In spite of that, workplace injury rates for the women and men working at airlines remains stubbornly high, and are spoiling the otherwise incredible successes that airlines have achieved in other areas.
One union-led effort is offering new ideas on how to extend these airline safety improvements to airline workers, and it has its roots in community activism.
Taking a page from well-tested partnerships between neighborhoods and law enforcement, Machinists Union Members at Houston’s IAH are incorporating an airport version of “Community Policing.”
Placing dedicated safety advocates directly into the operation, coworkers benefit from the resulting combination of workplace awareness and understanding, coupled with plugged-in safety training. “They know the work better than anybody, and that gives them the ability to deploy their safety expertise at point-blank range,” said Leroy Taylor, President of Local 811 in Houston. Taylor is also a leader in a joint United Airlines / Machinists Union safety program.
Uniquely, Houston’s 811 President Leroy Taylor and Vice President David Towe both hold leadership roles within the United / Machinists Safety Program, which is administered through an ongoing alliance between the company and its largest union.
“We’re proud of how well we’ve been able to work with United,” Taylor said of the programs. “We’re not letting the company off the hook; when we need to have uncomfortable conversations, we are willing to do that. But, for the most part, we’ve been able to focus on areas of common interest with safety. Which means a safer airline and a safer workplace.”
Local 811 President and Safety Advocate Leroy Taylor at the 2018 District 141 Safety Conference.
Besides placing safety advocates directly into the workplace, the program focuses on other common-sense goals. This includes stronger company-union partnerships. For example, a greater emphasis on peer-to-peer communications is critical. “I’m sorry to say it, but the company and managers can have a hard time connecting with the guys out here,” said Local 811 Vice President and Safety Advocate David Towe. “A lot of the time, they need someone that can speak the language out on the ramp to get through. We can help with that.” Fellow ramp workers can “get through” to each other in ways that are often blunt and direct to the point. Thanks to this street-level, no-excuses approach, safety is becoming a cultural point of pride at IAH. Ramp workers often consider safety lapses that might endanger them, their coworkers, or passengers to be much the same as a personal insult.
David Towe, Local 811 Vice President and Safety Advocate.
For their part, managers value (and act on) the input they get from front-line employees. Towe has convinced managers to install safety bulletin boards in airport “Ready Rooms” where crews prep for flights and holds daily safety meetings at the break room level. His persistence has led to better safety outcomes already, especially in areas where technology is replacing human oversight – a growing issue as airports become more automated.
Machinists Union (District 141) Safety Chairman Erik Stenberg recently toured IAH to call attention to the new strategies being developed there. “We’re always preaching about how important it is to work as productively as possible with the company when it comes to safety,” said Stenberg. “What we’re seeing here is proof that partnering can work.”
The safety issues coming from the front-lines can be micro-scale; nothing is overlooked. A special meeting between union activists and senior management was held recently to discuss the amount of time it has taken for a broken windshield wiper to be repaired on a pushback tractor. Even pigeon droppings aren’t tolerated; they are quickly reported by embedded Safety Advocates and dutifully removed by management.
“These guys are changing the way that unions and management interact in the realm of safety,” Stenberg said. “What we get from programs like these is a safer workplace that allows us to stay healthy, which lets us have longer careers. We also build stronger, more profitable airlines, and protect the flying public. Everyone wins.”
Assistant General Chair Kyle Carroll
Assistant General Chair Kyle Carroll (EWR, LAS, SEA, AUS) visits with the Move Team in Houston to discuss safety concerns. Carroll shared some lessons he’s learned in his work with the Move Team in EWR with IAH Members. Carroll and Safety Chairman Erik Stenberg later took the issues discussed with the IAH Move Team to Senior United Managers.
“The Move Teams are a major source of pride for our district,” Carroll said. “These guys take their jobs very seriously, and that’s reflected in the way they approach their union, safety, and the responsibilities that come with such demanding work.”
Recognizing Safety: IAM141 Safety Chairman Erik Stenberg (left) meets with IAH Local 811 President and Safety Advocate Leroy Taylor (center) and fellow Safety Advocate and Local 811 Vice President David Towe. Local 811 is using a combination of partnerships between the Machinists Union and United Airlines, ramp-level communication and embedded safety experts to create a new safety culture in Houston.
