Dec 13, 2017 | Airlines, American, Departments, Featured, Hawaiian, Home, Safety, United
To reduce the number of workplace accidents at our nation’s airports, union activists promised to form stronger partnerships with airline and industry leaders at the IAM141 Safety Conference, which began on Tuesday.
Bill Salo is the IAM141 Safety Director (United Airlines.) His work has led to safety policy changes at airports around the nation.
The IAM141 Safety Conference is an annual event that brings together union leaders and activists, company representatives and workplace safety experts from around the nation to discuss the topic of workplace safety. Each year, attendees review ongoing safety issues and priorities and develop employee-level strategies for enforcing workplace safety.
Throughout the conference, speakers repeatedly underscored the importance of front-line workers actively partnering with company-based safety teams. “It’s crucial that we’re working with the company.” Said Bill Salo, who, along with Tony D’Aloiso and Kaulana Pakele is a Safety Director at IAM141. “As union members, we sometimes disagree with companies about a lot of things, but safety is not one of them.”
Tony D’Aloiso, IAM141 Safety Director (American Airlines) has helped employee-level safety programs take flight.
Union activists and leaders were quick to acknowledge the need for well-planned company-led safety programs and training but insisted that these programs are not enough by themselves. Worker-led programs and front-line safety reporting are also needed.
Erik Stenberg is the IAM141 Director of Safety. ““The workers have the information that companies need to make policy decisions regarding safety.”
“The workers have the information that companies need to make policy decisions regarding safety.” Said IAM141 Safety Director Erik Stenberg. “We know and understand the work and the challenges that front-line workers are facing on the job. If we can get this information to company managers, they can make better decisions about company policy.”
“We’re trying to work together. We’ve invited the company to attend this conference, and they have been very receptive to us so far.” United, Hawaiian, and American Airlines all sent representatives from management as well as front-line workers to participate in the Safety Conference.
From Houston, Texas: Safety Supervisor of Airport Operations for United Airlines Gary Snead (left) and IAM Local 811 President Leroy Taylor (right) at the 2017 IAM141 Safety Conference.
Airline managers are happy to welcome the help of front-line workers. “I think this partnership is great, and it’s here for one goal. And, that’s creating a safer and healthier work environment for everyone.” Said Gary Snead, the Safety Supervisor of Airport Operations at the United Airlines’ massive Houston hub, Gary Snead praised the efforts to team up with union members.
Echoing the sentiments of union-side safety advocates, Snead went on to say, “You know, the company and the union don’t agree on a lot of things, but we are united for safety.”
Kaulana Pakele is the IAM141 Safety Director for Hawaiian Airlines. Pakele has helped ensure that IAM Members have direct lines to management whenever they are reporting safety issues at work.
IAM141 President, Mike Klemm praised the partnerships as he delivered the opening remarks at the 2017 Safety Conference. Pointing out programs such as the GSAP reporting system and the IAM safety tracking system “UnionSafe,” he repeated the sincerity of the efforts of both sides to improve airline safety.
“Safety has improved, and will continue to improve.” President Mike Klemm said, “Obviously, our members coming home, and the company’s employees coming home, the same way they went to work is crucial to both the company and the union. Until we arrive at the day where nobody is getting hurt on the job, we will always strive to improve on safety.”
Dec 8, 2017 | Airlines, American, Home, The Association
Brothers and Sisters,
The Executive Negotiating Committee met face to face with American Airlines this week in Washington, D.C. This session focused on Maintenance Control Technicians (MCT) and Maintenance Training Specialists (MTS) along with other Mechanic & Related and Stores language. Substantial progress was made in several non-economic articles. The constructive dialog and productive environment carried over from last week, enabling the parties to significantly narrow their positions on outstanding issues in numerous articles for these groups.
Complete Tentative Agreements were reached on:
Qualifications – MCT
Filling of Vacancies – MCT
Recall – MCT
Hours of Service – MTS
Filling of Vacancies – MTS
Seniority – MTS
Filling of Vacancies – MLS
Qualifications – MLS
The future negotiating calendar is as follows:
December 11- DFW
January 8- DCA
January 22- DCA
February 12- DCA
February 19- DCA
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
Dec 1, 2017 | Airlines, American, Home, The Association
Brothers and Sisters,
The Executive Negotiating Committee met face to face with American Airlines this week in Washington DC. This session was focused on Maintenance Training Specialists (MTS) and was very productive. Non-economic articles were discussed. Constructive dialog in a productive environment helped the parties significantly narrow their positions in numerous articles that produced an agreement on most outstanding language issues. Complete Tentative Agreements were reached on:
Purpose of Agreement
Preamble
Safety & Health
Uniforms
Qualifications
When the parties reconvene both sides will be prepared to begin discussions on the Scope Article and remaining language issues for MTS.
