Mar 26, 2019 | Airlines, American, Departments, Home, Organizing, The Association
Brothers and Sisters,
If American Airlines wants to throw down their version of facts from two people who have never participated in a negotiating session, that’s their prerogative, we’ll throw down the real facts from those who were actually there.
Fact: The Mediators assigned by the NMB were informed by the lead Company negotiator that he was not permitted to reach any agreement on the most important outstanding issues. In an attempt to break the logjam, the Mediators made an attempt to involve higher ranking Company executives to meet with our Executive negotiating team, including the Association Director and Vice Director. The Association offered to meet where the Director and Vice Director could attend, in Chicago, IL. The Company Executives elected not to travel the next day to meet but have agreed to meet on an alternate future date. Instead of returning to the table to seriously negotiate, the Company negotiators and the Mediators wasted a day going to meet with AA Executives, anyway. Remember, the Company can talk to themselves anytime – they don’t need to waste valuable negotiating time in non-productive, one-sided meetings among themselves.
Fact: The Company lead negotiator made it very clear on Tuesday, March 19, in front of the mediators, that AA refuses to bargain further unless the Association made concessions on healthcare and Scope provisions in all contracts. The Association made it clear that we were willing to negotiate on every aspect of the contract, but we were not going to negotiate concessions on healthcare, Scope, retirement and other areas that are LESS THAN WHAT WE ARE STARTING WITH – WHAT WE HAVE TODAY!
Fact: The Company’s communication, actually signed by senior vice presidents, flatly distorts the proposals made by their negotiators and the positions of the Association negotiators. They are either lying or they are totally ignorant of what is going on at the bargaining table.
Fact: The Association is not divided – there are no IAM proposals and there are no TWU proposals. All of our positions are to benefit all Association represented members and to achieve the best contracts in the industry. We intend to achieve this without bowing to AA’s bargaining threats to extremely diminish our livelihoods.
Fact: Every Association represented member has sacrificed through concessions and bankruptcies. We paid the price to save our companies and create the environment for the merger that formed the largest airline in the world. We will not sell out, we will not concede more. It is time for every Association represented member to make American Airlines understand that they must get serious at the table to finish these negotiations. The Company must hear from you that their miscommunication garbage will not work.
Fact: If American were to have offered to “Guarantee” 15 mechanics per aircraft, into the future, we would sign that scope proposal tomorrow. With 962 aircraft, that would equal 14,540 mechanics. American has never “guaranteed the Association headcount in the future.” It is absolutely clear that AA is attempting to outsource huge swaths of our current scope, including offshoring maintenance work to foreign soil.
Fact: The NMB had ex-parte negotiations with American Airlines senior leadership and four members of senior management had agreed to, on less than 24 hours-notice, “make themselves available for two hours to meet with us, from 8am to 10am, Wednesday morning.” We did not believe 2 hours was enough time and offered to meet all day in Chicago. The Company proved they’re not interested in serious bargaining because they rejected that offer! The next morning, the mediators again met with senior AA leadership, and their negotiating team at Headquarters until 1 pm, which seemed odd since the Senior leadership could “only make themselves available for two hours for the Association Leadership.” More evidence of the company’s deceitfulness.
We have now agreed to meet with the Company on April 3 in Washington, DC at a neutral location, in order to close out the agreement.
Fact: Jerry Glass made it very clear on Tuesday, March 19 in front of the mediators, that he had no room to move unless the Association made concessions on the Company’s medical proposal. The Association’s Committee made it clear that we were willing to negotiate on every aspect of the contract, but we were not going to negotiate against ourselves by making concessions on our medical proposal unless the Company agreed to move off their “take it or leave it” demand on our “Health & Welfare proposal” that goes well beyond the medical plan.
Fact: On the morning of Thursday, March 21 the Company explained that they may have something they can do regarding the “Health & Welfare” proposal but they would not know for a while if they would be able to do it. We agreed that we would be interested in fully understanding their “proposed concept” on a piece of the Health & Welfare proposal, but this was only a piece of the puzzle and they still needed to respond with the rest.
Fact: Our proposal is that all “Association Members” receive full retro, from the Company back to the amendable date.
To summarize, our position is based on sound logic that this membership has sacrificed in bankruptcy to save our work, pay for what we have and create the environment for USAir and American to merge into the largest airline in the world. There is absolutely no reason to give up any more! There is no basis for the Company to demand more in concessions because American is reaping record profits.
Let’s not forget that Doug Parker said, “We’re never going to lose money again.” Is this another play on words, and Doug actually meant the “We” as in only him and his leadership team? While negotiations are about give and take, American thinks they can fool us with hourly pay offers while they take everything else that matters. They call it the “Best Contract in The Industry?” Not by a long shot with their take-it-or-leave-it proposals.
