An Immediate Benefit to Unionizing: Negotiating a Legally Binding Contract
Organizing
9 August 2022
One of the many benefits of unionizing is that GO Crewmembers will gain the right to negotiate a legally binding contract. Under the law, wages, benefits, and working conditions are all “mandatory subjects of bargaining” and JetBlue management MUST bargain in “good faith” with us. That means JetBlue management must negotiate in a way that will bring about an agreement. That’s the law.
That’s important because it gives GO Crewmembers the right and opportunity to lock in what we like about our current job, negotiate improvements to the things that need to be fixed, AND negotiate protections during the merger with Spirit.
JetBlue executives are trying to talk Crewmembers out of negotiating a legally-binding union contract. Yet, none of them would dream of working without a contract in a million years.
For example, currently in FLL, approximately half of the part-time bid lines are now relief lines in which GO Crewmembers have to bid every two weeks. That’s right EVERY TWO WEEKS! With a contract, we can fix that. What about the locations where JetBlue management just involuntarily cut full-time hours from 40 to 32? With a contract, we can fix that too.
What about pay? Once we unionize, we have the right to negotiate higher wages. Without a contract, we have no guarantees of any wage increases. The announced wage increases in 2023 are not guaranteed. We already experienced not receiving scheduled wage increases in 2021, due to the pandemic (NOTE: all UNION airlines received their pay increases in 2021 because of their contracts). And, the 2023 pay scale, even with the raise, is the lowest among the major US airlines.
By unionizing, we will take control over our destiny. We will have a strong voice to protect OUR interests.
Remember, if we don’t have a seat at the table, we are likely on the menu.
VOTE! Only One Week Left
There are seven days left before Election Day and we want to make sure every Machinists Union member has a plan to vote. There is too much at stake to sit this election out. Visit iam2020.org today to find your polling place, see early voting locations, locate a...
Big Money is Buying an Anti-Union Supreme Court
When it comes to who is chosen to fill an open seat on the highest court in the United States, the process isn’t just a matter of picking a well-known judge from the lower courts. It’s a multi-million-dollar industry-funded from hard to trace origins. Former U.S....
Broken Promises: Aerospace Workers on the Line
United Technologies in California In July of 2018, United Technologies Corporation (UTC) informed IAM Local 755 they were going to lay off approximately 300 members from their Chula Vista, CA facility. IAM members have been making aerospace components at that location...
Machinists Prepare to Fight For a Pro-Work Agenda in Georgia
No one shook hands. Everyone wore masks. They practiced social distancing. But that didn’t stop the participants who attended this year’s Georgia State Council of Machinists (GSCM) Conference which was held Oct. 11 – 13, 2020 in Macon, GA to accomplish some...
Related News
IAM Birthday Week: Remembering Tom Talbot, IAM Founder, Visionary and Loyal Unionist
[supsystic-social-sharing id='3']On May 5th 1888, Thomas W. Talbot organized what we now call the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). On that day, 19 railroad workers in a locomotive pit, tired of poor employment conditions, founded a...
Bill Seeks to Make Union Dues Tax Deductible
[supsystic-social-sharing id='3']The 2019 tax season was the first time union members could no longer deduct the cost of items such as tools, uniforms, subscriptions to trade journals, and many other items besides union dues that are often necessary for workers to do...
141 Report: Leroy Taylor and the Local 811 Pushback
An early supporter of unionization, Brother Leroy was a Shop Steward during the merger of United and Continental and is grateful and proud to be a member of the IAM. Driven by his desire to learn more about the union movement, he became active in Local 811 (he tells...