United Stores Key Focus at Quarterly Meeting

United Stores Key Focus at Quarterly Meeting

Machinists Union Meets With United Management to Discuss Stores’ Operations at the Airline

United Airlines
11 April 2022

The Machinists Union and United Airlines met last week to discuss issues related to the airline’s warehousing operation, known as “Storekeeping,” or “Stores.”

The meeting is a quarterly event that both sides have participated in for the past ten years. At this quarters’ meeting were company managers and executives with oversight over the airline’s Stores workplaces and union representatives, including Assistant General Chairs and Stores Grievance Committee members.

“These meetings are essential because they allow us to have face-to-face discussions with key company decision-makers,” said Joe Bartz. Bartz is an Assistant General Chairman for District 141 of the Machinists Union and helped host the meeting with fellow AGC Troy Rivera. “We can get together and resolve workplace issues on the spot,” he said. “It’s extremely helpful for us to maintain these points of contact, so that we have the situational awareness we need to represent our membership on the front lines,” he continued. 

This Stores meeting focused on various issues, including new hire and transfer integration and seniority concerns. The safety of Stores workers was also a key topic, emphasizing possible risks associated with landing gears and the enormous aircraft tires that Stores workers have to handle. 

This quarters’ meeting was hosted by the unions’ District 141 Assistant General Chairs Joe Bartz and Troy Rivera. It included a delegation of Stores union representatives from major United Airlines operations across the country. 

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141 Report: Sky Harbor’s Cookout

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141 Report: The Sky Harbor Memorial Cookout

YouTube
8 April 2022

141 Report | This week’s 141 Report meets with the Sky Harbours’ (Local 2559) Don Carbonneau Cookout in Phoenix, AZ. Our Viewers and Listeners get to hear from over six guests in this 14-minute video. We will listen to the new 2559 President, Jeff James, who begins the report and talks about the recently passed Brother Donald Carbonneau.

IAM District Lodge 141 Report with Host Dave Lehive is a weekly podcast featuring Machinist Union Members and Allies of the Labor Movement. Our Video report airs every Friday at 2:00 PM EST (1:00 CST) on Facebook and Youtube and is also on Spotify.

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Richard Johnsen to Become General Vice President of New IAM Air Transport Territory

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GOIAM.org
7 April 2022

The IAM Executive Council has taken action to create an IAM Air Transport Territory, consisting of all IAM air transport members in the United States. Richard Johnsen, currently IAM Chief of Staff to the International President, will join the IAM Executive Council as Air Transport General Vice President.

The creation of the IAM Air Transport Territory, which will include IAM District 141 and IAM District 142, and the appointment of Johnsen as General Vice President, are both effective May 1, 2022.

The IAM, representing more than 100,000 air transport members, is the largest air transport union in North America. The creation of the IAM Air Transport Territory and the IAM Rail Division allows the IAM to better focus on the distinctive needs of its air transport and railroad memberships, respectively.

“The IAM is proud to be the largest and most powerful labor organization in North America for air transport workers,” said Martinez. “The creation of the IAM Air Transport Territory allows us to dedicate even more resources to servicing our dedicated airline and airport membership, as well as growing our footprint in this sector.”

As Chief of Staff to the International President, Johnsen has spent nearly the past year traveling the country to listen to air transport members and address their concerns as the industry emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Johnsen, a 33-year IAM member who began as a mechanic assistant at United Airlines, has devoted increasing resources to securing the strongest possible contracts for air transport members, including the overwhelming member ratification of a Hawaiian Airlines agreement that secures historic job protections and pay raises. Johnsen has emerged as a leader in calling for increased staffing and more severe penalties against unruly passengers in the air transport industry. Under Johnsen’s direction, the IAM is devoting more resources to organizing in the air transport sector, including a recent organizing win for flight attendants.

WATCH: Meet the IAM’s Richard Johnsen

“It’s the honor of a lifetime to join the IAM Executive Council and to lead the IAM Air Transport Territory,” said Johnsen. “We are going to continue the progress we’ve made by continuing to listen to our members, provide transparent communication channels, and fight each and every day for our air transport members who make the world move.”

Since initiating into IAM Local 1781 in 1988, Johnsen has held served in a variety of capacities at the Local, District, and Grand Lodge levels. He became Assistant General Chairperson for IAM District 141M in 2000 and joined the Grand Lodge staff as a Special Representative in 2001.

Johnsen then served as a Grand Lodge Representative before being appointed Special Assistant to the International President in February 2021. In June 2021, Johnsen was appointed Chief of Staff to the International President.

Johnsen serves on the boards of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), United Airlines, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), and the Cooperating Railway Labor Organizations (CRLO).

