Mar 14, 2020 | Airlines, American, Community Service, Community Service Page, COVID, EAP, Education, Featured, Front Page, Hawaiian, Home, Home, Philippine, Safety, Safety, Spirit, Uncategorized, United
GOIAM.COM /////////////
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
I know there is much uncertainty surrounding the evolving COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak that has now been classified as a global pandemic. Our daily routines are being affected by the cancellation of many events in an effort to limit the spread of the virus. I want each and every member of our IAM family to know that the IAM is taking all necessary action to keep all of us safe while continuing the important work of our union.
The most important thing each of us can do now is to heed the advice of health officials. Please closely follow guidelines and monitor updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The best way to avoid being exposed to this virus is to:
– Clean your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
– Avoid close contact with people who are sick
– Stay home and seek medical care if you are sick
– Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or use the inside of your elbow
– Wear a facemask if you are sick
– Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily
I also encourage you to monitor the IAM Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource Center for more information, specific safety tips for our membership in the healthcare and transportation industries, as well as any updates on changes in IAM operations. Beginning this Saturday, March 14, we have made the decision to suspend programming at the Winpisinger Education and Technology Center for two weeks. We will closely monitor the situation and provide updates on all status changes.
To ensure that everything possible is being done to protect our membership at work, IAM Local Lodge Safety and Health Committees should meet with employers on steps being taken to mitigate the risk of virus transmission. Every employer has the responsibility to do everything necessary to keep its employees safe. Our union has a duty to hold employers responsible to that commitment.
The IAM Grand Lodge is working with elected officials to ensure that sufficient funding is available to respond to the outbreak and that steps are taken to protect jobs in industries that are especially affected by the pandemic.
Lastly, I want our membership to know that we will get through this difficult time together. Throughout our union’s 132-year history, we have always confronted great challenges. Our unity has pulled us through the toughest of times and this situation will be no different.
Let’s be smart, stay safe and continue our march toward dignity and justice for all working people.
Fraternally,
Robert Martinez Jr.
International President
Mar 11, 2020 | American, Featured, Home, The Association, Uncategorized
March 11, 2020
Association Concludes JCBA Review
TWU-IAM Association representatives have concluded reviewing the final JCBA documents and have authorized the company to print and mail full-text contracts to all members. Each member will receive the contract pertaining to your classification. Also included in the mailing will be a letter from TWU-IAM Association Director Sito Pantoja and TWU-IAM Association Vice Director Alex Garcia.
Voting will take place on Thursday, March 26. Specific information regarding voting locations and times will soon be available on TWU local and IAM local and district websites along with the Association website.
For your consideration, please view the letter, full-text contracts and highlight booklets at http://www.twu-iam.org.
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Mar 11, 2020 | American, Events, Featured, Home, Organizing, The Association, Uncategorized
TWU-IAM Members Urged to Vote on Tentative Agreements with American Airlines.
Committee members and leadership from IAM Districts 141 and 142 met in Chicago this week to review the Tentative Agreements reached by the TWU-IAM Association for over 30,000 members at American Airlines. The highly anticipated agreements were achieved after four years of negotiations that sometimes became contentious. If ratified, these will be the first joint collective bargaining agreements for five workgroups represented by the Association since American Airlines and US Airways merged in 2015.
Together, the agreements focus on protecting health care, retirement benefits, and provide historic levels of job security for union members at the airline. “Pensions like yours are unheard of,” said Machinists and Aerospace Union negotiator Tom Regan to a packed room of union members. “Your wages, your job security, your health care… will be second to none.”
“This is a historic agreement,” he said. “Truly historic.”
The agreements would improve benefits such as sick time, vacation, and holidays. Retirement accruals will become some of the very best ever to exist for commercial aviation fleet service workers. New job security language will add to existing, iron-clad outsourcing and layoff protections, preventing both airline workers and the work they do from being eliminated.
Wages, overtime rules, holiday pay, and profit-sharing will lead the industry.
Additionally, workers represented by the TWU-IAMAW Association will get “Delta” profit-sharing with one crucial caveat: the unionized workers at American will own their profit sharing, guaranteed in the new contract. “That’s why I don’t like naming our profit-sharing plan after the one at Delta,” Regan explained. “Delta workers can have theirs taken away.”
Mike Klemm, President and Directing General Chair of District 141 and Dave Supplee, his counterpart at District 142, opened the meeting thanking members for their steadfast support and solidarity. “You are part of this negotiating committee,” said Supplee. “Without your support, we would not be where we are today.” Klemm praised the work of the negotiating committee that delivered “the best contracts in the industry” and explained the process that will lead to the membership ratification vote in late March.
John Coveny, General Chair of District 142, and Mark Baskett, Assistant General Chair at District 141, led a detailed review of the agreements, highlighting changes and important details. In addition to improvements in wages, Profit Sharing, and strong job security protections, the contracts would protect the superior health care coverage that IAM members value.
American Airlines negotiators included a provision that would allow the company to “immediately” eliminate many of the medical plans for any workgroup that loses union membership with the Association.
Members will receive the full text of the agreements via email and a printed copy via US Mail in the next ten days. Polling hours and locations for the ratification vote will be announced once the voting date is confirmed.
