May 13, 2019 | Airlines, Departments, Education, Home, United
Anyone who has ever watched union shop stewards in action has probably noticed a lot of parallels between the work they do and that of a defense attorney. According to one lawyer, there are good reasons for the comparison.
Father Bob Lindell (left), AJ Lindell (Right)
AJ Lindell, J.D. is a practicing attorney admitted to the Minnesota State Bar Association.
He’s also the President and Grievance Committee Chairman of IAM Local 1833 in Minneapolis-St. Paul. A 24-year employee of United Airlines, Lindell is the primary enforcer of the contractual agreements made between the airline and the 300 Machinists at MSP airport.
If all that weren’t enough, Lindell graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law and passed the Minnesota State Bar exam on his first attempt.
Whether representing members of his hometown rural farming community in a court of law or representing unionized airline workers before managers at United Airlines, Attorney AJ Lindell knows what he’s talking about.
According to Lindell, representing the rights of the accused before a judge and jury is comparable to representing the rights of members before company management.
In fact, his experiences as a union steward directly inspired his decision to enroll in law school.
A family affair: AJ with his wife Tiffany, a Ramp Services Agent in MSP. His father Bob Lindell also worked there for 20 years, retiring in 2016.
“I became a shop steward because I noticed that there was a need for someone with the right skills to stand up for those who couldn’t stand up for themselves,” Lindell said in a recent interview. “I found that I could provide a voice for that.”
“I could use the rhetorical skills I had developed to stand up and speak for people when they couldn’t speak for themselves.”
“It’s just a natural evolution to a courtroom situation. When I was representing people as a shop steward or in hearings as a Grievance Committee member, it just became a natural outgrowth to think, ‘what if I could take this to the next level? What if I could do this in a courtroom setting and be an advocate for those individuals?’”
“After finding success in union grievance hearings and representation, I wanted to find out how well those skills would translate into a courtroom setting,” said Lindell. “And, I found out, they translate pretty well.”
The son of an airline worker, Lindell has a keen interest in labor law, yet he also maintains a close connection to the farming community values he grew up with. He plans to serve as a voice for these two communities over the coming years.
IAM141 AGC Kris Hannah (right), AJ Lindell, J.D. (left) recently used Machinists Union college benefits and IAM-negotiated contractual guarantees to earn a law degree from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Machinists Union has a range of student aid resources, including scholarships and free college benefits. Find out how you can access these valuable resources at your Local Lodge’s monthly Business Meetings.
“It isn’t just because there’s a JD behind your name,” Lindell explained. “You build credibility through being a shop steward that investigates a particular situation, you build credibility when you’re a committeeperson and you advocate zealously on behalf of the employee.”
“The need for a union is absolute,” Lindell said of the importance of union activism. “When it comes to job protections when it comes to identifying issues for contract negotiations… when you have a union and a membership standing behind you… it’s incomparable. There is simply no other advocacy that is on par with having a group of individuals collectively working towards something and collectively advocating. If that means better healthcare, better wages, better pensions, nothing that exists is better than a group of individuals moving in one direction. And, companies have a very difficult time overcoming that. The more collective we are as a group, the easier we can get to that point that we want to get to.”
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May 3, 2019 | Airlines, American, Departments, EAP, Hawaiian, Helping Hands, Home, Philippine, Spirit, United
We focus on drug addiction this month. Drug Addiction is defined and explored on page 1. Page 2 addresses whether drug addiction can be cured or prevented.
Much of the information is from the www.drugabuse.gov web site. This is a very good resource and I encourage you to browse the site so you are familiar with all of the information there is.
Thank you for taking good care of your fellow co-workers. It is important work.
Bryan,
Bryan Hutchinson, M.S.
[gdlr_stunning_text background_color=”#f3f3f3″ button=”Download PDF” button_link=”https://iam141.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/HH-May-2019.pdf” button_background=”#184ab9″ button_text_color=”#ffffff” button_border_color=”#0d2a6b” title=”Helping Hands May: Drug Addiction” title_color=”#184ab9″ caption_color=”#a0a0a0″]Please Post on Bulletin Boards[/gdlr_stunning_text]
May 1, 2019 | Airlines, Departments, Home, retirement, United
Changes are focused on benefit subsidies, not retirees.
