united negotiations
message from rich delaney, president, district 141
Negotiations between the Members of District Lodge 141 and United Airlines formally began today, Tuesday, April 7, 2009. Both the company and representatives of the IAM exchanged their ideas for proposed changes to our current Agreement. We have taken the ideas we have received from Members and incorporated them into the final outline of issues that are posted elsewhere on this website. We have tried to impress on United Airlines the importance of these proposals to our membership in order for us to move forward in these talks. We also tried to put our proposals in the perspective they deserve.
It has been nearly a decade since the Members of District Lodge 141 have had the opportunity to propose changes to our collective bargaining agreement with United Airlines. In the intervening years we have seen dramatic shifting of our relationship with the company. The experiment that was Employee Ownership is a distant memory for some and an urban legend for many of our newer Members. It has been a long time since anyone – either worker or manager – has spoken of a cooperative work environment or referred to the Rules of the Road as the philosophy of United Airlines. The security employees enjoyed has been replaced by wholesale job loss, station and office closings, reduced wages and increased cost of benefits.
It is startling to look back on such a relatively short period of time and realize how completely all has changed. A generation ago United’s stated goal was to be one of the top 100 companies to work for. The employees wanted the same thing. Today there is no talk of United being a company anyone wants to work for; rather, employees often feel they work for United against their will. The idea of a successful company with satisfied employees sounds very naive today. Unfortunately, it seems the reality is United no longer sees the benefit of career minded, motivated employees,instead it views us as obstacle in a business plan, not partners in the future.
As we enter this current round of negotiations it is imperative for all of us to understand the concerns of our membership – as those concerns will shape and determine the ultimate agreement that will be made.
The proposals we presented today are based on the desires of our membership. Their expectation that our work here will result in a better paying, more secure job. That is our goal.
We intend to focus on three main areas of concern:
- JOB SECURITY
- IMPROVED WAGES
- IMPROVED BENEFITS
In addition, we intend to address the issues that our members have determined will improve their work lives on a daily basis.
Members may question, as they review our proposals, how these short descriptions of contract articles become changes to our contract. We have given United the general areas of concern, as required by the law we operate under. We will now begin the process of full discussion on each item, in an effort to reach an Agreement our members will ultimately support and ratify.