Teamsters Announce Tentative Agreement for UAL Mechanics
Capping almost two years of negotiations that have seen a period with historic worldwide economic change, industry convulsions and a merger that has created the world’s largest airline, Teamsters General President James Hoffa announced on Friday that a Tentative Agreement had been reached between the Teamsters and United Airlines.
“This tentative agreement marks the start of new day for United mechanics,” Hoffa said. “This contract makes significant gains in a number of key areas where our members felt they had lost ground in previous contracts. Our negotiating team made addressing these areas their number one priority and did an outstanding job.”
“This is a historic step in the continuing merger process of United and Continental Airlines,” said Airline Division Director David Bourne. “I would like to congratulate and commend the hard work and dedication of the union negotiating team, and also want to acknowledge the positive working relationship exhibited by United’s management and negotiators during this two-year process.”
Details of the contract will not be released until after it has been presented to and reviewed by the membership in the coming weeks. The union’s negotiation team is currently working on the scheduling of membership meetings and securing a date for the ratification vote.
Cape Air Negotiations, Progress Continues
With nine sections of the contract already tentatively agreed to, discussions between the union and company continued this past week in Hyannis, MA. Negotiating Committee representatives were assisted by Local 1224 legal counsel and IBT International Representative Scott Hegland. Section 8 (Paid Time Off) and Section 6 (Scheduling) were discussed with progress was made in both sections.
Negotiating sessions are scheduled twice monthly through the end of June with the next negotiating session scheduled to begin on March 29th and conclude March 31st. Planned discussions at that meeting will cover Section 6 and Hours of Service.
Omni Air Mediation to Begin in Washington
Mediation over the open sections of the contract for the pilots and flight engineers of Omni Air International are scheduled to begin on Monday, March 21st in Washington, DC at the National Mediation Board. Areas of discussion will include Compensation, Medical and Retirement benefits and Scope, as well as some work rule areas and accruals. International Representatives Captain Rick Dubinsky and Captain Scott Hegland will be in attendance for the Airline Division. Omni crewmembers will be represented by ExCo Chairman Flight Engineer Clark Cameron and Captain Charles Wallace, assisted by IBT Benefits Expert Hemet Beery and Business Agent John Herron. The mediation session will conclude March 25th.
Week In Review News Items
Labor Developments
Airlines scrambled on Thursday to fly thousands of passengers out of Tokyo as fears about Japan's nuclear crisis mounted and the United States joined other nations urging their citizens to leave…however, rising radiation levels and continual aftershocks rumbling through Tokyo are raising tensions between pilots and managers at U.S. carriers flying to central Japan. Union leaders at United and Continental Airlines say flight crews are anxious about deteriorating conditions in Tokyo, where the carriers’ pilots and flight attendants recuperate from long trans-Pacific flights…and three airline unions — the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Allied Pilots Association and Transport Workers Union of America — have formed a joint Operational Response Team to monitor the situation in Japan and form response plans.
The heads of British Airways and trade union Unite met at the end of last week in an effort to head off the threat of a strike next month. The meeting between BA chief executive Keith Williams and Unite general secretary Len McCluskey came as the airline’s pilots voted overwhelmingly in favour of a two-year pay deal that includes a productivity-related rise in the second year.
Legislative, Safety & Regulatory
The pilots of a Jetstar A320 flight leaving Darwin late last October thought they were going to die when the jet was caught in a severe storm down draft according to testimony from the Richard Woodward, Vice President of the Australian and International Pilots Association to the Senate inquiry into pilot training and airline safety.
Within the past 24 hours, US security measures, and particularly the TSA, were confronted by two influential policy bodies. The security processes, which have encountered a great deal of criticism and publicity of late, appear to be attracting more notice and evaluation by regulators and industry constituents.
Southwest Airlines has been slapped with a $50,000 fine by the U.S. DOT for failing to display on-time performance data at the carrier’s website, www.southwest.com…Indian authorities have begun checking the licenses of all airline pilots in the country after at least four were found to be flying using fake documents, a top civil aviation official said this week.
The past year has been one of exhilarating expansion, and deadly setbacks, for the fleets of inexpensive buses plying the highways of the Northeast. Lured by cheap fares, convenient routes and in some cases free wireless Internet, customers queue up daily from curbside pickups in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.
Airline Industry Finances & Structure
American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia have coordinated their timetables on transatlantic routes. The new schedules have now been released, in preparation for the launch of the airlines' joint venture this summer…anyone who thinks that the days of airline schedule retaliation are over clearly hasn’t been watching Delta. The airline is royally pissed that Frontier had the gall to enter the Minneapolis to Kansas City market and now it’s unleashing its own response to try to change the airline’s mind.
Miscellaneous
Where else but on an airplane are people jammed into limited space and forced to share re-circulated air, not to mention bad behavior? One person leans back and encroaches on another. A neighbor's large belly or long legs extend into the space you paid for. One passenger's onion rings are polluting an entire row…the city of Chicago and two major airlines announced a nearly $1.2 billion deal this week to go ahead with parts of a long-planned expansion for O'Hare International Airport, one of the world's busiest air traffic hubs…and would you pay $17.50 for access to an airport lounge the next time you have time to kill in the terminal? That's the hope of start-up company AirSpace Lounge, which hopes to add as many as 40 amenity-laden lounges at airports across the United States.