Machinists Union Withdraws United Lawsuit After Airline Drops Illegal Furlough Plan

Machinists Union Withdraws United Lawsuit After Airline Drops Illegal Furlough Plan

May 8, 2020 | COVID, Featured, Front Page, Home, Home, United | 5 comments

The Machinists Union today withdrew its lawsuit against United Airlines after the carrier backed down from its plans to cut the pay rates of its entire full-time Fleet Service and Customer Service workgroups by reducing their hours worked.

The IAM maintains the right to return to Federal Court if United Airlines again attempts to circumvent the CARES Act or the IAM’s collective bargaining agreements.

Fraternally and in Solidarity,

Michael G. Klemm
President and Directing General Chairman
IAMAW, District Lodge 141

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Hawaiian Airlines Negotiations Update

Hawaiian Airlines Negotiations Update

May 8, 2020 | COVID, Featured, Front Page, Hawaiian, Home, Home, Organizing, Uncategorized | 0 comments

 May 8, 2020

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We hope this communication finds you safe and healthy. As you are aware, we entered into Limited Issue/Expedited Negotiations with Hawaiian Airlines in the month of February. The majority of the Negotiating sessions were spent on sharing the proposals of both sides. We spent time explaining your proposals and listening to the Company proposals so that we had a very good understanding of the intention/purpose of the Company proposals. We were able to make some progress and felt that we were on our way to reaching a good Agreement on your behalf. The plan was to meet most of the month of April in hopes of reaching that Agreement. Unfortunately, due to the COVID 19 pandemic, we were not able to meet to further the discussions.

On Monday, May 4, We held a conference call with the Company to discuss resuming Negotiations. We made it very clear that our position remains unchanged. We must reach an agreement that rewards our Members at HA fairly for their hard work and sacrifices. We believe that HA will survive the current state of the Airline Industry and will return to profitability. Today’s hard work and sacrifice will make that possible. You deserve to be recognized for that moving in to the future. That recognition comes from a good Contract. An agreement was made to extend the timeframe for the Expedited Negotiations.

The plan for Negotiations will be to resume meeting with the Company as soon as the quarantine order is lifted by the State of Hawaii. We hope that happens sometime in June. Our position will be to pick up where we left off in March.

In closing, thank you for all you do. It is with your support and solidarity that your Negotiating Committee will be able to secure a good contract on your behalf.

In solidarity, 

Mike Klemm

President and Directing General Chair, District 141, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers

Dave Supplee

President and Directing General Chair, District 142, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers

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Joint Letter from Bob Martinez and Richard Trumka to Donald Trump

Joint Letter from Bob Martinez and Richard Trumka to Donald Trump

May 8, 2020 | COVID, Featured, Front Page, Home, Home, Organizing, United | 3 comments

May 5, 2020

President Donald J. Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We hope you share our outrage that United Airlines, a few short days after accepting $5 billion of taxpayer dollars which it committed to use to allow it to continue to pay its employees their wages until the end of September, has quickly broken that promise. Having pocketed the money, United has turned around and told over 15,000 full-time employees that their wages will be drastically reduced as they will be allowed to work only on a part-time basis. In addition to drastically cutting the wages of these workers, United’s decision would also be a major cut in employees’ sick leave, vacation and retirement benefits. These actions are a direct violation of the obligations it undertook when it received federal relief through the CARES Act and reflect a stunning breach of trust. We urge you to use your full authority to intervene and order United to rescind its decision to take away full employment for its employees.

United’s action threatens to undermine the principal goal of the CARES Act, which was to protect employee wages in this crisis. If left standing, United’s attack on its employees will send a clear message to other carriers that they too can ignore their worker retention obligations with impunity. The tens of thousands of employees that the CARES Act was intended to protect will be left out in the cold while companies take the money and run.

We are not alone in our outrage over United’s handling of this matter. In a letter to United, Senator Josh Hawley stated:

During such a severe economic crisis, it is critical that our own corporations act as responsible stewards over their respective workforces. Decisions by major employers like United Airlines can reverberate widely across the labor market, affecting communities and working families alike. The taxpayers of this country have offered a generous bailout to your company and you should, in turn, honor this trust by keeping the promises you made to those you employ.