 

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Justice at JetBlue
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Over 8,000 Amazon workers voted to unionize last week. These brave Amazon workers cited sub-standard working conditions and the ability to have a VOICE AND A VOTE on the job as reasons to unionize.

The workers prevailed even though Amazon spent millions of dollars to an anti-union consulting firm. The firm, GSG, directed Amazon supervisors, managers, and executives, to distribute anti-union materials via emails and flyers and hold meetings to discourage workers from unionizing by touting their “direct relationship” with the Amazon workers.

Sound familiar?

Why? Why do companies such as Amazon and JetBlue try and discourage workers from unionizing? Why do they want to block workers from gaining the legal right to have a real VOICE AND A VOTE ON HOW THEIR WORKPLACE IS RUN?

It’s all about control, power, and the bottom line. The more control and power that JetBlue has, the better it can control its bottom line. Without union representation, JetBlue can do whatever it wants when it wants without our consent, and that’s very valuable to them.

Our time is now.

Please sign your a-card today, so we can call for a vote ASAP! You have the right to sign a card under federal law. JetBlue is prohibited by federal law from knowing who signed a card. Signing a card is not a vote for the union, it only means you want a vote.

 

 

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JetBlue management yesterday announced it offered $3.6 billion to purchase Spirit Airlines. Airline mergers create many uncertainties, especially when workers do not have a contract with legally enforceable language to protect their rights. 

JetBlue management will likely make many promises about what will happen if this merger with Spirit occurs. Many of these promises will center around how the merger of JetBlue and Spirit will create more competition and how workers will benefit. As history tells us, these promises, made by every airline executive after a merger, often turn out to be false.

JetBlue management will likely make many promises regarding what will happen if this merger with Spirit occurs. Many of these promises will center around how the merger of JetBlue and Spirit will create more competition and how workers will benefit. As history tells us, these promises, made by every airline executive

What’s at risk for JetBlue Crewmembers? Short answer, everything. Our jobs, wages, benefits, and working conditions can be changed at any time for any reason now and also throughout the merger/acquisition process. And, during a merger/acquisition, management teams often change, and promises made are routinely broken.

The only real way to make sure our interests are protected is by unionizing and gaining representation through this process. Once we gain IAM representation, we would enter into legally recognized negotiations to protect what we currently have and then negotiate for more.

In every IAM contract, there is strong language to protect the rights of IAM members. Such language mandates that IAM members’ contracts are recognized and respected during a merger. Wages, benefits, job protections, seniority, and working conditions are completely protected. And, when we are unionized, we would then enter into negotiations to combine workgroups and seek further gains and protections. This has occurred in every merger in which the IAM was the union.

Remember that a-cards are only valid for one year, so if you haven’t signed within the last year, renew today. We are making strong progress toward filing for a union election, so don’t delay, sign today!

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Negotiations Crawl Along in Chicago

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Negotiations Crawl Along in Chicago This Week

 

1 April 2022

This week, the IAM District 141 Negotiations Committee and United negotiators met in Chicago to continue bargaining for new contracts covering over 25,000 United Airlines ground workers. We reported last week that we were not pleased with the pace of negotiations. This week was mostly more of the same, with some small progress made as the week came to a close.

Both the Union and the Company agreed to expedite these talks with a deadline of August 1st to conclude negotiations. At this pace, we will be hard-pressed to meet that deadline. The Union has made several proposals and counter-proposals to the Company regarding issues we view as being simple to resolve. Still, the Company is dragging its feet, and it doesn’t seem they possess the same urgency to produce industry-leading contracts as we do.

In a recent interview with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, United CEO Scott Kirby stated, “I think the most enduring change that’s going to come from COVID that’ll be most obvious to people is the customer service culture change that’s happened. We had over a 40-point improvement in our net promoter scores. I hear it, like, everywhere I go.” CEO Kirby went on to say, “I actually have the easiest job of anyone at United because I really only have one responsibility, which is to make our employees proud.”

Every IAM member at United Airlines deserves to lead the industry in all aspects of our terms of employment. It’s very obvious that CEO Kirby believes United is the leading global airline. It is also clear that CEO Kirby believes that United employees have led the way in providing United’s top-notch service improvements, which have added value to United’s brand and bottom line.

It’s time for United management to get serious about these expedited negotiations, put their money where their mouths are, and make us proud.

The Union and the Company will meet next the week of April 11th.

In Solidarity,

Your District 141 Negotiating Committee

Olu Ajetomobi
Joe Bartz
Victor Hernandez
Barb Martin
Andrea’ Myers
Terry Stansbury

Faysal Silwany
Erik Stenberg
Sue Weisner

Michael G. Klemm

President & Directing General Chair,
IAMAW District 141

Recording Secretaries: Please print and post on all IAMAW bulletin boards.