Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Merger Update March 27th.

Below is a link to a Question and Answer sheet on the "Resource Utilization Letter"

Click here.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Teamsters Airline Division Commitment to Safety Evident at FAA Safety Info Share

Teamster Safety Representatives including Pilots, Mechanics, and Stock Clerks came together on March 20th through March 22nd Dallas to discuss safety issues across the industry. The FAA info share, which is held every six months, brings together safety minded individuals from all disciplines in aviation; Labor, Airlines, Manufacturers, Military and MRO all with the same mission, to improve aviation safety.

IBT members present at the meeting representing mechanics were: Tom Reid UAL Local 210, PT Thomas UAL Local 781, Angel Cantu UAL Local 19, Vic Austin UAL Local 455, John Fischbach UAL Local 856, Johnny Vance XJT Local 19, Mike Keating UAL Local 856, Curtis DeArmond Local 856, Bob Kohler UPS Local 2727, Jim Kelley UPS Local 2727, Chuck Landis UPS Local 2727 and future Teamster mechanic Todd Lynch from Shuttle America and Airline Division Representative Chris Moore. Southwest Airlines Material Specialists Kevin Morris and Leo Fair from Local 19 attended as well. From Teamsters Local 357 Pilots were Eric McClish, Josh Bochnowski and Ryan Wissinton from CHQ, Kevin Richardson and Brett Faford from Shuttle America, Dan Findley and Anthony Campo and Jeremy Glunt from Republic and Mark Eden from Frontier.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

New Local 986 Web Site

Over the past few months our Teamsters Local 986 has been working on a new and improved web site. Follow the links below and check out the new look. Don't forget to look at the Airline Division site.

http://www.local986.org/
http://airlines.local986.org/

Monday, March 19, 2012

Mechanics Dispatch March 18th.

Airline Division and UAL/CAL/CMI Representatives Meet with Mediator

On Thursday March 15th members of the Airline Division along with Local Union representatives from the larger Locals met with mediator Ralph Berger to preliminarily discuss seniority integration issues. Mr. Berger gave a brief background of himself and the mergers that he has worked on and then asked questions about the history of the three carriers to get an understanding of the way each of them has treated seniority in the past.

Items discussed included the Consent Decree on the sub UA side and how that would affect the sub CAL and CMI groups. Also discussed was the fact that there are several different uses for seniority between the three groups i.e., the sub CAL group uses mechanic craft seniority for bidding for premium jobs (leads and inspectors) while the sub UA and sub CMI groups use a different premium or classification seniority for that purpose. Mediator Berger posed several items to discuss in future meetings and made a request for any documentation that may assist the rank and file committee when they meet.

Friday, March 16, 2012

MECHANICS, RELATED WORKERS AT HORIZON AIR REAFFIRM TEAMSTER SUPPORT

Mechanics and related workers at Horizon Air reaffirmed their support for the Teamsters Union today, voting in favor of representation by the Teamsters Airline Division.

“Although AMFA was able to create a representational dispute through a deceitful campaign of misinformation and untruths, our strong Teamster brothers and sisters stood their ground and beat back the raid,” said Capt. David Bourne, Director of the Teamsters Airline Division. “Horizon mechanics and related workers recognize the improvements the Teamsters have made for them and I applaud this group for standing together in solidarity.”

The mechanics, who have been Teamsters since 2009, had the option of voting for the Teamsters Union, AMFA or no union. The vote was 151 to 103 with 3 voting for no union. There are 323 workers in the bargaining unit.

The vote follows a contract ratified by the mechanics in December 2010. The contract secured significant improvements in job security and increased pay and benefits.

“I’m thankful that the members saw through the misinformation and made the correct choice. We can now move ahead,” said John Cox, chief shop steward and seven-year employee at Horizon Air. “It’s time to get back to the key issues that benefit the members.”

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Mechanic's Dispatch

Single Operating Certificate Effects

Many changes are occurring since the company received its single operating certificate last November. The FAA now regards the three carriers, namely, sub-UAL, sub-CAL and sub-Air Micronesia as one combined carrier for regulatory purposes. This authority was granted without regard to the collective bargaining agreements in place at sub-UAL, sub-CAL and sub-Air Micronesia. A copy of the certificate from the FAA can be found here:

This past week the company sent out notices issuing new numbers to passengers enrolled in Mileage Plus and merged the reservation systems over the weekend. This is another step towards combining the operations at the three carriers to streamline the experience for passengers. For the membership, the three collective bargaining agreements' scope and successorship provisions dictate when the carrier can combine maintenance operations. The contracts also state that the Union and company shall meet to discuss the implementation of the maintenance operation. This is a collective bargaining issue and it is separate from the company’s regulatory achievement of obtaining the single operating certificate.


The granting of the single operating certificate and the move to the single reservation system certainly provides the company more flexibility in the deployment of its aircraft. With this transition to the single reservation system, the company will start to redeploy its equipment on routes based on input from marketing. In other words, the company will utilize the equipment they deem the most efficient on the routes they fly. This change will affect the narrow body fleet in the short term and the entire fleet at some point in the future. This will mean, what used to be sub-UAL, sub-CAL and sub-CMI aircraft will be treated as one “operating carriers” aircraft.


For the Mechanics and related groups at all the sub carriers, this means very soon, same as for the whole system as well as the passengers, there will no longer be three “brands” of aircraft, making them all the “new” United.


Not long after the beginning of the year company leadership approached leadership of the Airline Division stating that they understood the separation of maintenance operations may well put the parties in a position where mechanics would have to follow the aircraft of the old subsidiary ompanies. The company explained that even if there was an understanding regarding working on metal aircraft regardless of which subsidiary, there would be a significant training cost to the company.


With this information in hand, the IBT undertook a process with the intention of accomplishing three goals to protect the membership. First, the Airline Division believes it is imperative that mechanics are protected at their station through the duration of any letter of interpretation. Next, that any letter of interpretation must not dilute scope provision protections and finally that there is a duration limit to any such letter so that amalgamation talks do not drag on for an interminable period of time. As reported in the February 2nd Mechanics Dispatch, the parties continue to work towards just such a resolution.

Stay tuned for future developments New Travel Cards


Chief Steward Dan Stunda from IAH passed on this information that he received via email. Hopefully this will help for those that participate in Field Trips.

If you are interested in applying for a corporate travel card, the process is now available on line. Please go to the “Flying Together” page, and under “Employee Services,” look under “Information for all co­workers” and select “Corporate Travel Card Agreement” and then follow the instructions.


For those employees with the American Express card, these cards will be phased out sometime in the future. You will be notified of when, and you will then have to request the Citi Card.

Click on the links below to read more of the Mechanic's Dispatch.

Division Attends Early Out Seminar
Sub UA Members Advised to Check Life Insurance
Furloughed Members Urged to Update Their Addresses

Monday, March 5, 2012

SEAMM Aircraft Maintenance Shift Bid

Starting March 2, 2012, everyone in Aircraft Maintenance must bid your shift and RDO preference. You will find the bid form in your mailboxes.

Each person will bid in order of class seniority within a bid area by the following method:

1. In person at the Maintenance Facility IBT office.
2. By phone 206-988-7189
3. Submit an absentee form.

All absentee forms need to be submitted to Merete Jacobsen by Monday March 19,2012 by 06:00. If you have, any questions contact Roger or myself or refer to the IBT contract Article # 7 Paragraph K.

03/02/2012 Shift Bid Area Openings Posted
03/19-23/2012 Shift Bid
03/31/2012 Shift Bid Results will be posted.
04/08/2012 shift Bid effective Date.