With over 30 million Americans out of work, now is not the time for unscrupulous companies to undermine the clear intent of the federal relief effort aimed at worker retention. Is it too much to ask corporations like United to honor their commitments under the CARES Act? We respectfully request that you intervene immediately and order United to honor its commitments to the United States and to its employees and continue to pay its employees the wages that federal funding has secured.

Sincerely

Robert G. Martinez Jr.
International President,
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers

Richard L. Trumka 
President,
AFL-CIO IAMAW

cc: Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

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Letter from International Transport Workers Federation Supporting IAM Members at United

Letter from International Transport Workers Federation Supporting IAM Members at United

May 7, 2020 | COVID, Featured News, Front Page, Home, Home, Row 2, Safety, United | 0 comments

The International Transport Workers Federation sent a letter to United’s CEO in solidarity with the IAM. The full text of the letter is below. 

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To Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines

I write you today on behalf of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), which represents nearly 700 transport trade unions from 150 countries with a total membership of around 20,000,000 working men and women. Our affiliate the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) has informed us that United Airlines decided to initiate forced layoffs, which the IAM states is in breach of their contracts, while taking billions of US taxpayers funded airline bailout funds.

According to our information, the carrier will cut the pay and benefits of all full-time IAMAW members at United Airlines. Needless to say, these measures will severely hurt United Airlines’ employees and their families.

Like our affiliate IAMAW, the ITF also recognizes the need for airlines to save money in these extremely challenging times. From the very early days of the global pandemic, the ITF and its aviation affiliates have been fighting, together with airlines, for government aid to help support the global airline industry. On 21 April 2020, the ITF and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) issued a joint statement calling for support from governments to the aviation industry, to protect jobs and ensure that air services can be maintained.

However, unfortunately, we understand that these recently announced cuts are not utterly about saving money. We can see this from the fact that United Airlines has categorically refused to engage with the IAMAW in cost-saving discussions. The IAMAW believes and explains in detail that engaging in social dialog would provide the carrier with the same amount of financial relief without feeling the need of cutting workers’ contracts or the CARES (the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act.

As you may know, against this backdrop, the IAMAW is considering all possible legal options, including filing a lawsuit against United Airlines to stop the unilateral action and protect its membership. If the IAMAW opts for this option, the ITF and its aviation affiliates all around the world will not hesitate to provide legal support and lawful solidarity to their brothers and sisters who work for United Airlines.

Quite contrary to the current path United Airlines is set on, a climate of trust, built through social dialog is essential to the effective implementation of measures to address the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. Strengthened respect for, and reliance on, mechanisms of social dialog creates a strong basis for building resilience, and the commitment of employers and workers to painful but necessary policy measures. This is particularly key during times of heightened social tension. The International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience recommendation (No. 205) emphasize, in particular, the importance of social dialog in responding to crisis and the vital role of employers and workers organizations in crisis response.

Furthermore, the recommendation emphasizes the key role of consultation and encouraging active participation of employers’ and workers’ organizations in planning, implementing, and monitoring measures for recovery and resilience. It additionally underlines the necessity of recognizing the freedom of association and protection of the right to organize convention (No. 87), and the right to organize and collective bargaining convention (No. 98).

As highlighted in the ITF-IATA joint statement, there is no doubt that as employers and unions we can navigate our way through this crisis only by working side by side. On the other hand, unilateral and socially irresponsible responses to the crisis, will increase tensions, lower trust, and most probably lead to intensified conflict in the near future.

The ITF will closely monitor the situation.

I look forward to your positive response on these urgent and important matters.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Cotton
General Secretary

cc:
Sito Pantoja, IAM General Vice President
Joseph Tiberi, ITF Civil Aviation Chair
Michael Klemm, President, IAM District 141
United Holdings, Inc. Board of Directors

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United Reconsiders Furloughs

United Reconsiders Furloughs

May 6, 2020 | COVID, Featured, Front Page, Home, Home, Row 2, United | 8 comments

Greetings!

As you know yesterday, your union filed a lawsuit against United Airlines in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. We sought an injunction against United Airlines on behalf of the 27,000 IAM represented Fleet Service and Passenger Service workers to halt United’s illegal scheme to reduce all of our full-time members to part-time in violation of the Railway Labor Act and United’s agreement under the Coronavirus Aid and Relief and Economic Security Act  (“CARES Act”) to maintain the wages and working conditions of its employees through September 30, 2020, as a condition for obtaining $5 Billion in taxpayer dollars.

