American Airlines Workers Industry Best Pay Rates Go into Effect

American Airlines Workers Industry Best Pay Rates Go into Effect

American Airlines Workers Industry Best Pay Rates Go into Effect

November 09, 2016

This month, approximately 30,000 ground workers at American Airlines will see their industry-leading wage rates reflected in their paychecks. The wage increases for the TWU/IAM Association represented workers will average approximately 22 percent. Mechanic and Related workers will surpass by three percent similarly classified workers at Delta Airlines. Fleet Service, Stores/Material Logistic Specialists and Maintenance Training Specialists’ wages will increase one percent ahead of their peers at United Airlines.

“These industry-setting increases are the result of the Association Negotiating Committees’ hard work,” said Association Chairman Sito Pantoja and Vice Chairman Harry Lombardo. “These gains are only the beginning for our members as we continue to negotiate for improvements in all areas of our contracts.”

In addition to the industry-best wage hikes, Association members will see improvements to their defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans.

While these gains are the industry benchmark, they are only the first step in negotiations. The TWU-IAM Association Negotiating Committees are in ongoing talks with American Airlines to procure improvements in all areas of Association members’ contracts.

The TWU-IAM Association is an affiliation between the Transport Workers Union and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).

American Airlines Workers Industry Best Pay Rates Go into Effect

Fleet Service Update

Fleet Service Update

October 28, 2016

Sisters and Brothers,

The Fleet Service Committee met with American Airlines this week in Dallas/Fort Worth.

During this week’s session, the following articles were exchanged and discussed:

  • Overtime – We exchanged our counter proposal with the company and are awaiting their response.  The major issues include: how overtime is proffered and recorded, premium rates, and qualifiers.
  • Vacations – We exchanged our counter proposal with the company and are awaiting their response.  The issues have been narrowed down to vacation accrual and vacation selections for bidding.
  • Part-Time Employees – We exchanged our counter proposal and received the company’s counter proposal.  The only issue remaining is the part-time employee ratio.
  • Limited Duty – We did not exchange a proposal with the company during this session; we are currently finalizing our counter proposal.
  • Reduction in Force –  We received the company’s proposal on this article and held discussions; there was no agreement on the company’s proposal as it does not afford our membership the right opportunities to further their employment options.
  • Recall – We received the company’s proposal on this article and there is no agreement at this time.

There has been no exchange of proposals regarding Recognition and Scope, Medical Benefits, Retirement Benefits, Seniority, Transfers/Vacancies, Classifications, and new Compensation Rates.

Current TA’s:

Shift Differential Preamble Training, Travel Pay and Meal Per Diem
Grievance Procedures Leaves of Absence Meal Periods
Representation Field Work System Board of Adjustment
Uniforms Absence from Duty No Strike No Lockout
Fitness for Duty Bulletin Boards Probation
Safety and Health Purpose of Agreement Termination of Employment
Shift Trades Furlough Benefits Work Schedules
Temporary Assignments

The following negotiation dates have been scheduled for the remainder of the year:

  • Week of November 7th – LAS
  • Week of November 14th – DFW
  • Week of December 5th – DCA
  • Week of December 12th – LAS

Fraternally,

Mark Baskett, Mike Fairbanks, Pete Hogan,

Tim Hughes, Steve Miller, Brian Oyer,

Pat Rezler, Art Risley, Andre Sutton,

Rodney Walker, Bill Wilson, Tim Murphy

American Airlines Workers Industry Best Pay Rates Go into Effect

The Association Update

The Association Update

October 21, 2016

Sisters and Brothers,

The Fleet Service Committee met with American Airlines this week in Chicago.  After much discussion regarding cross utilization in the early part of the week, we made sufficient progress to engage in other areas of our negotiations.

In the meantime, the company has committed to meet with local leaders of the Association to discuss the specifics of cross utilization prior to implementation at a co-located city. We are asking the membership to be diligent in reporting any attempt of co-mingling to your respective union representative, and would like to thank our brothers on the M&R Association Committee for standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with us over the cross utilization issue.

In addition to cross utilization issue, the company passed the limited duty article to the committee, and extensive deliberations followed. We will not be accepting the company’s proposal because it disadvantages the members injured while performing duties on the job (IOD/OJI). We continued to exchange multiple existing proposals and spent considerable time discussing these articles.

This week we did reach a tentative agreement with the company on the language regarding temporary assignments, but it is undetermined at this time if this language will be a stand-alone article or incorporated into another article in the final JCBA.

The company has not responded to our last proposals on holidays and sick leave, and the outstanding issues include the number of holidays, the rate of pay, number of annual sick days accrued, and the cumulative maximum sick leave bank.