The truth is AA is hell-bent on capturing massive concessions for each and every station and workgroup, leaving us with far less in real compensation and loss of security for the far fewer remaining jobs. Their promise of “you will have a job” doesn’t come with any promise of keeping the work you do, replacing workers as they leave the workforce or advancing our seniority for shift, day off improvement or choice of other work as those workers leave the seniority list. What it does come with is a guarantee that your seniority will mean less in the future than it ever has in the past.
There are only three scheduled days of negotiations left with no additional dates scheduled by the mediators. Those dates are April 23-25 in Fort Lauderdale. It appears that we are headed for a very long and hot summer, remaining behind our peers in the industry.
Fraternally,
Your Association Negotiating Committees
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Mar 22, 2019 | Airlines, American, Departments, Home, Organizing, The Association
Brothers and Sisters,
This week, American Airlines not only continued to slow roll negotiations, THEY ACTUALLY JUST STOPPED. American’s arrogance and obstinance at the table is a tell-tale sign of their mistaken belief that this membership is okay with them forcing massive concessions on us in Scope and several other Articles. Without Scope, all else in the CBA is of little consolation because our quality of life is further and forever diminished. Their reluctance to move beyond their current table position that eliminates thousands of more jobs, by obliterating our members’ ranks, is directly correlated to this flawed belief that each of us is okay with letting American’s Leadership Team stuff hundreds of millions of dollars into their pockets at our expense.
This week it was made clear that American’s Negotiating Committee has been neutered and powerless in their ability to negotiate anything that is open. In fact, they had to take the entire Wednesday morning to go to headquarters and ask the top executives for permission to negotiate. It was clear they were denied permission since the only answer to any discussion was “NO.” Neutered might even be to weak a word to describe their lethargic and disrespectful demeanor.
The Association and American’s positions on the big issues that remain open are below:
| Article |
Association’s Proposal |
American’s Demand |
American’s Answer This Week |
| Scope |
Preserve the work we do today with minimum headcounts and grow as the company grows |
Reduce the number of jobs on the seniority list by thousands and thousands |
Not open for discussion. Our position is our position |
| Wages |
The best overall pay in the industry and guarantee industry- leading profit sharing
Annual industry wage comparator reset |
Delta plus 3% and keep current AA (1.4%) profit sharing
No annual industry wage comparison reset. |
Not open for discussion. Our position is our position
Not open for discussion. Our position is our position |
| Pension |
Maintain the defined benefit pension plan, plus additional in 401(k) to be the best retirement in the industry. All paid by the company. |
Abolish the defined benefit pension plan. Replace with 5% defined contribution plan with a 4% match |
American isn’t sure what they want to do. Our position is our position |
| Medical Benefits |
Maintain superior LUS medical plans with existing cost caps as added options for all Association members |
Eliminate all LUS medical plans and restrict choice to the inferior LAA plan at uncapped cost |
Not open for discussion. Our position is our position |
| Retiree Medical |
A bridge for retirement utilizing accrued sick time and other retiree insurance benefits |
Eliminate bridge to retire medical for all members and retirees left to fend for themselves |
Not open for discussion. Our position is our position |
To summarize, our position is based on sound logic that this membership has sacrificed in bankruptcy to save our work, pay for what we have and create the environment for USAir and American to merge into the largest airline in the World. There is absolutely no reason to give up any more! There is no basis for the Company to demand more in concessions because American is reaping record profits.
Let’s not forget that Doug Parker said, “We’re never going to lose money again.” Is this another play on words, and Doug actually meant the “We,” as in only him and his leadership team? While negotiations are about give and take, American thinks they can fool us with hourly pay offers while they take everything else that matters. They call it the “Best Contract in The Industry?” Not by a long shot with their take-it-or-leave-it proposals.
The truth is American is hell-bent on capturing massive concessions for each and every station and workgroup, leaving us with far less in real compensation and loss of security for the far fewer remaining jobs. Their promise of “you will have a job” doesn’t come with any promise of keeping the work you do, replacing workers as they leave the workforce or advancing our seniority for shift, day off improvement or choice of other work as those workers leave the seniority list. What it does come with is a guarantee that your seniority will mean less in the future than it ever has in the past.
There are only three scheduled days of negotiations left with no additional dates scheduled by the mediators. Those dates are April 23rd – 25th in Fort Lauderdale. It appears that we are headed for a very long and hot summer, remaining behind our peers in the industry.