Early this morning we received a message from Greg Hart, Executive Vice President, and Chief Operations Officer that at least for now, United has reconsidered its position. The latest from the company is that instead of unilaterally forcing our full-time members to become part-time, they will instead offer what they call a Company- Offered Leave of Absence Program (COLA) starting next week. Under their new plan, our full-time members can elect to become part-time and go from 40 hours per week to 30 hours without losing their full-time status. Those full-time employees who do not agree to reduce their hours will remain full time. However, we are not out of the woods yet. The company has said it will review the situation at the end of June and if there is not a “high level of participation” they will reconsider resuming their forced reduction to the part-time program. 

Sito Pantoja, IAM General Vice President Transportation stated: “It is deeply troubling that it took thousands of our members appealing to their elected Congressional representative and the filing of a lawsuit yesterday to get United, with whom we worked so hard to help get their billions in CARES Act funding, to finally reconsider its blatantly illegal course of conduct which was to be so damaging to our members. It is striking that the President of American Airlines publicly stated that United’s conduct in attempting to reduce our full-time employees to part-time was not permitted by the CARES Act. While today it appears that, thanks to your hard work and solidarity, we have won an important battle, we have not yet won the war. We will monitor United’s action closely to see what further legal and congressional action may become necessary.” 

Mike Klemm, President of IAM District Lodge 141 stated, “I am deeply grateful for the tireless help of Sito, his entire staff, our legal team and my executive board for helping the District hold off United’s attack on our members. Clearly, we would not have won this round of our struggle without the solidarity and support of our entire union and the thousands of IAM members we represent.”

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The IAMAW Has Filed for an Injunction to Stop Unlawful Furloughs at United Airlines

The IAMAW Has Filed for an Injunction to Stop Unlawful Furloughs at United Airlines

May 6, 2020 | COVID, Featured, Front Page, Home, Home, Row 2, United | 1 comment

Today the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (“IAM”) filed a lawsuit against United Airlines in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Mike Klemm, President and Directing General Chair of IAM District Lodge 141 said, “The lawsuit we filed today in Federal court seeks an injunction against United Airlines on behalf of the 27,000 IAM represented Fleet Service and Passenger Service workers to halt United’s illegal implementation of drastic pay and benefit cuts in violation of the Railway Labor Act and their agreement under the Coronavirus Aid and Relief and Economic Security Act  (“CARES Act”) to maintain the wages and working conditions of its employees through September 30, 2020, as a condition to obtaining $5 Billion in taxpayer dollars.

On May 1, 2020, United advised the IAM that “effective May 24, 2020… all full-time employees covered by the Passenger Service Employees Agreement and the Fleet Service Employees Agreement will be reduced to part-time status.”  While the effective date of this mass reduction is May 24, 2020, United has given affected employees only until May 13, 2020, to make an “irrevocable decision” whether to accept a reduction to part-time status; retire with no recall rights; separate from employment with no recall rights, or elect furlough with furlough pay and a right of recall.    United has directed that “Once you make your election… it is irrevocable, and you cannot change it.”  We are seeking to invalidate United’s unilateral demand that our members either agree to become Part-Time employees or hit the street.

United’s scheme to unilaterally “reduce” all employees to part-time status will substantially reduce their pay rates and benefits.  Pay rates will be reduced because employees who had been paid for a 40-hour week would now be paid at most for a 30-hour week which will reduce their benefits as well.

United’s decision to reduce every full-time IAM member to part-time is also a flagrant violation of the Railway Labor Act because it is being done without the agreement of the IAM.  United recognized it needed the IAM’s consent for this change. While the IAM has been willing to work with the Company through this difficult time, it refused this request which damages IAM members disproportionately compared to every other employee group at United.  In addition, United asked for and received billions of dollars in public funds based on its promise not to furlough employees or reduce wages and benefits. “For United to obtain federal funds under the false pretense that it would protect its workers through September and then turn around and do this to their most loyal workforce struggling to survive during this pandemic is unconscionable, “said Mike Klemm, President of IAM District Lodge 141.

CLICK HERE to view the full Court Filing >>

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