Jan 15, 2019 | Airlines, American, Community Service, Departments, EAP, Education, Hawaiian, Home, MNPL, Organizing, Philippine, Safety, Spirit, United
Houston’s Terminal B Security Checkpoint was closed indefinitely as of Monday.
Houston’s largest airport, Bush Intercontinental (IAH), is closing a primary security checkpoint as they deal with staffing shortages caused by increasing numbers of TSA agents who can no longer afford to come to work without pay. The announcement follows a similar decision by officials at Miami International Airport (MIA) to reduce hours at TSA checkpoints at its Concourse G, and record-shattering security lines at other airports, such as Atlanta’s ATL, which had wait times in excess of two hours.
About 4,000 IAM members work at IAH. The station is home to both Locals 811 and 2198.
Although flights will still be leaving from Terminal B, where the closure is taking place, passengers will need to check in at other terminals. Businesses at Terminal B will remain open, but can expect less customer traffic as passengers will be arriving in the concourse closer to flight departure times.
11:00 AM, and some businesses at IAH Terminal B had yet to make a single sale.
Airport administrators have not said how long the closures will last. IAM141 AGC Victor Hernandez (IAH Ramp, DFW, SJU) issued a statement to Machinists Union members at the airport, reassuring the membership that the expected impact to operations at United Airlines was minimal. “As of right now we are not losing any days of work,” he said in the statement, adding that some people may be expected to move from some work areas to others. He promised more updates if any changes happen that could impact union members at IAH.
Houston’s Mayor Sylvester Turner blamed the closure on a lack of TSA agents available to work.
IAH is already one of the busiest airports in the world.
More than 100,000 people travel daily through IAH, making it one of the busiest airports in the world. Airport parking can range as high as $30 per day, and there are limited public transportation options to the airport, making it an expensive place for TSA agents to commute to every day. Once additional costs such as daycare, lunches, and tolls are also factored in, a typical TSA agent in Houston will spend a sizable chunk of their income each month just getting to work.
A TSA Agent looks on as passengers line up at Terminal C, which was fully staffed.
TSA Agents have not received a paycheck since before Christmas, amid the most extended government shutdown in US history. Since the average TSA agent earns about $35k a year, going without pay means going without rent. “Thankfully, I have two jobs because I’m not getting paid at TSA,” said one agent on Twitter (#ShutDownStories). “But I still have to show up. Which means I have to work both jobs every day, sleeping two to three hours at night, just to not even break even on bills.”
The government shutdown began on December 22, after President Trump and lawmakers failed to agree on a spending bill. There are few indications that the shutdown will end any time soon, which means that more disruptions are certain.
Get involved! Contact IAM141 MNPL Legislative Director Dave Roderick for information about what you can do to help end the shutdown, and get 800,000 Federal Employees back to work.
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Jan 11, 2019 | Airlines, American, Departments, Hawaiian, Home, Philippine, Spirit, United
On the 20th day of the partial federal government shutdown, workers, union leaders, members of Congress and allies gathered in front of the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, DC.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka kicked off the rally by denouncing the shutdown, which has become the longest and most painful in American history.
“That is not a record that anyone should be proud of. And let’s call this shutdown what it is: it’s a lockout. Hard working American patriots are being locked out of their jobs for no reason other than the politics of fear.”
Representatives of IAM141 joined in solidarity with union activists from the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), the IAMAW affiliate that was a lead organizer of the rally. Randy Erwin, NFFE National President, described union members who feel as if the “carpet (was) ripped out from under them” and asked, “How out of touch is this president?”
Erwin introduced NFFE member Jamie Rodney, who as a Federal Investigator for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) enforces fair housing and civil rights laws. She warned that HUD rental assistance payments that millions of people rely on would not be available during the shutdown.
IAM General Vice-President Bryan Bryant stressed the real-life consequences of the shutdown politics:
“Not once did (the president) mention the impact on federal workers, federal contractors, their communities and their families. Not once did he mention that one-third of federal workers are veterans. Not once did he mention the damage that is being done to the American people and our economy.”
Economists at Standard & Poor estimate that the shutdown has dropped the nation’s economic output by over $6.5 billion per week. The US Travel Association, a non-profit advocacy group, estimates a loss of $152 million per day in the industry, based in part on expected reductions in business travel for federal employees and government contractors.
GVP Bryant invited IAMAW member Steve Ching to the podium. Ching is an Industrial High Voltage Technician whose responsibilities include monitoring the power grid at the Kennedy Space Center. He spoke about the dilemma federal workers face: “How long will our families be able to hold out? What about medical insurance? We love our jobs but hate this uncertainty. Many have questioned if they should move on to another job. If these workers go on to other jobs, the space program will suffer. These are highly trained, skilled professionals with security clearances and certifications that will be hard to replace. Working America wants to go back to work. Hard working Americans like myself are being used as pawns in this great political divide. Congress and the President must put aside political differences, reopen the government and work together to solve America’s problems just like they always have in this great country.”