Fraternally,
Your Association Negotiating Committees
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Feb 21, 2019 | Airlines, American, Departments, Featured, Hawaiian, Home, MNPL, Organizing, Philippine, Spirit, United
Right to Work is coming to our nation’s airlines. When it arrives, the wages of all airline workers could be slashed within just a few years. Overall compensation could be cut by more than half. The good news: Missouri unions know how to stop it.
There’s a looming crisis about to hit the nation’s airline workers. It’s called “Right to Work,” and its goal is simple. Cut wages. Kill the enforcement of union contracts. And eliminate anything that remotely resembles job security for those working at an airline.
Powerful Right to Work backers will stop at nothing to bring mass layoffs, at-will terminations, and low wage contractors back to airlines. But first, they will need to cut off the funds that unions need to negotiate and enforce strong, pro-worker contracts.
So far, airline workers have been protected from Right to Work, thanks to a handful of laws that have prevented most of the attacks. Because of a few legacies in labor laws, and a recent spate of outstanding union contracts, airline workers are well paid and hard to fire or lay off. But any agreement, no matter how brilliantly negotiated, will take money to enforce – which is money that Right to Work effectively takes away. Current laws that protect airline workers can be written away with a single hostile legislation or Supreme Court ruling.
The good news is that the main Right to Work battleground hasn’t yet reached airlines. And fortunately, pro-fair wage union activists are fighting like hell to stop it and are racking up some significant victories.
Notable in this effort is what happened in the State of Missouri. Corporate lobbyists there demanded, and got the legislature to pass Right to Work rules that allowed them to gut paychecks and sell off pensions for thousands of Missourians. It seemed like the corporate interests had won. They intended the law to bankrupt unions by forcing them to provide services, for free, to anti-union forces. Outraged, unions and voters demanded the law’s repeal and filed for a public referendum.
The fight was catastrophic for the Right to Work side.
Kelly Street, Local Chairman at TCU/IAM Lodge 6762, Unit 320, has been on the front lines in the effort to protect the intended targets of Right to Work for years. He works in Kansas City, MO and represents members in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Thanks to the fierce activism of unionists like Kelly Street from TCU/IAM Lodge 6762, and Brian Simmons from IAM Local Lodge 778, Right to Work failed miserably in Missouri. Empowered in part by a RTW field training module offered at the IAMAW Winpisinger Center as part of the Train the Trainer programs, activists mobilized and educated voters in every corner of the state. Not falling for the nonsense spewed by Right to Work lobbyists, 67% of voters in the Show Me State threw out the Right to Work legislation in a hard-fought statewide referendum.
Kelly Street (Left) with IAMAW International President Robert Martinez, Jr (Right)
Unfortunately, powerful business interests are not used to losing. They are launching a new effort to gut wages and pensions in Missouri. In 10 states, Right to Work lobbyists have succeeded in cutting workers’ rights out of entire state constitutions. Elsewhere, legislation is being moved that will make Right to Work Federal Law.
If these efforts are successful, the Right to Work side will never lose again. They will have the power to cut paychecks and pensions at will.
Members of IAM Local 778 in Kansas City, MO mobilized to educate voters all over Missouri on the value of organized labor and democracy at work.
That’s why it’s so crucial for airline workers to get in the fight now – while the anti-wage lobbyists are still outside the airport gates. They already have the power of billions of dollars of corporate money and the best marketing available. This is enough to win them a place on the ballot no matter how many voters and workers oppose them. If they also win power in state constitutions and the federal government, they will be unstoppable.
IAM Local 778 Trustee Brian Simmons spent months working with the We Are Missouri campaign as Regional Petition Director and organizer.
Airline workers who want to protect their pensions, and who want better than just $15/hour top pay, should contact their local lodge MNPL, or the IAM141 MNPL at IAM141.org, and find out how to get involved.
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. Find a card by visiting the MNPL page at IAM141.org.
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Feb 15, 2019 | Airlines, American, Departments, Featured, Home, Organizing, The Association
Brothers and Sisters,
Negotiations continued in Atlanta this week. The Executive Negotiators and the full negotiating committee continued working together at each step of the process and all were fully updated.
The company’s hard-line attack on the work Association members do, our Scope, continued throughout the week. The Association’s basic Scope proposals remain to secure the work we do today in all classifications. Our Scope proposals are a near zero cost to the company, since it is work we are performing today, yet company negotiators continue to insist we concede and give away that work.
It is unconscionable that the largest airline in the world, making billions annually in profits, is fighting to take away our security and rights to better shifts or days off by demanding more outsourcing. Their CEO has publicly boasted “We will never lose money again,” but, yet, American is proposing we accept a contract that would outsource 2,200 Heavy Maintenance jobs, allows them to almost double the amount of Line Maintenance work now done in foreign countries, grants them the power to transfer Stores and GSE work to vendors, decimates our facilities maintenance membership and outsources Fleet Service work as they see fit.
