President of District Lodge 141 Mike Klemm traveled out west this week to visit IAM members. Here is an inside look at his busy schedule and activities as he went to San Francisco, Honolulu, and Los Angelos airports.
UPDATE: The FAA Re-Authorization Bill of 2018 was approved by the Senate and signed into law by the president on October 5.
The US House of Representatives approved the FAA Reauthorization Bill, which includes strong “Union Made” language. The bill is now headed to the Senate.
“Machinists should be very proud of the work that we’ve done together on this bill,” said District 141 MNPL Director Dave Roderick. The IAM141 MNPL, or Machinists Non-Partisan League, is the legislative department of District 141. The IAM141 MNPL works to make sure that airline workers have a seat at the table as laws that impact their industry get made.
“Laws shouldn’t be written entirely by Wall Street investors and CEOs,” Roderick
explained of the work his department does. “Congress should hear from just as many break rooms as they do from boardrooms.”
“And, while we didn’t get everything we wanted, airport break rooms were heard loud and clear in the new FAA Reauthorization Bill.”
IAM141 in DC: (From left: IAM141 Legislative Director, Dave Roderick, IAM141 Communications Coordinator and New Jersey State Council of Machinists President Ines Garcia-Keim, Ross DelConte (Local 914 EWR), Darlene Williams (Local 1487 ORD), and Local 914 EWR President, Bill Gula.
IAM Activists aggressively fought for two years to have Congress include pro-airline worker language in H.R.-4, the proposed $17 billion, five-year Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2018.
The result of all the MNPL work is a final bill that contains many of the top priorities of IAM Members within the commercial aviation industry, as well as important improvements for the flying public.
Among the highlights:
This is what it looks like to be “off duty” if you’re a flight attendant.
Exhaustion in the skies is much more than a workplace annoyance for flight attendants; it can also be a serious safety issue. Flight crews are responsible for the security of the aircraft cabin, while they also perform functions that create the primary customer experience for most passengers.
The FAA Bill will help make flights safer, and help Flight Attendants enhance customer service by increasing rest periods to at least ten uninterrupted hours between shifts.
Now passengers are legally required to chill.
Airline CSAs have critical security responsibilities at our nation’s airports, and yet are often the victims of severe abuse by passengers. Hundreds of attacks against gate and ticket counter agents occur every year, and many go unreported.
IAM Members have lobbied to require airlines to implement an assault prevention plan that protects CSAs from abuse while they are on the job. The new FAA Bill will require the immediate reporting of any verbal or physical assault on gate and ticket counter agents and establishes protocols for law enforcement to assess and take action before a passenger involved in a violent assault is allowed to proceed through security or board an aircraft.
Airlines must implement the new protections and training within 90 days of the reauthorization, and the Secretary of Transportation will also oversee a study that will gather data and make recommendations for future training and best practices.
The new FAA Bill will make getting bumped less of a drag.
Bumping Protections are included in the new FAA Bill. The new rules specifically address a well-publicized incident that took place last year, as the bill prohibits the “involuntary bumping of passengers once they have boarded the plane.” It looks like once the gate crew has cleared you to board the plane, you’re good to go.
Soon airplane seats may become less horrible.
For passengers that are big or tall or anyone with a bad back, air travel is more than just a pain. It can literally be torture. Air travelers that dread long hours in cramped seats may have some welcome relief on the way. The bill requires the FAA to set minimum standards for passenger legroom and seat width.
The bill also requires all newly manufactured commercial passenger aircraft to be equipped with secondary cockpit barriers, bans in-flight voice cell phone calls, requires the regulation of service and emotional support animals on aircraft, and improves the safe transport of lithium batteries.
The bill now moves to the US Senate for approval. Please contact your Senator and urge them to keep the pro-airline worker language in the FAA Reauthorization Bill of 2018.
“This bill has provisions that help protect IAM members and the traveling public,” said Transportation General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “It will also ensure continued investment into the aviation infrastructure which will provide a stronger workforce for our members. I encourage all our members to call their senators to urge them to pass this legislation.”
Tell your Senator that you support airline workers and the new FAA Reauthorization Bill Now.
The IAM141 Machinists Non-Partisan League is funded entirely through voluntary donations from members like you. To become a supporting member of the IAM141 MNPL, please complete an MNPL Automatic Payroll Deduction Card for any amount today. Cards can be found by visiting the MNPL page at IAM141.org.
Brothers and Sisters,
The TWU-IAM Association was notified this week that the National Mediation Board has assigned two mediators to our negotiations. The mediators have indicated that, due to Federal budget concerns and scheduling, they will not schedule mediated negotiating sessions until after October.