Additional weeks have been added to the negotiating calendar as follows:
December 4 DCA
December 11 DFW
January 8 DCA
January 22 DCA
February 12 DCA
February 19 DCA
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
Nov 11, 2017 | Airlines, American, Home, The Association
Brothers and Sisters,
The Executive Negotiating Committee met face to face with American Airlines this week in Washington DC.
The Letters of Agreement that were reviewed and designated by the Association subcommittee, were presented to the company. An agreement was reached by the parties on what letters will still need to be discussed and incorporated into the JCBA, what letters will be retained, and what letters will be eliminated that are no longer relevant.
Discussions continued for MLS and MCT on Qualifications, Filling of Vacancies and Overtime procedures. Progress was made.
Agreement was reached to continue the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) and to establish a Ground Safety Action Program (GSAP) that will apply to Association represented ground personnel. These valuable programs help to promote a safer workplace while creating greater protections for our members.
In depth discussions began on the Scope Article for Fleet Service.
Discussions on Union Security/Dues Check Off for all groups were also held, we are close to a tentative agreement for that article.
In keeping with being productive between negotiation sessions, an Association subcommittee will meet in DFW next week to finalize the Leave of Absence Matrix chart (to be put in the JCBA) that will reflect the previously tentative agreement of the Leave of Absence Article.
Negotiations are scheduled to resume December 11 in Dallas.
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 Hu?man, Bennie Martino, Gary Peterson,
Rollie Reaves, Sean Ryan, Jay Sleeman, Mark Strength
Nov 2, 2017 | Airlines, Featured, Home, United
Union contracts are protecting paychecks.
While millions of America’s non-union workers are watching their paychecks erode due to ever-increasing health care costs and wage stagnation, IAM Members at our nation’s airlines are prospering.
With wages that are higher than they have ever been, new contracts that make outsourcing almost impossible, and no shortage of profits for carriers, airline workers have never had it better than they do right now.
Many IAM Members at United Airlines are already the very best paid airline workers in their classifications. In December, the IAM Wage Premium will increase even more, as most IAM members at United will begin earning a base rate of more than $30/hour, many of them for the first time.
Although contract negotiations at American are ongoing, insiders are predicting that wages at that airline will remain strong once a Tentative Agreement with IAM Members gets ratified. American Airlines Members, like their counterparts at United, are at the very top of the pay scale already.
These raises are not small. They will deliver millions of dollars in additional wages to IAM141 members. They are helping to negate the inevitable cost of living increases that are eroding the wages of most non-union workers.
The upcoming raises at United will be only the second of six total negotiated raises for covered Union workers at the airline. IAM Members at United will be getting guaranteed raises just like this one for the next four years.
Thanks to these advances, IAM Contracts have dramatically redefined what constitutes a fair market rate for airline work. “Normal” wages for topped out airline workers are now higher than that of most American workers and are not likely to fall anytime soon.
Oct 20, 2017 | Airlines, American, Home, The Association
Brothers and Sisters,
The Executive Negotiating Committee met face to face with American Airlines this week in New York City.
As was previously reported, an Association subcommittee met last week in Dallas to review and designate what Letters of Agreement would be retained in the JCBA, should be discussed during negotiations to incorporate into articles of the JCBA, or removed. All TWU and IAM Letters of Agreement inside and outside of the current CBA’s were reviewed for all groups.
Discussion this week centered around ASAP (Aviation Safety Action Program), GSAP (Ground Safety Action Program), Grandfathering Limited Duty, Overtime procedures for M&R and MLS as well as preliminary Scope discussions for Fleet Service.
The discussions on the ASAP/ GSAP Memorandums of Understanding are an effort to combine the TWU and IAM programs into a single program to cover all M&R and Stores under the ASAP and Fleet Service under the GSAP.
We had previously tentatively agreed to the Limited Duty Article; further agreement was reached to grandfather anyone currently on limited duty from an on the job injury for all groups.
Discussion on overtime distribution procedures for M&R and MLS continued and will support the previously tentatively agreed to Articles for Overtime.
The Seniority Article for Fleet Service has been tentatively agreed to.
Negotiations are scheduled to resume on the following weeks: November 6 in Washington, DC and December 11 in Dallas.
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