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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The Association Executive Committee met with the assigned mediators and a member of the National Mediation Board to gain a better understanding of the remaining open items. The robust dialogue was productive and ensured the meetings would continue throughout the week.
We were able to resolve and TA the M&R/MLS Field Trip guidelines. We addressed the Fleet Crew Chief duties as part of our Classifications and Scope discussions. That section is settled, leaving the remainder of these Articles to be resolved.
In Atlanta next week, we will continue to seek a resolution to the Fleet Service Classifications and Qualifications Articles. We will also refocus next week’s discussions in Atlanta on the open Scope items for all groups.
The Executive Negotiating Committee continues to update the full negotiating committee each step of the way and, foolishly, the Company believes that our members are willing to make Scope concessions that will pay for the pay raises and other gains in this contract. American Airlines must recognize that this membership will not fall for fool’s gold just to reach an agreement and that we have every intention of achieving the best contract in the industry.
Our membership sacrificed through bankruptcies and concessions in order for American to become the world’s largest and most successful airline. The time is now for this membership to be recognized and rewarded for those sacrifices. American Airlines must understand: if it takes a fight to get there, it is a fight they shall have.
Company Executives have spent billions on stock buybacks that enrich themselves and Wall Street. It is an insult they are not willing to spend what it takes to protect our work, health care, retirement benefits and increase our pay.
Company negotiators made it as clear as they could – they want us to concede the work we do. Their proposals and positions at the bargaining table attack every Association classification. They want to eliminate massive numbers of jobs in overhaul maintenance, increase the amount of line maintenance that can be performed by others internationally, decimate the skill and amount of facilities maintenance performed in-house, and vendor out any Fleet work they see fit. Every classification is affected by these draconian Company proposals.
While all the other benefits of our contracts are important, none is more important than the guarantee that our work will be here for us. If you are an Association member reading this message, you are part of this fight. Standing together, we shall prevail!
Future mediation dates scheduled:
The week of February 11- ATL
The week of March 18- DFW
The week of April 22- FLL
Fraternally,
Your Association Executive Negotiating Committee
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A viral video posted on the IAH Ramp Virtual Union Board Facebook Group captures the second that a massive tire explosion nearly kills a ramp agent.
The 7-second video shows two ramp workers preparing to push a Boeing 737 from the gate. Just as they begin pushing the airplane back, one of the tires on the tractor suddenly explodes.
Debris from the blast would have almost certainly killed a nearby ramp worker had he not been standing a few feet outside of the blast radius.
It’s unclear if anyone was hurt in the incident.
The clip appeared to be from a surveillance camera and was posted on the Jets Asia Pacific Facebook page before being shared by Machinists Union Members in Houston. According to the post, it occurred at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG).
The video, which has quickly attracted more than 25K views, can be seen below.
Machinists Union Members should always report any safety issues or concerns immediately, and must never use unsafe or malfunctioning equipment – no matter how important it might seem to complete an assignment on time.
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Negotiations between the nation’s largest and most powerful companies and their employee unions are never easy.
In these high-stakes contests, front-line workers face off against an army of lobbyists, lawyers, and executive boardrooms willing to spend truckloads of cash to achieve their objectives.
Not surprisingly, contract negotiations are the toughest, most intense work action that any union member will ever be a part of.
“These are things that are going to affect us, and our families… and our brothers and sisters that we work with,” said Mark Goodhart, an electrician with General Electric and president of Local 912 in Evandale, Ohio. “It’s not something that we take lightly. At all.”
Mark and about 25 other Machinists recently honed their negotiating skills at the Winpisinger Center, an afternoon’s drive from Washington, DC. The school is the largest continuously operating academy for union training in North America, helping to educate more than 60 thousand union activists since opening its doors back in 1981.
Machinist Union members interested in negotiations training, or any of the other labor classes available at the Winpisinger Center can get information on enrollment requirements and more by attending their monthly Union Business Meetings, usually held each month by their local lodge.
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The 7-second video shows two ramp workers preparing to push a Boeing 737 from the gate. Just as they begin pushing the airplane back, one of the tires on the tractor suddenly explodes.