The Association has demanded to meet with American with or without the mediators and as soon as possible. American has refused to meet. All indications are that American wants to drag our negotiations out as long as possible.
While mediators can and do schedule negotiating sessions, the parties can meet and reach agreements anytime with or without the mediator in attendance. American Airlines has begun to stall our negotiations now that it is time to deal with the toughest issues before us: scope, retirement, healthcare and compensation.
To American, we say we will meet any time with or without mediators present. Negotiations are just that, negotiations. Waiting for a mediator or dragging your feet does not change the issues necessary to get a deal done. It’s time to get back to the table!
Fraternally,
Your Association Executive Negotiating Committee
Many of you have read the Special Jetwire issued by American Airlines regarding our negotiations. If you don’t read anything else in this bulletin, read this:
Beware of any negotiations propaganda issued by the Company. It contains partial examples, misleading statements and outright wrong information.
It is true that your negotiating team has reached tentative agreements on many good improvements for our joint collective bargaining agreements. However, American has not just given those out of the kindness of their heart – they were hard won by the tenacity of your negotiators and, most importantly, you deserve them!
American paints the picture that all you will ever need is right there in their proposal just for the taking. What they don’t tell you is that you would have to agree to concede vast amounts of work you are doing today. You would give up the better and less costly healthcare options ALREADY WON AND PAID FOR through bankruptcy. You would suffer less in retirement value that already exists in our Association and you would have to take less than other American Airlines employee groups. And, you would have to agree to wages that can fall below industry standards during the life of the agreement.
Things American will not tell you is that they demand to allow unlimited fleet work performed today to shift to vendors. They want you to concede scheduled line maintenance work by almost doubling the amount of that work performed outside of the United States from what is done today. They want overhaul maintenance to concede over 2,200 jobs during the life of the agreement. And, they want to shrink the facilities maintenance work to a mere skeleton of what the Association performs today.
Sisters and Brothers, these are CONCESSIONS!
Our members invested in our airlines through our bankruptcy contributions. We are the reason these carriers and this management were able to merge American Airlines and US Airways into the biggest airline in the world. It is now a carrier that is more profitable than it has been in its entire combined past history. It is an airline predicted to never lose money again. We deserve to keep what we bring to the table today in the form of the work we do, the benefits we have and the security we need.
Our proposals seek to allow our membership to grow as the Company grows. We deserve to share in the prosperity we make. We deserve to be rewarded for our sacrifices. Our proposals are reasonable and don’t overreach.
To the contrary, American has chosen this time to be greedy and demand that we continue to give back. They believe they can bribe us into concessions we would have to live with for the rest of our careers.
To that we say, hell no!
One more thing – American can begin the early out today. There is no need to wait.
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Michael G. Klemm
President/Directing General Chair
District Lodge 141
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Dave Supplee
President/Directing General Chair
District Lodge 142
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Brothers and Sisters,
Today, September 12, 2018, American Airlines delivered Section 6 notices for all open TWU-IAM Association collective bargaining agreements. Simply stated, a Section 6 notice officially opens contracts under the Railway Labor Act. The TWU-IAM Association welcomes this gesture by the Company as a sign they will now get serious about reaching the Joint Collective Bargaining Agreements our members deserve.
Included in the Company’s communication to the Association is a notice of their intent to file for mediation with the National Mediation Board (NMB). This move is also welcomed by the Association. The NMB has previously been involved in these negotiations with the attendance of a Board member serving as the mediator. The Association looks forward to a Board member returning to our negotiating table.
We truly hope this is a sign that the Company will get serious in addressing the necessary wage, scope, retirement and healthcare issues it will take to reach agreement. It is high-time the Company stop its concessionary demands and recognizes the sacrifices our members have made to allow American Airlines and US Airways to merge and create the largest airline in the world. Our position of achieving the protections, pay and benefits our members deserve will not be hindered by this process, it will be amplified by it.
The involvement of the NMB in our negotiations does not mean a third party has the right or the ability to impose terms of any kind nor can it make decisions on our contracts or force decisions upon us, it merely introduces a facililitator into the process. It also does another thing: it begins the formal Railway Labor Act process that can eventually lead to cooling-off periods and eventually self-help. If American Airlines refuses to respect our membership and fails to reach satisfactory settlements, the TWU-IAM Association will exercise every option under the Railway Labor Act up to and including self-help. For that reason, the Association will begin assembling strike committees in all American Airlines represented locations.
Fraternally,
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Alex Garcia
TWU International Executive Vice President
TWU/IAM Association Director
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Sito Pantoja
IAM General Vice President
TWU/IAM Association Vice Director
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District 142 General Chair Sean Ryan and District 141 Assistant General Chair Mark Baskett discuss the ongoing contract negotiations to American Airlines membership.