October 28, 2013 Negotiations Update

Benefits Grievance Update 

On Friday, an et al (“and others”) benefits grievance was filed in regards to the unilateral changes imposed by the company. A copy of this grievance will soon be posted on line, until that happens, your chief steward or business agent will have a copy for your review. 

Business Agent and Chief Steward Training The Division will be scheduling a training class for Business Agents and Chief Stewards who present grievances at the joint/system board level. The class will be a refresher course for most, but will provide valuable information to those new to the process. The focus of the class will be on the preparation and presentation techniques required to be successful at this step of the grievance process. 

Negotiations Update

The parties will reconvene on November 4^th in Chicago in an attempt to finalize the joint collective bargaining agreement. The parties will be assisted by Senior Mediator Pat Sims and Mediator Michael Kelleher from the NMB.

Mechanics Update October 20, 2013

Division Representatives Attend MRO Conference 

This week Representatives Chris Moore and Bob Fisher attended the MRO Network conference in Montreal Canada. A detailed report will issued shortly but there were a few key takeaways. Trending continues to be positive for domestic maintenance as labor rates in Asia continue to move upward. It is expected that both established Asian countries labor rates, as well as emerging Asian countries labor rates, will converge with domestic rates in approximately 2018.  

That trend will make it impractical to offshore widebody overhauls to Asia in the future. A second key point is that M&A (merger and acquisition) activity is heating up with more than 100 such transactions expected by the end of this year. That's up slightly from last year's roughly 80 transactions. For the past five years this trend has continued as MRO's which have little yield seek to join forces to produce more volume. Obviously this will drive up costs to airlines as this trend continues. Look for more companies start to discuss outsourcing using the word contracting.  

According to ARSA the word contracting doesn't have the same negative connotations as outsourcing with the public and regulators. Certainly it makes no difference what it's called, as the old saying goes you can polish a turd but it's still a turd. Look for the detailed report of this conference in the next TAMC newsletter. 

Scope Meeting Held 

On Wednesday the scope committee met in Houston. The line and hangar plans for sCO and sUA were discussed. There will be some movement of work around the system as fleets are moved but there was no anticipation of any headcount reduction systemwide. There will be movement of some line check work into IAD and EWR as a result of the new hangars in those locations. There was also discussion of bringing back in house some checks that have been previously outsourced. The company explored this possibility with the committee and it appears there could be movement to bring some of this work back into the SFO base. 

Grievance to be Filed Regarding Health and Welfare Benefits 

As reported in the update last week the Division will be filing a grievance this coming week over the unilateral change in medical benefits. The company was notified that the union will be processing one grievance on behalf of the membership. The Division intends to move this grievance to the front of the arbitration docket to attempt an expedited resolution.

Negotiations Update October 12, 2013

Negotiations resumed the week of October 7^th with the company in Phoenix, Arizona. Both parties engaged in an effort to narrow issues in order to reach a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA). 

The week began with a presentation from United on the highlights of the TA for IAM represented employees, brief preparations of the committee by representatives of the Airline Division, and an article by article review of open items.  Additionally an overview of benefits information was given by our Gaelle Gavotte of Cheiron, our actuary, and established a baseline for continued talks regarding benefits including medical, dental , vision care, flexible spending accounts (FSA), and healthcare spending accounts (HSA, VEBA).  The committee was also briefed on United’s current financial situation as it relates to the industry at large and our competitors by our financial analyst Dan Akins.  

Members from the ranks of the Flight Simulator Technicians and Engineering Groups on sCO and sUA discussed their integration into our agreement. The union committee was given a presentation by the FST’s regarding the supplemental changes needed to integrate these groups into the mechanic’s agreement.  For those that are unaware the NMB recently ruled that the FST group is a standalone craft and class and an election was held where the two subsidiary groups chose the IBT as their representative.  The sUA group has been a part of the agreement since the 1969 agreement.

Negotiations continued through the week with progress being made to close out several articles with open items from the previous round of talks.  The committee will next meet with United in Chicago for the week of November 4^th to continue negotiations.

Scope Committee Meeting 
As previously reported the scope committee will convene in Houston on October 17^th. Both the sCO and sUA committees will meet with the company to review the hangar plan each subsidiary.