General President Hoffa, Airline Division Director Bourne Meet with United Management
International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James Hoffa and Airline Division David Bourne met with United Airlines CEO Glenn Tilton and Senior Vice President for Labor Relations Douglas McKeen at Teamsters Headquarters in Washington this week. General President Hoffa and Director Bourne expressed their concerns to the executives about ways that the airline and union can work toward common strategies to help the airline further stabilize its operations while protecting and enhancing employee job security and reducing outsourcing.
General President Hoffa and Director Bourne were both pleased at the positive tone of the meeting. "This was the first time that we have had an opportunity for both sides to sit begin building a relationship," Bourne said. "It also gave us a chance to discuss a number of issues that our members are currently dealing with that concern both UAL and the Teamsters," he went on to say. "I'm confident that these discussions will continue in a spirit of openness and that by working together, we can and will find areas of common agreement that will benefit our membership and United Airlines."
Talks Focus on Sick Leave/Dependability, Training, Field Service, RIF, and Discipline
The first two days of negotiations this week involved extensive discussion on the sick leave/dependability issue. The Union provided the Company with numerous examples of flexibility in scheduling and incentive programs that the Union feels will address the Company's concerns regarding sick leave while protecting the spirit of the language in the collective bargaining agreement. During the final two days of the week's bargaining, the parties broke out into four sub-committees to discuss specific areas of the Agreement. The topics covered in sub-committee included training, field service, reduction-in-force, and discipline.
Teamster Experts Brief Negotiating Committee
On Tuesday evening, Walter Pentz from the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust held a three hour question and answer session with the Union bargaining team. The Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Plan is the largest Union pension plan in the nation, and in terms of its funding status, remains in the "green zone". Mr. Pentz also went over plan details such as the two-for-one past employment credit for new groups entering the pension plan. This special one-time credit would mean a mechanic with at least ten years of seniority who works for 5 years after entering the plan would be credited with at total of 15 years of service for benefit calculation purposes.
Prior to the start of bargaining on Thursday, IBT Economist Norman Weintraub spent the morning providing the negotiating team with an analysis of the industry and bargaining unit's placement in the industry in terms of wages and fringe benefits.
Negotiations will resume on Tuesday, January 19th.