Company negotiators continue to demand we accept inferior health care plans without having a say in their cost or plan design. Finally, even if all other elements of the JCBA had come together in this week’s negotiating session, American still demands we accept less in retirement than exists today or what other employees receive.
Your Association Negotiators will not bring a JCBA to the membership that is concessionary in benefits, work rules, and annual compensation nor further diminish our Scope to pay for it.
With the company’s ongoing onerous demands, this may be shaping up to be a very long, hot summer and not just because of the weather. We hope cooler heads can prevail, but with just six more negotiating days scheduled by the NMB, it seems American negotiators have painted themselves into a corner.
For over three years, American leadership has made us promises of industry-leading contracts. The time is now to deliver on those promises.
We must continue to prepare for the fight of our careers. By standing together as one, in solidarity to preserve our jobs and our livelihood, we will prevail.
Future mediation dates scheduled:
- The week of March 18 DFW
- The week of April 22 FLL
Fraternally,
Your Association Executive Negotiating Committee
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Feb 1, 2019 | Airlines, American, Departments, Home, Organizing, The Association
American Struggles To Say Yes
Throughout this week, the Association Executive Negotiating Committee members continued to present reasonable proposals in an effort to reach a JCBA. While some conversations discussed across the bargaining table seemed to reach “supposal agreements in principle,” written proposals returned from the Company continued to revert to their take-it or leave-it positions. In other words, the Company could not find their way to “yes” without a caveat giving them unilateral rights to do whatever they want.
At the direction of the mediators, discussions centered largely on the Fleet Service Scope and Classification, M&R/MLS Field Trip Procedures, and the Duration Article. A tentative agreement was reached on the Duration Article; however, pay raises beyond the amendable date were shifted to wage discussions.
We closed the week without significant progress on resolving the Fleet Scope issues. Your negotiating committee remains firm in protecting the work we do in the locations that we do that work. That commitment was strongly conveyed to the Company. We are hopeful the Company recognizes that we need to protect our work and will come prepared to get that done in our next session in Washington, D.C.
The full negotiating committees were in Ft. Lauderdale to support, provide input, and caucus with the Executive Negotiating Committee; including real-time updates throughout the day. The Association remains committed to achieving the compensation, healthcare, retirement, and job security that our members deserve. Your continued support and solidarity are both appreciated and necessary to reach the JCBA you rightfully deserve.
Fraternally,
Your Association Negotiating Committees
Future Mediation Sessions scheduled:
- February 6, 7, 8 DCA
- February 12, 13, 14 ATL
- If necessary, additional days in March to be determined
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Jan 25, 2019 | Airlines, American, Departments, Home, Organizing
Baggage handlers who attend flight academy can keep their flight benefits and health insurance. An agreement between two unions and the airline seals the deal.
There aren’t enough pilots for the nation’s airlines.
As the numbers of highly trained pilots take a nosedive, the demand for air travel is soaring. A pilot’s union is predicting that as many as 7.8 Billion passengers will be moving through the nation’s airports in the next few decades. Meanwhile, the number of highly trained and qualified pilots available to work in commercial aviation has been shrinking since the late 1980s. Boeing is predicting that airlines will need to hire an astonishing 635 thousand new pilots to meet the demand.
The shortage of pilots is creating some stormy skies for commercial aviation. But, it also presents a potential advantage for any airline that figures out a way to recruit and retain highly trained pilots that also happen to be committed to their company.
Two major unions at American Airlines, the Machinists Union and the TWU, struck a deal with the carrier that offers one solution. Both unions have an ongoing alliance that includes over 30,000 employees at American.
The plan is simple and has two parts. First, it identifies employees that are interested in becoming pilots. Next, it maintains their flight benefits, pay and health care while they are attending pilot training. Rinse and repeat.
In addition to protecting the pay rates, pass travel and health insurance of pilots in training, the agreement also protects seniority, vacations and other important benefits while the employees participate in one of the airline’s “Pilot Supply” programs.
Acknowledging the need to “ensure a strong supply of qualified pilots,” as well as protecting the benefits and job security of current employees, American signed a Letter of Agreement with the Machinists Union that formalized the deal in January. The agreement was signed by representatives from the Machinists Union, the TWU and American Airlines.
More details of how American will grant the leaves to future pilots will be announced later. In the meantime, check out the American Airlines Cadet Academy website for more information about the company’s flight training programs. That’s where candidates interested in learning to fly can take the first steps towards becoming a pilot. No flight experience needed.
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