The following negotiation dates have been scheduled for the remainder of the year:

  • Week of October 24th – DFW
  • Week of November 7th – LAS
  • Week of November 14th – DFW
  • Week of December 5th – DCA
  • Week of December 12th – LAS

Fraternally,

Mark Baskett, Mike Fairbanks, Pete Hogan,

Tim Hughes, Steve Miller, Brian Oyer,

Pat Rezler, Art Risley, Andre Sutton,

Rodney Walker, Bill Wilson, Tim Murphy

American Airlines Workers Industry Best Pay Rates Go into Effect

The Association Update

The Association Update

September 30, 2016

Sisters and brothers,

In last week’s communication, we stated the Association was shown the company’s presentation on its cross utilization scheme that violates our collective bargaining agreements and the interim wage adjustment agreements. This is a blatant attack by the company to prematurely impose synergies that can only come from a new joint collective bargaining agreement (JCBA). While our JCBA bargaining can be frustrating and sometimes confrontational, this tactic used by the company is disrespectful, dishonest and undermines the entire process.

At the company’s request, your committee met this week in Dallas/Fort Worth to continue the dialogue. The company informed us that they will present their cross utilization plans that includes crews comprised of a mix of legacy US Airways and American employees to management at the 13 co-locations: ATL, BOS, DCA, DFW, LAS, LAX, LGA, MCO, MIA, ORD, PHX, SFO, and TPA. We made it abundantly clear to the company that this action cannot be implemented without a joint collective bargaining agreement.

The committee continued to draft and finalize our proposals on the open articles, in addition to the cross utilization meetings. This week we informed the company that we will not have any further proposal exchanges until the cross utilization issue is resolved.

Your committee remains focused and ready to negotiate, while the company uses every tactic possible to stall the process. No decisions can be reached without one or two of them consulting with the true decision makers at headquarters. In fact, the Association has the personnel in place at negotiations to reach an agreement. American does not.

Your support is critical to the successful outcome of these negotiations and is greatly appreciated. As an Association, in solidarity, we must remain unified in this endeavor.

Fraternally,

Mark Baskett, Mike Fairbanks, Pete Hogan,

Tim Hughes, Steve Miller, Brian Oyer,

Pat Rezler, Art Risley, Andre Sutton,

Rodney Walker, Bill Wilson, Tim Murphy

American Airlines Workers Industry Best Pay Rates Go into Effect

The Association Seniority Integration Update

The Association Seniority Integration Update

September 28, 2016

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

In June of this year, the membership was advised that the TWU/IAM Associations had retained the services of Neutral Joshua Javits to create final integrated seniority lists. Shortly thereafter, Neutral Javits met with TWU/IAM negotiators and seniority committee members to receive their thoughts, input and guidance and then sent a communication to members requesting that they submit comments and information for his consideration during the fact-finding stage of the seniority integration process. Neutral Javits advises that he received 836 comments in total, many of which were lengthy and contained considerable detail, and that he is carefully reviewing all of the comments received. In addition, Neutral Javits has found it necessary to request some follow-up information from the Company in order to complete his work, and the Company is undertaking a review of its records in order to provide the requested information.

It is now anticipated that Neutral Javits will issue his Report and Recommendations and proposed seniority lists in the closing months of this year. Once the proposed lists are issued, affected employees will have 45 days to file in writing any protest they may have regarding their placement on the list. The Neutral will provide details regarding how to file a protest when the proposed lists are published. In addition, we will continue to update the membership as needed regarding the progress of the seniority integration process.

Fraternally,

Timothy J. Klima

Airline Coordinator – IAM

Mike Mayes

Air Division Director – TWU

American Airlines Workers Industry Best Pay Rates Go into Effect

Fleet Service Update

Fleet Service Update

September 23, 2016

Sisters and Brothers,

Both the Fleet Service and Mechanic and Related/Stores negotiating committees met this week in Washington, DC. The week began with each committee meeting with company representatives to discuss outstanding articles and continue to exchange proposals.

The M&R/Stores committee exchanged proposals on Overtime and Rebids and have further narrowed our position for each article. The company has yet to respond to our proposals regarding Vacations, Holidays and Limited Duty.

The Fleet committee received the company’s counter proposals on Part Time, Temporary Assignments and Vacations. The Temporary Assignments article has been narrowed down to two issues. Some issues regarding Part Time and Vacation provisions were resolved, but fell short of meeting the memberships’ needs. We also finalized our counter proposals regarding Overtime and Vacations.

On Wednesday, the company presented the Association with a Power Point presentation for Fleet Service cross-utilization that they previously shared with their leadership team. The company’s presentation exceeded the cross-utilization of L-US and L-AA employees that is permitted in our recent pay adjustment agreement. Their plan, as presented, undermines our existing seniority system and contracts, and attempts to prematurely achieve the efficiencies that can only come from joint collective bargaining agreements.

Your representatives made it clear to the company that this is unacceptable. The company has requested to meet with the Association committees early next week to continue dialogue in an effort to resolve these issues.

The Association committees stand shoulder to shoulder and will not tolerate the company unilaterally making changes to existing agreements.

Fraternally,

Mark Baskett, Mike Fairbanks, Pete Hogan,

Tim Hughes, Steve Miller, Brian Oyer,

Pat Rezler, Art Risley, Andre Sutton,

Rodney Walker, Bill Wilson, Tim Murphy

Mechanic and Related/Stores Committee:

Jason Best, Mike Bush, Ken Coley,

John Coveny, Dale Danker, Mark Huffman,

Bennie Martino, Gary Peterson, Larry Pike,

Sean Ryan, Jay Sleeman, Mark Strength