The IAM National Pension Fund is one of the largest and best-funded retirement plans in the US, with total assets that exceed 18 billion dollars.
This week, beneficiaries received some concerning news as the Plan’s Board of Trustees voluntarily chose to move the IAMNPF into “Red Zone” status. The Fund is projected to remain in that classification for at least one of the next five years, according to a mailing sent out this week.
For the 292 thousand plan participants, the news isn’t exactly as bad as it may sound. For example, the decision will not impact current retirees or any accruals that have already been earned. Instead, most of the changes are related to the way that the Fund collects subsidies from employers.
According to Ryk Tierney, Executive Director at the IAM National Pension Fund, the decision will have limited impact for most participants.
In a video statement released last Friday, Tierney explained that the Board’s decision to downgrade the Fund was voluntary, and was executed as a way to free the program to make reforms that would not have been permitted otherwise.
“Voluntarily declaring Red Zone while the fund remains well-funded at 89% allows the Trustees to implement a plan to strengthen the fund’s financial future,” Tierney said.
According to Tierney, the move “will not affect any accruals that have been earned in the past, nor does it impact the benefit currently being received by retirees or beneficiaries.”
Instead, the major changes expected at the fund are happening at the employer level. The change in status allows the Fund to require employers to commit to subsidies that are slightly larger than in previous years, when the plan was classified in green and yellow zones.
Federal law requires employers to pay a surcharge geared towards improving the Fund’s status following a Red Zone certification.
Beneficiaries are also protected by Federal law that requires the plan to enact a “Rehabilitation Plan.” This will reduce some variable benefits, such as some death benefits, payout time frames and accruals. However, none of these reductions will impact basic benefits collected at normal retirement.
[gdlr_video url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bIsO0J_0vI&feature=youtu.be” ]
More information is available at IAMBFO.org.
Apr 27, 2019 | Airlines, Departments, Featured, Home, retirement, United
The IAMAW and IAM District 141 are separate entities than the IAM National Pension Plan (NPP), even though both bear the “IAM” acronym. For those DL 141 IAM represented employees in the NPP, a letter was sent to your homes by the NPP. If you haven’t already received the letter, you will soon. The letter outlines changes that the NPP’s Board of Trustees have decided are necessary to maintain the long term stability of the NPP. IAM District 141 received the information contained in the letter on Friday, April 26, 2019.
Unfortunately, United Airlines attempted to blame District 141 today for the NPP dropping the ball in communicating these changes and stated: “we [United Airlines] were not informed by the IAM in advance.” The NPP, of which United Airlines management has a representative on the NPP Board of Trustees, David Lieb, failed to inform United Airlines in advance. The NPP also failed to inform the IAM’s largest district, IAM District 141, a district with the most active NPP participants, in advance. United’s weak attempt to shift blame and the NPP’s botched rollout of the modifications to our pension plan are BOTH completely unacceptable.
While the NPP remains well funded at 89%, in 2019, it has been certified in the Yellow Zone. The major reason for this is that the liabilities of the plan outweigh the assets, in the long term, and the NPP’s Board of Trustees decided changes are needed to fix this unsustainable condition. Because of this, the Board of Trustees have voluntarily reclassified the plan to be in the Red Zone, so that the Trustees can make changes to ensure the long term stability of the plan, per federal law.
It is not IAM District 141’s responsibility to notify United Airlines of modifications to the NPP. That responsibility falls squarely on the NPP, and more specifically United’s Board of Trustees representative, David Lieb. After all, Mr. Lieb had to approve of the changes to the NPP.
You can be assured that District 141 will do everything in its power to make sure all IAM represented NPP participants receive all the information there is pertaining this matter.
There is a lot of complex information included in the NPP mailings. There is a toll free telephone number 1-866-232-1296 and a website www.IAMBFO.org set up to give everyone more information.
Michael G. Klemm
President and Directing General Chairman
I.A.M.A.W. District Lodge 141
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Apr 19, 2019 | Airlines, Home, United
Nonstop to Chicago in Under 12 Parsecs: United Airlines will Launch a Star Wars-Themed Aircraft This Fall and Mark Hamill Thinks it’s Cool.
