long list of invited speakers on both sides of the fence will have an opportunity to challenge or praise the NMB’s proposal at NMB headquarters in
Dates Set for a New Representation Election for
The NMB has established next Monday as the date ballots will be mailed out for a new (rerun) representation election. After an investigation, the previous election was ruled invalid by the NMB. Ballots will be counted at NMB headquarters in
Omni Air International Contract Negotiation Moving Forward
NMB mediated negotiations continued in
The Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA) Activities
The Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA) has been very busy in
Senate Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Dorgan (D-ND) has offered a bill that would "prohibit the use of personal wireless communications devices and laptop computers by the flight crew of commercial aircraft on the flight deck of such aircraft during aircraft operations." Senator Menendez (D-NJ) offered language that would "require the Administrator of Federal Aviation to promulgate regulations to prohibit the in-flight use of certain portable electronic devices in the cockpit of commercial aircraft and to conduct study of the safety impact of distracted pilots." Congresswoman McCarthy (D-NY) offered a bill that would "implement recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board regarding the installation of cockpit image recording systems in the cockpits of commercial aircraft" for "purposes directly related to investigations of accidents and incidents by the NTSB" as well as place restrictions on the use of laptop computers and portable electronic devices in the cockpit.
All three of these bills would still allow exceptions when "use of the laptop computer or personal electronic device is directly associated with command of the aircraft" so CAPA is not going overboard in its efforts to address these bills but we are closely monitoring their status in case something changes that we need to address. In our numerous meetings with House and Senate staffers to discuss these bills and the MSP overfly event the topic of "how could this have happened for 90 minutes" came up every time. CAPA representatives managed to turn the conversation to the need for comfortable, fatigue-reducing noise-cancelling communication headsets and intercoms that would increase attention to radio communication with ATC. Southwest Airlines has recognized the value in the use of these headsets and has begun to provide them to all SWAPA pilots and expanding their use to all commercial aviation cockpits would increase safety and decrease missed or misunderstood radio communication.
There is one bill that has caused concern at CAPA, and that is Senator Jim DeMint's (R-SC) Pilot Professionalism Assurance Act which proposes to "improve air safety by authorizing the limited use by air carriers of information collected through cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders" to "discipline or discharge a pilot or flight engineer for actions that endanger the safety or well being of passengers." If you ever doubted that pilots need to have a constant presence in
House Subcommittee Hears Teamster Testimony on Security at Overseas Repair Stations
Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection heard testimony on November 18 from the Teamsters Union about security at
overseas repair stations. In both written and oral testimony, the Teamsters
Union said there should be a single security standard for aircraft repair
stations in the
and chair of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition, testified that he had witnessed lax security at the Aeroman facility at
Airlines. Moore, who has worked for Continental Airlines at
verify that escort badges are valid. In
by electronic card readers will immediately draw a law enforcement officer.
TSA conducts surprise inspections of mechanics in the
the perimeter, though many other businesses were patrolled by armed guards.
“Is there real control over who is actually working on our aircraft in a
developing economy?”
there are literally thousands of places where explosives or other contraband
can be hidden, are we willing to take that chance?” Subcommittee
Chairwoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) thanked
calling the utilization of
The purpose of the hearing was to determine if security at repair stations is
adequate and if further collaborations between the transportation industry and Homeland Security need to be made. The hearing clearly put pressure on the
TSA to tighten security restrictions at repair stations. Two days prior to the
hearing, the TSA posted a proposed rule to its website focusing on security
at airplane maintenance facilities.
Flight Options Mediated Negotiations Held This Week at Teamsters Headquarters
Representatives of Flight Options, LLC and Teamsters Local 1108 met at IBT headquarters this week in an effort to finalize a first contract. Airline Division Director David Bourne attended the mediation sessions. NMB Mediator Marvin Sandrin has scheduled three additional mediation sessions for the last of January 2010. When mediation resumes, the parties will attempt to resolve the few remaining sections of the contract. Local 1108 represents approximately 525 pilots employed by the Cleveland-based fractional operator.
United Joint Board of Adjustment and Mechanics Section 6 Negotiations Held in San Francisco this Week
The first meeting of the newly created Joint Board of Adjustment met on Monday and began work on resolving the backlog of grievances. Negotiations on a new contract continued later in the week and focused on sections 21 and 22 and good progress was made. Negotiations will resume next week in
Week in Review News Items
Labor Developments
Labor relations at United have long been a sour spot, but the carrier's largest union is bucking the trend. At a time when the airline industry is shedding jobs, IAM, which has about 17,500 members at United, recently signed an innovative agreement to save 700 ramp and agent jobs at O'Hare.
Siim Kallas, the incoming EC commissioner for transport, was urged this week to set up a Stakeholder Summit for aviation early in 2010. A letter to Mr. Kallas calling on him to organize the summit was signed by bodies representing all sectors of the industry including labor (Teamsters Airline Division), consumers, airlines and travel buyers…Canadian safety inspectors are backing a federal government decision to stall self-monitoring in the aviation industry, but they say they fear a partially implemented regime has left big airlines vulnerable. The Canadian Federal Pilots Association was to appear Monday at a Commons committee studying the issue, where it said it would expose "major safety breeches, including an extremely serious incident at one of
Boeing is urging airlines to carry out a major retrofit on over 220 of its 777 jets in the light of a series of potentially dangerous incidents of overheating and chronic structural damage to engine parts…a Senate panel criticized senior aviation officials in the Obama administration Tuesday for delaying long-awaited federal rules designed to combat pilot fatigue…U.S. regulators aren’t likely to let airline pilots take so-called controlled naps in cockpits as part of an overhaul of rest regulations…NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman yesterday criticized FAA for failing to act on runway safety recommendations the board repeatedly has made…FAA decided to allow over 130 Boeing planes to continue flying international trips until early 2011, despite warnings about suspect parts that have caused rare midair engine shutdowns.
Airline Industry Finances & Structure
Passenger demand for air travel rose in October but freight demand continued to fall, especially in
A Different Kind of Air Rage
Can government regulations, aggressively enforced by bureaucrats, make the nation's skies friendly again? It looks like we're about to find out. With surprisingly little fanfare, DOT in the last three months has suddenly become the consumer advocate again. After a decade of somnambulance, especially during the George W. Bush years, the Obama administration's DOT has suddenly come alive with righteous indignation, and it's wielding its regulatory cudgel with gusto.
Miscellaneous
Dulles’ new gate-to-terminal train service has passed a final phase of testing by its manufacturer and will probably begin operating next month…a recent Washington Post article suggests that “hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists are likely to be ejected from federal advisory panels as part of a little-noticed initiative by the Obama administration to curb K Street’s influence in Washington.