Brothers & Sisters,
The Negotiating Committee met with American Airlines the week of June 12th, in Washington D.C. and continued negotiations on Classifications for M&R, and Promotions & Transfers, Recall, and Reduction in Force for Fleet Service among other contractual provisions. The Executive Committee was unable to reach full tentative agreements; however, progress was made in several areas, and language was agreed to in principle.
The Executive Committee, the M&R and Fleet Service Negotiating Committees continues to discuss open issues for the Articles, and why we are unable to reach tentative agreements on them. It is both disappointing and frustrating that the Company continues to make proposals that contain concessionary language that the Committees cannot accept; even when we provide counterproposals that American cannot disprove would meet their needs of service. While we all agree that progress is slowly being made, the Company still believes that we will make concessions just to reach an Agreement, which will never happen. We all want an expeditious end to negotiations, but we are not willing to simply bring back a substandard contract to get there. Our members deserve the best in the industry. Management has promised that, and so far they have failed to live up to their words.
We are all becoming more frustrated as these weeks go by, because the contract language that the Company has promised and committed to, has yet to fully materialize. The only way these negotiations will be expedited is if American Airlines management actually shows the commitment at the bargaining table they have continually promised to us; that is the industry’s best contracts for their employees.
Negotiations are scheduled to resume on the following weeks: July 17th & July 24th in Washington, DC.
Fraternally,
Fleet Negotiating Committee:
Mark Baskett, William Fa, Mike Fairbanks, Tim Hughes
Steve Miller, Tim Murphy, Pat Rezler, Art Risley
Andre Sutton, Rodney Walker, Bill Wilson
Mechanic and Related/Stores Committee:
Jason Best, Mike Bush, Ken Coley, John Coveny
Dale Danker, Mark Huffman, Bennie Martino, Gary Peterson
Rollie Reaves, Sean Ryan, Jay Sleeman, Mark Strength