The agreement for Fleet Service members specifically focuses on scope, guaranteeing 45 cities system-wide where members will work, adding BNA, DTW, IAH, MSY, and SNA. Cargo, de-icing, lavatory service, catering, and regional bag transfer work is protected in locations where it currently exists. The agreement also includes station job protections and specific language on station closings, staffing ratios for Crew Chiefs and agents, provisions to ensure the effective handling of grievances, and language that prevents new technology from replacing workers. There are also clear tables listing qualifications for a variety of positions, facilitating the career advancement and mobility of members.
Tim Klima, the Airline Coordinator of the IAMAW Transportation Territory, praised the work of negotiators and delivered thanks and words of support from General Vice President Sito Pantoja. Klima stated the agreements “left nothing on the table” and were achieved because of the hard work of negotiators and support and solidarity of members.
Summarizing what’s ahead, PDGC Mike Klemm encouraged members to read the agreements, reach out to committee members and leadership if there are questions, and most importantly: “Go Vote!”
The TWU-IAM Association was formed after the merger of American Airlines and US Airways in 2012. As Labor Partners made up of members from the Transport Workers Union and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, they represent approximately 33,000 employees at the new American Airlines and is the largest union at the carrier. The Association is vested with all powers and authority necessary to carry out its objectives.
Mar 7, 2020 | American, Featured, Home, The Association, Uncategorized
This week, TWU-IAM Association representatives continued the process of reviewing tentatively agreed to Joint Contract language. Late Friday evening, the Executive Committee finalized the remaining documents necessary to put the contracts together for membership review, before ballots are cast.
The work that Association representatives have been engaged in during the last four weeks has been arduous and time-consuming but vitally important. We must ensure that every word in these agreements is correct and that nothing has been overlooked, so TWU-IAM members receive documents to review and vote on that reflect the contract that was made by both parties. We will not sacrifice thoroughness for any reason, and we appreciate the patience and support of the entire Association membership during this process.
Over this weekend, our plan is to review the final documents and to authorize the airline to prepare the contracts for printing and distribution. Next week, the Association negotiating committees will be meeting with TWU-IAM representatives on Monday and Tuesday to review the content of the tentative Agreements. The critical agreement covering the implementation of some terms of the Agreements remains to be finalized. Once done, the contracts will be complete.
We anticipate the T/A’s will be released online, Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning, after completing the review of the agreements with TWU-IAM representatives.
Again, we appreciate your patience and support as we bring this process to conclusion.
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Feb 22, 2020 | American, Featured, Home, The Association, Uncategorized
February 22, 2020
Contract Language Talks Progress
The full negotiating committees continued to meet this week in Dallas, TX to write the remaining language needed to secure the final contract from the Agreement in Principle made with American Airlines. With a few exceptions, the bulk of that work is now done.
Our next task is to work with our attorneys to finalize the language that properly protects our industry-leading 401(k) contributions, pension contributions, and profit-sharing. It is important to make sure these critical elements are unambiguous. These core tenets of the new agreement are extremely valuable to members while they are working and when they retire, so we must ensure they are foundationally sound. It is our goal to get this exercise done in our meetings next week.
The final piece of the JCBA will be to reach an implementation schedule with the company. We all expect the benefits of these bargaining sessions to come to us as quickly and as reasonably as possible. This is not assured without written agreements outlining the timeframes of when the changes will start.
While it may seem to be a long process to finalize this deal, it is the intent of your negotiators that we get everything that was bargained for, that it is done right and that you know what to expect. We have spent years in a tough fight and we cannot short circuit the negotiations at the end, just to expedite the process.
Your continued patience and support is appreciated – it is what got us here. This industry-best contract will prove that the time it has taken was worth it!
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Feb 20, 2020 | American, Featured, Home, Organizing
A principal member of the negotiating team at American Airlines, Wilson will serve as Assistant General Chair for District 141.
Mike Klemm, President and Directing General Chair announced the appointment of William “Billy” Wilson as Assistant General Chair at the February District 141 Board Meeting.
“Billy Wilson is a dedicated and proven leader whose energy and steady advocacy on behalf of our members helped us achieve a fair agreement with American Airlines. He is a valued member of our District 141 leadership,” said Klemm.
Just six months after he began working for US Air in Philadelphia in 1987, Billy recognized the benefits of having a union and a voice in the workplace and became a Shop Steward. He earned the support of his coworkers and was re-elected multiple times. In 2006 he was elected to the Local 1776 Grievance Committee, where he continued to distinguish himself and was elected Grievance Chair in 2014, a position he held for six years.
In the Summer of 2015, Billy joined the Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement Negotiating Committee of the TWU-IAM Association as a representative of the IAM. That same year, he became a District 141 Vice President At-Large.
“Working as a member of the IAM JCBA was an honor and a privilege. I learned that in negotiations it is alright to not get everything you asked for. If you get everything, then you probably didn’t ask for enough,” Wilson stated.
Wilson was relentless in his pursuit of justice and a fair contract for all union members, at and away from the negotiating table. A video of his exchange with American Airlines President Robert Isom at a “town hall” meeting went viral in April 2018.
Wilson’s resolve at the negotiating table is balanced with an easy-going personality that makes him accessible to the members he represents. He stressed that there is nothing more important than paying attention, and stated, “I think one of the most sincere forms of respect is taking the time to actually listen to others.”
