Negotiations Crawl Along in Chicago

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.

141 Report: Women’s Appreciation at Newark Local 914

141 Report: Women’s Appreciation at Newark Local 914

141 Report: 141 Report: Women’s Appreciation at Newark Local 914

YouTube
1 April 2022

1 April 2022 | In this week’s 141 Report, our viewers and listeners meet Sister Djenane Sauls, who talks about the recent Women’s Appreciation event at Newark Local 914. Our sister also talks about the personal journey that she underwent to complete her new book,  “Beaten,” Dsauls.com. 

Also, look for it on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.com.

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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JetBlue’s Paid Time Off Scheme

JetBlue’s Paid Time Off Scheme

JetBlue’s Paid Time Off Scheme

Justice at JetBlue
29 March 2022

Many Americans would be surprised to learn that, in many countries, it’s normal to work only 11 months of each year. Most workers in nations like Brazil, Finland, and Germany, among many others, expect to take an entire month of vacation every year. In the US, such a thing is almost unheard of. Unions are trying to change that.

Union membership comes with a lot of well-known perks. Unions enjoy higher pay, better job protection, and get to vote on work rules. While pensions have been almost entirely wiped out for most Americans, an incredible 91% of union members will get monthly payments after they stop working.

But, the highlight reels often overlook a seemingly small but actually very critical benefit: time off.

“Time Off” from work is a feature of unionism that is far too often looked down on by American workers. Too often, workers who value their personal and family time are viewed as lazy, selfish, or as lacking commitment to their careers.

This toxic work habit has led more than half of Americans to work through nearly half of their vacation time each year. In 2017, according to one study, 54% of American workers did not take all the time off they had available. There are several causes. Corporate culture, the fear of becoming replaceable at work, or missing out on opportunities to advance are just a few. And the issue doesn’t end with vacations. Workplaces with an unhealthy emphasis on presenteeism also allow less sick time and fewer paid lunches and breaks.

It’s a problem.

Unions are pushing back on the harmful and abusive tendency of too many companies to try and take more and more personal time away from workers. The Machinists and Aerospace union, the largest collection of aerospace and airline workers in North America, is known for negotiating agreements emphasizing a healthier work/life balance for workers. Namely, union members have demonstrated an ability to overcome gimmicky corporate efforts to steal time, such as the Paid Time Off program at JetBlue.

The PTO scheme at JetBlue is designed to steal the personal time of Crewmembers at the lowest possible cost. Machinists Union Members have negotiated sick, personal, and vacation time off at rates as much as 300% higher than Ground Operations workers at JetBlue. 

This scheme grants a specified bank of 512 hours a year for ground-based crewmembers to use for time off from work. It sounds like a good idea in theory; JetBlue crewmembers can use their Paid Time Off (PTO) banks in whatever way they want, which sounds okay. However, JetBlue uses PTO to cover virtually all outages – not just vacation and personal time off. Crewmembers who are forced to miss work because they get sick or need to care for a loved one also have to draw pay from their limited PTO banks.

The 500 hours in PTO banks can run out fast. Most workers can’t really use PTO to cover time off until they know how much sick time they will need that year, which is impossible to calculate. While the scheme may sound good in theory, most crew members are afraid to use the hours they have for fear that doing so might leave them with no income while dealing with an unexpected illness.

Like most other labor groups, the Machinists Union always negotiates “sick banks” to cover pay during illness. Having a separate sick bank may sound like a simple policy. But, in practice, union members get 300% more vacation and personal time off than their JetBlue counterparts, a truly astonishing figure. A typical sick bane for unionized ground workers at United is more than double the entire yearly allotment at JetBlue by itself.

Taking time off isn’t selfish. It’s something that unions are still fighting to maintain for American workers. Whether they like it or not, companies do not own the lives of their employees. The pushback does not just include sick banks. The Machinists are also fighting at every major airline to make mandatory overtime much more expensive. Machinists have made carriers pay time and a half, double-time, and double-time and a half pay rates for mandatory overtime. Employers of Machinist Union members tend to think twice before demanding that their workers give up hours of their personal lives because it can get expensive.

Time with family is sacred. Wasted time is not time wasted; employers have no right to workers’ personal time – and companies like JetBlue need to learn this.

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Negotiations Crawl Along in Chicago

Negotiations Drag Along in Chicago; District 141 Negotiators Leery with Pace of Talks

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Negotiations Drag Along in Chicago; District 141 Negotiators Leery with Pace of Talks

 

26 March 2022

The IAM District 141 Negotiations Committee and United Airlines negotiators met this week in Chicago. The week started slowly, with no progress made. However, by the week’s end, each side presented and considered proposals from the other. We agreed to a deadline of August 1, 2022, to reach tentative accords on new contracts for approximately 25,000 IAM members covered under seven different agreements. The Union and Company have scheduled six weeks of additional talks between now and August 1, 2022, at hub locations across the system.

The proposals exchanged by both sides primarily dealt with modifying existing contract language regarding system bid rules, uniforms, company-mandated equipment requirements, and vacation rules. These issues are essential to the IAM membership at United. We hope to resolve them fairly and expeditiously, so we can move on to the other priorities of IAM members at United.

We remain cautiously optimistic that we will be able to achieve success in this expedited process. We define success as gaining improvements regarding the issues prioritized by IAM members in the survey and proposal process. This week, we reminded United management that the expedited negotiations process provides excellent value to the Company. It can lock in contracts for the near future in an expedited fashion. This gives the Company certainty regarding the labor costs of over 25,000 Machinists, the most prominent workgroups at the carrier, and avoids labor strife during United’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

We remain committed to achieving the industry-best contracts that we deserve at United. Much more work needs to be done to achieve our goal, and we ask that IAM members at United stay informed and focused on these negotiations. Please read and distribute these bulletins. Our power in negotiations comes from a unified membership that demands fairness.

Thank you for all your support and solidarity and your work to make United the successful airline it is. Without you, there is no United Airlines.

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.

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