February 26, 2010 Newsletter

Southwest Clerks Overwhelmingly Reject Agreement

Represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division, the more than 170 Stock Clerks of Southwest Airlines have overwhelmingly voted “no” on a proposed five-year Agreement. “While our hard work did not go unnoticed, we have also heard our memberships voice and will return to negotiations to address their concerns in order to achieve an Agreement that will be ratified by the membership,” said Robert Rasch, President of Teamsters Local 19 and Negotiating Chairman. The rejected tentative agreement was for a new, five-year contract through August 16, 2013. The current contract became amendable on August 16, 2008.

Quarterly Meetings in SFO and LAX Allow Membership to Speak to Director

Honoring his commitment to meet with the membership on a quarterly basis, Airline Division Director David Bourne travelled to San Francisco and Los Angeles this week to meet with Teamsters who work for both United and Continental. The meetings, held over several days, were designed to involve as many members as possible and to leave no questions unanswered. Joining Director Bourne, who gave an overview of Airline Division issues were Chris Moore, IBT representative and Chairman of the TAMC, Clacy Griswold and Ed Gleason of the International, who spoke to scope and contract matters. Question and answer sessions followed each meeting. A total of almost two thousand members attended the meetings.

After San Francisco, he travelled to Los Angeles to meet with other members; including the Engineers and Scientists and their President, Lou Loucivero at United, who are very concerned about the continued outsourcing of their jobs. “Outsourcing of these jobs at a time when American families are bearing the direct brunt of the recession in unconscionable,” said Bourne. “These employees have dedicated their years of service to the airline and their families have endured the upheavals of this industry. To cast these hard working, dedicated employees aside in the name of outsourcing is unconscionable. We hope management will change its mind and be a leader in recognizing that the short term gain of outsourcing does not pay the long term benefits once believed and keep these jobs with their loyal employees.”

Teamster Pilots Join to Support Spirit Pilots for Second Day of Picketing

This past Monday saw Teamster represented pilots from Atlas and Amerijet pick up where their brothers from Gulfstream, Amerijet, Centurion and Polar left off on Friday, joining in support of the pilots of Spirit Airlines, who conducted a second round of informational picketing over stalled contract talks. Pilots from Alaska Airlines, Comair, Continental, and Delta were also there in support of the Spirit pilots, which drew print and television coverage. Reached for comment in Washington, DC where he was meeting with his pilot groups negotiating committee, Captain Steven Richards, co-Chairman of the Atlas Air Worldwide group said, “While we were unable to attend personally, we are proud to see our Atlas and Polar crewmembers and other Teamster represented pilots standing with the pilots of Spirit. Regardless of our uniform or union, we are all pilots and trade unionists and we must support each other. We stand ready to support the Spirit pilots as they fight for a fair contract.”

Cape Air Membership Drive Continues to Show Strong Numbers

Commenting on the results of the ongoing membership drive, Captain Marilyn Rhude, President of the Air Temporary Executive Council (TEC) noted, “The Council and I are very happy with the strong and steady growth in membership since the recent election.” She went on to say, “I believe that as we continue to build a solid foundation of representation, our crewmembers will see the level of support we and the Teamsters offer them and we will meet our goal of 100% membership.”

The TEC is currently working on staffing volunteer committees and firming up dates to travel to bases throughout the system to meet with their pilots.

Week in Review News Items

Labor Developments

Frontier maintenance workers who agreed to relocate to Milwaukee to keep their positions have been told their pay will be frozen and benefits reduced, according to their union…Delta’s flight simulator technicians have rejected union representation, though 16 months after the carrier acquired Northwest Airlines its two biggest work groups have yet to resolve representation…and even as pilots are continuing to grumble about mainline jobs going to regional airlines, so too are American Eagle pilots, now that Chautauqua has joined the American Airline stable at Chicago from its former TWA deployment over St Louis.

United Airlines plans to outsource engineering work from its SFO maintenance hub to other parts of the world, but United employees question the impact the move will have on the quality of repair work and aircraft safety…British Airways was due to return to the courts on Wednesday to fight a union's attempt to change its policy on leave pay for pilots, just days after BA cabin crew voted for possible strike action…a most contentious season is under way, as pilots (at Lufthansa), flight attendants and pilots (at British Airways), and air traffic controllers (France and Spain) all signal a willingness to hold the blowtorch at the feet of management.

Although Congress hasn’t yet decided whether to allow collective bargaining rights for Transportation Security Administration workers, one union has said it’s tired of waiting — setting off the latest skirmish in a fight that has gone on for years between two labor powerhouses over the homeland security workforce…and DHS has more contractors working for it than full-time employees, a situation two members of Congress said Tuesday was "unacceptable, untenable and unsustainable." There are more than 200,000 contractor employees at the department; the civilian work force numbers 188,000.

Regulatory

TSA will review the fiery crash of a small plane into an IRS office building and use that information to shape future anti-terrorism regulations for the nation's 220,000 private airplanes…U.S. airline regulators will seek data on how many pilots skip sleep the night before a flight, after a crash near Buffalo, New York, raised fatigue concerns…U.S. government investigators are making an unprecedented push to use "black box" voice recordings to routinely monitor pilots' conversations and make sure cockpit crews are focusing on their jobs.

Airline Industry Finances & Structure

As the U.S. airline industry lost tens of billions of dollars over the past 10 years, it also lost a tremendous number of employees. Nearly one in every four U.S. airline jobs disappeared in the 10 years that ended Dec. 31…top executives at two of the five largest U.S. airlines said they are open to a merger, adding that the airline industry needs to consolidate to return to profitability…Capt. John Prater told the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit that under current circumstances, a combination between United and Continental made sense, as the carriers have little route overlap…in a few short weeks, the OneWorld alliance, dominated by American Airlines, British Airways and Japan Airlines, has been resurrected from near death following years of frustration. As recently as mid-January, OneWorld appeared to be locked into a disastrous competitive disadvantage in both the transpacific and transatlantic markets.

Miscellaneous

Bombardier has scored a major win for its long-range C Series jet, landing a $3.1-billion order and erasing lingering concerns that the new aircraft was destined to remain stuck on the drawing board…Southwest Airlines has a new home in Philadelphia International. The airport unveiled a $45 million wing at Terminal E last week with seven new gates and a 500-seat holding area.