Elected officials, including several members of Congress, called for fairness for the furloughed workers, demanding that a “clean” bill be put for a vote on the Senate floor to get workers back to their jobs, leaving negotiations on immigration and border security for a later discussion. Sen. Mazie Hirono (HI) called out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) demanding that “the man missing in action come out of hiding and do his job so we can all do our jobs.” Several senators echoed her call, pointing out that the US Senate, as an independent branch of government, has the power to override a president’s veto with a 2/3 majority vote.
Union leaders pledged steadfast and unified action in support of working women and men at similar rallies across the country. Hundreds of union leaders from a range of industries promised to continue to speak out, march and take any additional necessary actions in support of their members.
So far, two unions are suing the federal government arguing it is against the law to mandate employees to work without pay. GVP Bryan Bryant agreed, and called it “unconscionable.”
Dec 19, 2018 | Airlines, American, Departments, Hawaiian, Home, Philippine, Safety, Spirit, United
Newly Released Research by UnionSafe141 has info for airline workers looking to avoid the OJI Pain Train.
Try to think of something that will ruin your day at work, and airline workers are probably dealing with that exact thing right now, while you are reading this.
Extreme weather, exhaustion, heavy machinery… the world of commercial aviation is home to every kind of workplace hazard known to man.
Chemicals? Explosives? Tight spaces? Airline workers wouldn’t even flinch. Airline workers are trained to deal with all that by their first day. Heavy lifting? Heights? Complicated math? Please. Some ramper somewhere is probably loading a lion or a bear into a plane at this very moment.
However hard you try, occasionally coming home feeling a little beat up is normal. For airline workers, it’s SOP. In fact, according to data compiled by OSHA, working at one of our nation’s airports is about even with construction work when it comes to how likely it is to get banged up on the job.
Airline work is dangerous. And, the longer a person does it, the more likely a severe injury becomes.
It’s hard to know just how dangerous airline work is, however. Surprisingly, there are no federal regulators or agencies that maintain a detailed and comprehensive record of injuries. What information exists can be nearly impossible to find, scattered over a confusing tangle of bureaucratic firewalls.
The most extensive database of airline incident tracking available is kept by Machinists Union members in Philadelphia. The small team of Safety Advocates there maintains careful records of injuries, equipment repairs, and other safety-related information of interest to airline workers. The detailed information provides what is perhaps the clearest view of the safety landscape of Airlines in North America.
According to the research conducted by the Machinists Union, the leading cause of injuries sustained by airline workers is… drumroll please… back injuries.
Hundreds and hundreds of airline workers report serious back injuries each year. Many of them are crippling.
They are also hard to avoid. Airline workers deal with several thousand pounds of bags a day, often while squeezed into the underbellies of planes. Other work areas require near-constant lifting from unavoidable awkward positions and heights. Moreover, back injuries seldom result from a single incident. Repetitive stress trauma can sneak up on you, waiting for that one special bag to become the straw that finally, well, breaks the camel’s back.
All of which makes back injuries an unwanted trademark of airline work.
To read the full story and many more like it. Check out District Lodge 141’s New Airmail Magazine. This Issue focuses on the 2018 IAM141 Safety Conference and highlights safety in the airline industry.
Dec 17, 2018 | Airlines, American, Hawaiian, Home, Philippine, Spirit, United
Union contracts protect paychecks.
While millions of America’s non-union workers watch their take-home pay shrink due to increasing health care costs and wage stagnation, IAM members at our nation’s airlines are prospering.
With wages rising to record levels, new contracts that make outsourcing almost impossible, and no shortage of profits for carriers, unionized airline workers have never had it better than they do right now. Reversing national trends that outsource work, labor agreements are also driving an increase in airline sector hiring. Hundreds of new and insourced employees are being recruited at a rate not seen since before 9/11.
IAM members at United Airlines are the best paid airline workers in their classifications. In December of 2018, the IAM wage premium will increase again, and most IAM members at United will earn a base rate of over $30 per hour, many of them for the first time.
Although contract negotiations at American are ongoing, insiders predict that wages at that airline will remain competitive once a Tentative Agreement is ratified. IAM members at American Airlines, like their counterparts at United, earn top wages already. A major goal of the negotiations in progress at American is to improve on the wage and benefits at United, creating industry leading pay at American and protecting the enviable health care provisions that they already have.
These raises will deliver millions of dollars in additional wages to IAM141 members. The wage increases will help counter the escalating costs of living that are eroding the wages of most non-union workers.
The recent raises at United are only the second of six total negotiated raises for IAM-represented workers at the airline. Under their current agreement, IAM members at United will get guaranteed raises like this one for the next four years.
Thanks to these advances, Machinists Union contracts have dramatically re-defined what constitutes a fair market rate for airline work. “Standard” wages for airline workers at the top of the pay scale are now higher than those of most American workers. And this is not likely to fall anytime soon.
Dec 1, 2018 | Airlines, Airmail, American, Community Service, Departments, EAP, Education, Hawaiian, Home, MNPL, Organizing, Philippine, Safety, Spirit, United
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Nov 1, 2018 | Airlines, Airmail, American, Departments, EAP, Education, Hawaiian, Home, MNPL, Organizing, Philippine, Safety, Spirit, United
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