During last week’s “Star Wars Celebration” in Chicago, United Airlines unveiled a mockup that will thrill fans of the beloved sci-fi franchise.
In partnership with Disney, United Airlines plans to fly a specially-themed plane to help promote the upcoming film, “Star Wars: the Rise of Skywalker.”
The airline, passengers and fans reacted to the announcement with thundering applause.
And, just when everyone thought that the Force could get no stronger, Mark Hamill, aka Luke Skywalker, dropped in to offer a quick review.
And, because he’s Mark Hamill, he made sure to take the lid off the blender first.
Fans couldn’t be sure if Hamill was trolling or serious. So, just to be sure, a few of them actually tried to prove to the Star Wars actor that the Star Wars plane was actually… Star Wars-y.
The fans eventually got him to admit that there was SOME connection. From a certain point of view.
The whole thing even seemed to please the galaxy’s most emo overlords.
The United commemorative Star Wars airplane is scheduled to start making public appearances sometime this fall. It’s not being assigned to a particular route, so it might be spotted at airports around the country.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will hit theaters December 20.
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Apr 10, 2019 | Airlines, American, Departments, Education, Featured, Hawaiian, Home, MNPL, Organizing, Philippine, Spirit, Uncategorized, United
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AMY KLOBUCHAR TALKS MEGA-MERGERS, PRAISES UNION ACTIVISM
Presidential Candidate Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn) spoke before hundreds of Machinists Union members at its conference of railroad and airline workers.
For Senator Klobuchar, the event was the highlight of her first campaign stop in Las Vegas, where she also visited the Blind Center of Nevada and the Harold Brinley Middle School. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), also addressed delegates at the Machinists Union Transportation Conference. The Machinists Union is the largest union of aerospace and rail workers in the world.
In her speech, Senator Klobuchar emphasized her close ties with unions, which Owen E. Herrnstadt, Chief of Staff for the IAM International President, praised in his introduction of the senior senator from Minnesota.
“Since taking office in 2007, Amy Klobuchar has been a fearless fighter on behalf of working Americans,” Herrnstadt told the assembled group of over 800 union members from the nation’s railroads and airlines. “Amy knows how to get things done.”
“She has supported efforts to protect our pensions, to protect voting rights, to make drug prices affordable, raise the minimum wage … and shine a bright light on corporations that want to merge.”
Mergers were a particular area of focus of Klobuchar’s speech to the Machinists, whose members have been rocked by two recent mega-mergers. Notably, the mergers between United Airlines and Continental, and US Airways and American.
But air transport is not the only industry that has endured huge and difficult mergers.
“We are now in a new Gilded Age,” said Klobuchar of the railroad industry. “We’re down to four Class One Carriers that are carrying 90% of the traffic.”
“This means that wages go down because there’s not enough competition,” she said. Unions are the leverage that we have. Unions can take on corporations and win better wages for workers.”
The first female senator from Minnesota spoke highly of the community spirit and activism of Machinists.
“The 600 thousand members of the Machinists Union… helped rebuild communities affected by the raging wildfires in the West and the floods in the Midwest.”
“You sent your Critical Incident Support Team to support survivors when a gunman opened fire in Aurora, Illinois, killing five people, two of whom were IAM Members.”
“And, after the devastation of Maria, you partnered with airlines to fly goods and disaster relief to Puerto Rico,” she said.
“That’s a community. That’s a shared story. That’s ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
After her speech, Senator Klobuchar spent time speaking with delegates and posed for pictures.
The IAM Transportation Conference assembles the top union activists within the railroad and airline industries. The event is being held this week in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will run through April 11.
[gdlr_stunning_text background_color=”#f3f3f3″ button=”Download PDF” button_link=”https://iam141.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/190410_amy_klobuchar.pdf” button_background=”#184ab9″ button_text_color=”#ffffff” button_border_color=”#0d2a6b” title=”Presidential Candidate Amy Klobuchar Talks Mega Mergers Praises Union Activism” title_color=”#184ab9″ caption_color=”#a0a0a0″]Please Post on Bulletin Boards[/gdlr_stunning_text]
