April 13, 2014
Resource Utilization Arbitration
The presentation of the union’s case began on Wednesday the 9th however it was not completed. The hearing session concluded late that day with the parties reviewing calendars to schedule future dates. As with the two subsidiary medical grievances, when the schedule is known it will be reported in the Dispatch.
Negotiations Update
In late February and early March the economists from both sides met to thoroughly review the respective terms of the last table positions of the parties. Those two meetings produced a better understanding of the valuation of each side’s position. The result of the analysis was that while much progress was made in the expedited portion of bargaining there are still significant issues to overcome. Following these meetings, mediator Gerry McGuckin called the parties together for a meeting of the principals. That meeting was originally scheduled for April 11th in Chicago but was moved to Newark on the 10th.
Mediator McGuckin laid out the ground rules for going forward and informed the two sides that they had now lost control of the pace of negotiations; the parties will now be bound by his schedule availability. With twenty one open, active cases, the first date available in his schedule was the week of August 18th through the 22nd.
The parties agreed that there would be an additional meeting for the leadership on May 7thand 8th in Las Vegas, NV following the IBT Unity conference. The time from May to August will be used to reconvene the steering committee to discuss the current state of negotiations and to seek input for the full rank and file committee moving forward.
MRO Conference
The annual Aviation Week MRO conference was held in Phoenix last week. Attending for the Division were Representative Chris Moore and Local 986 Business Agent Dave Saucedo. Chris and Dave are working on a report which will be shared when complete. Two continuing trends brought up at the conference that affect our craft are the limited number of people entering the field and the rising rates in Asia which are increasing costs for widebody overhauls in that region. Both of these trends will continue to be a tailwind for this craft for the foreseeable future.
